Anyone know of one?

I'm trying to get 4 modems in a new Compaq/HP server (external is
unfortunately not an option). And Compaq/HP servers only come with
PCI-X now.

Somewhat dissapointing that Compaq/HP despite being on the PCI-X
design group don't make PCI-X hardware modems...

Any thoughts/comments/recomendations? Or even advice on how to get 4
win modems working in a server?

Cheers
Sheppos

I'm not sure what country you're in but have you tried Mainpine here:
http://www.mainpine.com/ ? They're in the UK and make multiport modems which
will work in many other countries as well (ie one card which does the job of
several modems). I'm not familiar with PCI X but if its anything like the 64
bit PCI slots I have in my machine, they'll still accept a 32 bit PCI card
and are backwards compatible. If this isn't the case, if you email Mainpine,
they should be able to assist.

Paul
"Mark Sheppard" <mark.sheppard2@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:11vqiv8obj5r38i8q3jve7c3bg6q0td1g2@4ax.com...

Thanks for that...
However, I forgot to mention that I can't use a multiport board - the
software vendor won't support them!

Any other thoughts??


On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 06:16:46 +0100, "Paul Murphy"
<p_murphynothankstospam@hotmail.com> wrote:

If its server software for server use, multiport cards *should* be
supported - my other thought is to get a better software vendor. I'm sure
Mainpine would also be able to advise you on suitable software (which
perhaps may come free or very cheap with their hardware?).

I have a question - what do HP/Compaq suggest as a solution? (I'll bet its
not 4 separate internal modems) - put the ball in their court and get some
support from them. Their products aren't cheap and you should be able to get
a well thought out answer from them (especially if your considering buying
the upgrade from them too).

Finally, my experiences with Windows only modems are that they're
problematic (or won't even work at all) if you have more than 1 of them in a
machine (and that was only trying to use one at a time). For true server
use, you really do need to be considering a multiport card with onboard
controllers and datapumps much as Mainpine offer with their Conexant ACF
chipset based PCI cards (yes they do have them) or their Lucent Venus
chipset based cards.

Paul

"Mark Sheppard" <mark.sheppard2@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:mkjsiv8lurcbuqvlfmqcnmicdbck4vv8jj@4ax.com...

Thanks again for responding...

I agree, the software SHOULD support multi-modem boards - I mean, who
doesn't use digi in these circumstances?

However, the software's pretty-much the only option unfortunately -
not my decision - I just have to make it work, I'm sure you know how
that goes!

HP were pretty unhelpful, they basically make winmodems and nothing
else. Though they tried to help, the best they could come up with was
Brooktrout who apparently only do Fax boards - and multi boards at
that.

I'm getting pretty used to the idea of having to use external modems!
Anyone else find it unbelievable that no-one makes these things??

Sheppos





On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 19:58:26 +0100, "Paul Murphy"
<p_murphynothankstospam@hotmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

So the next step (if you absolutely, positively, definitely must use the
existing software) would be to find out what hardware the software
manufacturers reccomend and if there's any patch/upgrade which could be
applied to make it multiport modem compatible. This goes against principles
I believe in though (buying hardware to suit a specific "picky" software
app). If their reccomendation is to use several modems of xyz brand which
cost mega bucks each then you could always use that as an argument to
replace the software, depending how flexible your bosses are. Re your
comment "who doesn't use digi...", the products I'm talking about by
Mainpine are just single cards which do the job of several conventional fax
modems - not special modems, there's still the digital/analog conversions
going on.

Paul
"Mark Sheppard" <mark.sheppard2@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:ngn2jv0h3gj22njqbmkog8kgb0q358dh0q@4ax.com...

"Paul Murphy" <p_murphynothankstospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<bgt0a2$8cr$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk>...

Mark,
You don't say what OS you are using/what this software does that makes
it so fussy about modems. How does this software vendor know they
don't support any multi-modem cards? I'm not sure what is currently on
the market, but a number of vendors once sold multi-modem PCI cards
which simply consisted of either actual 16550 (or compatible) UARTs or
interfaces that looked just like them, and common rockwell chipset
based modems on the other side. The native serial drivers (sometimes
with a bit of setup tweaking) for Win NT, linux and QNX at least would
recognise these things and the vendors supplied custom drivers or
setup utilities to make getting it all working suitably "idiot-proof".
Any software that will talk to a bunch of external modems via a
multi-port serial card will also talk to such a modem card. Does your
software vendor claim not to support multiport serial cards either?
Just what method of connecting several modems do they suport?

Good luck
Darryl Green.