Hi Tclug people, I've finally got around to installing a new linux system with Red Hat 7.1 this week, so thanks for your comments a few weeks ago! I have another question for you. I can't seem to get my modem to work. I know it works because I used linux kernel 2.2.16 with it before, and also I can use it with MS windows. I'm somewhat confused and baffled. Here's the immediate problem(s) 1) the kppp PPP program I'm using--when I attempt to initialize the modem, a window pops up saying "modem isn't responding" 2) the red hat PPP program, when it trys to search for a modem it doesn't find one. Here's what I know: I have an ISA PnP modem (not a winmodem), US Robotics brand. when I boot windows instead of linux, the modem works and is using COM2 serial port. this is how i am sending this very email. linux seems to have the correct info as far as the serial port is concerned. for example, when I type "setserial -a /dev/ttyS1" I get what seems like all the right info: IRQ=3 and i/o=02f8. At least I'm pretty sure this is what I want. I don't know however if my hardware is actually set to this. I tried making the symbolic link from /dev/ttyS1 to /dev/modem just out of frustration, but to no avail. when i boot linux, linux indeed acknowledges that I have a US Robotics modem installed, and seems to be happy with the PnP. (by the way, do you know how to slow down all of the boot messages that zoom by? I can't read the whole thing before it's gone.) that's all i can think of to tell you. any thoughts? thanks, Jason