Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, 4th Edition

Setting Up a Dial-up Connection

Although much of the world is moving to high-speed Internet connections, many of you may still be using dial-up Internet connections, which means you need to have a traditional dial-up modem to reach beyond your box to the outside world. In case you broadband surf-gods have forgotten, modems are those wonderful machines that whistle, chime, screech, and spit whenever you dial up your Internet provider. I suppose you could think of them as noisy telephones in need of a good burp.

Now here comes the bad news—in the world of Linux, very few internal modems are supported, and for those that are, the setup process can be quite frustrating. The main reason behind this compatibility problem is that most built-in modems ...