How to Use Dial-Up Telephone Modems in Ubuntu
In our world of high-speed broadband connections, we sometimes forget that a sizable minority of people use telephone dial-up to connect to an ISP.
For such people, Ubuntu offers good and bad news. The good news is that the Ubuntu software repository includes fuss-free software that can be used to configure connections and dial-up with the click of a mouse. The bad news is that, taken as a whole, Ubuntu support for dial-up modems isn’t very strong.
If your modem is external and connects to the serial port, then there's a very good chance Ubuntu will work fine with it. However, if the modem connects to the USB port, is built into your computer, or is provided on a PCMCIA card, then Ubuntu support is less certain. This is because many modems need additional and specialized configuration. See What are Winmodems for more information.
There's no quick way to find out if your modem is supported, other than to follow the instructions in this article and attempt to use it. To follow the instructions, you'll need access to a computer that's already online to download a software package. If you dualboot with Windows, you can use it to download the software.
To configure your modem once the software is downloaded, you will need three pieces of information: the telephone number you should use to dial up, your username, and your password for your ISP (not your Ubuntu login username and password!).
Here are the steps necessary to configure a modem to dial up. You should ensure that your modem is plugged into the phone socket and is powered up. These instructions involve downloading the GNOME PPP dial-up tool, which will handle your dial-up requests.
1) Using another computer that's already online (or by switching to Windows if you dual-boot), visit the following address using a web browser. You'll be prompted to download a file. Save the file to a floppy disk or USB memory stick, or burn it to a blank CD-R/RW disk. This is necessary because you'll need to transfer the file to your Ubuntu computer.
http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/g/gnome-ppp/gnome-ppp_0.3.23-1_i386.deb
2) On the Ubuntu computer, copy the downloaded file to the desktop.
3) Open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and type the following:
sudo dpkg –i Desktop/gnome-ppp_0.3.23-1_i386.deb
You'll need to enter your password when prompted.
4) You'll find GNOME PPP on the Applications > Internet menu. When the program starts, click the Setup button.
5) In the Setup window, click the Detect button. This will probe your modem and change GNOME PPP's configuration settings to match. Once probing is complete, remove the check from Wait for Dialtone, but don’t change any other settings on the Modem tab.
6) Click the Options tab. Put a check alongside Dock in Notification Area. Then click the Close button.
7) In the Username, Password, and Phone Number fields, enter the relevant details, as illustrated in the image. Remember that you should enter your dial-up username and password here, and not your Ubuntu username and password! Don’t forget to add any additional numbers to the front of the phone number if it's necessary to deactivate call waiting or similar services on your phone line. It's also wise to put a check in the Remember Password box, so you won't be prompted for your password each time you dial up.
8) Click the Connect button to dial up. Once you're connected, you'll see a new icon appear in the notification area. When you want to disconnect, right-click this icon and select the relevant option.
Following the initial setup, it makes sense to create a desktop shortcut for GNOME PPP. This can be done by clicking and dragging the icon from the menu to a convenient spot.
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