I bought an external modem and I need a little help reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rili-Anne · 2022-09-05 23:44 So I bought a Zoom Model 3095 ages ago, little USB thing, and I might have a landline in my new place - like, a real POTS landline. I really wanna dial into a BBS, or if possible, figure out how to use the thing as a phone, but I can't find ANYTHING for the life of me on how it works or how I can dial into a BBS with it. I know how to spin up VMs for Linux, but right now I'm on Windows 11. Does anyone know how I can make this little machine sing? I really, really wanna get that honest experience of dialing in by phone and listening to the audio - I just don't know how. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scubascratch · 2022-09-06 00:08 You will need a serial terminal program like putty. Older versions of windows have HyperTerm built in. You will need to make sure your OS recognizes the modem as a serial port. Figure out the phone number of a BBS to call. Start the terminal program, make sure you have the correct serial port selected (the modem, probably COM1 or whatever highest COM port number is in your system) and type “ATDT13125551212” (no quotes, fill in the correct BBS phone number) and hit enter. The terminal should show some activity after it dials and connects. Does that zoom modem have a built in speaker? It will need one of you want to hear the modem connecting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rili-Anne · 2022-09-06 00:16 The OS does recognize the modem - I got SyncTerm but I can definitely get PuTTY. No speaker, though. I was also hoping there might be a way to make calls through the PC using it - would that require a VoIP adapter? Either way, looks like I'll have to buy a new modem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scubascratch · 2022-09-06 00:19 I doubt you will be able to make voice/voip calls with it. Like 25 years ago there were ways to use a headset and PC on a dial up ISP to use voice with similarly equipped PCs, it was like ham radio and people mostly talked about the weather in other countries. I don’t know what syncterm is but it may be fine. If you can use it to connect to the modem already and just type AT and hit enter, it should say “OK” ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vga256 · 2022-09-06 04:07 [Here is the manual for your modem](https://s3.us-east- 2.amazonaws.com/legacysupport.minim.com/documentation/dial_up/3095F_Us erGuide_Eng.pdf). It *claims* to have an internal speaker, which I find surprising - refer to page 24. It includes instructions on how to set the speaker volume via Hayes commands, e.g. `AT &F L2` for medium volume. Your terminal program in Win10/11 will require either a POTS or VOIP line to dial out through. If you decide to buy a VOIP ATA adapter, that is its own separate research project. I can say that connecting at 9600 baud and lower work best over VOIP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dmine45 · 2022-09-06 23:39 I'd use something like Telix for DOS or other DOS terminal program and run it through DOSBOX-X. That's what I do for my USR Courier external modem. SyncTerm does work, but it's sort of a pain to get it to work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- veeb0rg · 2022-09-07 07:34 I user Syncterm for my bbs dialup. It handles all the ANSI correctly plus has the handy phonebook. You will need to find out which com port the zoom modem presents itself, should be able to check the device manager for that. As for bbs numbers that are still active I check the telnet bbs list site. They have a list of still dialup accessible bbs's.