<humble>Help? Coyote router, USR Sportster 33.6 ISA

["Doug Simmons" <dsimmons@lib.siu.edu>]

Hi. I am not COMPLETELY unversed, *nix-wise. But this combination has me
beat for some reason, and I'm hoping it's something simple I'm overlooking.

The goal: use an old Packard Bell 486 and Coyote Linux
( http://www.coyotelinux.com/ )
as my home's router and dialup.

The problem: the box boots and dhcp hands out addresses, but no
dial-on-demand.

The software: floppy-based microkernel Coyote Linux. You configure it in
windows or Linux, it drops an image onto a floppy, which you then boot in
some old box with an enet card and a modem. It runs dhcp and takes care of
the pppd stuff. It really wants an external serial modem, but I don't have
one, and don't want to spend money on this project. As I understand it, ISA
modems act like serial ports, ??IF configured correctly??

The box:
Packard Bell 486, stripped down to the floppy drive only, 20MB RAM. IDE
disabled, ps2 mouse disabled, com2 comes with an integrated 9600 baud modem,
which I duly yanked and disabled in the BIOS. Enet card is ISA 3c905, works
fine. Modem is "USR 000840-00 Sportster 33.6 ISA Faxmodem", -real hardware
modem, has jumpers for com port and irq, but no dma jumpers - has DIP
switches, still on factory default (yes, I did RTFM). Com1 is 3ef8 and irq 3
- modem is set for com1 and irq5.

Clues: I know (?) the DIPs are correct, based on the info at
http://www.usr.com/support/doc-popup-template.asp?url=faqs/analog/10563.htm
which talks about using sportsters under *nix. Unfortunately, I have never
used much configuration on the old modems, it's been a while since I had to
configure ISA stuff manually, and I have definitely never used an
"initialization string". The coyote software puts a default init string in
the conf files, but I hate to have to actually learn all the (?)Hayes
commands(?) in order to make this work...

Is there something about this setup that just SCREAMS "Hey, Simmons, you
blithering idiot!" to you guys?

Grateful for any clues,
Doug, "books the room for Carbondale meetings, but never shows", Simmons


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