[SWLUG] External Modem

[Justin Mitchell]

On Wed, 2003-05-07 at 20:02, Rhys Sage wrote:
> Hmm. Well, on my AT box I have two 25pin D sockets - one male, one female. I
> plugged into the male and Win 98 told me what kind of modem I had. On my ATX
> (Linux box) I have a 25 Pin female plus two 9 pin male sockets.

As im sure has probably been mentioned before.

Really old machine will tend to have 2 serial ports, one as a male DB9,
the other as a male DB25.  the female DB25 is a parallel port.

Newer machines, will have one, or maybe two, male DB9 serial ports, plus
the standard parallel port.

External modems traditionally came with a DB25 connector on them.
25 -> 9 is just a matter of a cable with the right connectors on.

Do not try and plug a serial device into the parallel port (its the
wrong gender for a reason) you will likely destroy the port. rs232
serial is a pretty robust system that can withstand abuse, parallel
however is much lower voltage and rather more delicate.