Do modems work in Panther?

[onemoof]

The last version of Mac OS X I used with a modem was 10.2.8 I believe, and Apple's internal modem was still not usable on iMacs or Power Macs. Does anyone know if 10.3 has full modem support yet?

Under 10.2.8 and below the modem would frequently disconnect at random times, or get stuck while dialing and require a paperclip reset. The only solution is to boot into 9.2.2 to use the Internet. I cannot recommend a Mac to anyone if it is not compatible with dial-up Internet.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Luckily I have never seen or heard of this problem.
At my work we have many iBooks (G3 and G4) which occasionally dial-in to our network, and never had issues like you have.
Also iMac G4's modems seem to work well, as does my Dual 533 MHz G4 at work, which I sometimes use for testing the dial-in connection.
All running Jag or Panther.

Sure the modem script used is ok?

I hope for that Panther works for you!
It would be very annoying...

 

[MisterMe]

The last version of Mac OS X I used with a modem was 10.2.8 I believe, and Apple's internal modem was still not usable on iMacs or Power Macs. Does anyone know if 10.3 has full modem support yet?

Under 10.2.8 and below the modem would frequently disconnect at random times, or get stuck while dialing and require a paperclip reset. The only solution is to boot into 9.2.2 to use the Internet. I cannot recommend a Mac to anyone if it is not compatible with dial-up Internet.

My modem works fine.

 

[IndyGopher]

The modem in my MDD 1.25 worked fine for the two weeks I used it (had to wait for the DSL to get hooked up after the move) with AOL under 10.3.2

 

[Makosuke]

Yeah, I'm wondering if it's not something in your set-up as well. My parents have a flat panel iMac with dialup and 10.2.x, and they have that thing on and connected to Earthlink for literally days at a time (and their phone lines are pretty bad, being out in the middle of nowhere). I've also seen people using the internal modem on old PMs (dual 450) quite successfully with AOL dialup under 10.3.

How many computers have you had problems with? Perhaps you have a noisy phone line where you live (that seems to be the most common cause of dropped connections), a bad jack, or just a flaky modem? Could also be your ISP--seen some (Earthlink a while back, for example) with extreme issues around dropped connections. All these problems would be easy to test by booting into OS9 or using another computer on the same phone line/ISP, though.

 

[onemoof]

The phone line was only installed 2-3 years ago. So I guess that means it's digital, which is bad. In any case, I don't think a noisy phone line would consistently and routinely crash the Finder. The little information box that scrolls "Disconnecting..." goes on for 10-15 minutes sometimes. I am fairly competent with computers (4 year computer science degree), but if it baffles me I can only wonder how other people are dealing with this bug. I know a few other people that have used the modem and complained to me about their modem not connecting or disconnecting properly, but I don't know what advice to give them. I have tried dozens of modem scripts built-in to the Finder. The one the "Wizard" auto-selected during the first time using the computer didn't work at all until I changed it ("Apple Internal Modem" couldn't do much of anything). It makes me think that Mac OS X is one of the most difficult computers to use at any skill level, at least if they try to use the modem. I remember that Apple had the same problem with the modem being "too aggressive" back when they first included modem's on Macintoshes. It looks like the same bugs crept back in when Mac OS X was released, and Apple never got around to solving them like they did in 9.2.2.

 

[MisterMe]

The phone line was only installed 2-3 years ago. So I guess that means it's digital, which is bad. In any case, I don't think a noisy phone line would consistently and routinely crash the Finder. The little information box that scrolls "Disconnecting..." goes on for 10-15 minutes sometimes. I am fairly competent with computers (4 year computer science degree), but if it baffles me I can only wonder how other people are dealing with this bug. I know a few other people that have used the modem and complained to me about their modem not connecting or disconnecting properly, but I don't know what advice to give them. I have tried dozens of modem scripts built-in to the Finder. The one the "Wizard" auto-selected during the first time using the computer didn't work at all until I changed it ("Apple Internal Modem" couldn't do much of anything). It makes me think that Mac OS X is one of the most difficult computers to use at any skill level, at least if they try to use the modem. I remember that Apple had the same problem with the modem being "too aggressive" back when they first included modem's on Macintoshes. It looks like the same bugs crept back in when Mac OS X was released, and Apple never got around to solving them like they did in 9.2.2.

I highly doubt that you have a digital phone. Digital phone lines are incompatible with analog equipment. That is to say that you can't just plug in a phone from Radio Shack or Circuit City and expect it to work. Apple's internal modem as well as most other computer modems are designed to work on analog lines. Digital lines are supposed to fry analog modems.