My modem doesn't work

Situation:

The Serial 1 - 4 port is not available in the pop-up menu of Dial Up Networking or Serial Connect.

The /dev/ports/ directory doesn't include serial 1 - 4 .

This affects both internal and external modems.

Things to try:

1. First make sure you are, or are not, getting serial communication. To test this, open the application Serial Connect and use the Connection menu to select Direct Connection. Select the port your modem is on and click connect. The screen won't change, but this is correct. Type ATZ and hit Return (or Enter, depending on the keyboard). If you get an OK, your serial port is working correctly. If any of this fails, keep reading.
   
   
2. In the motherboard BIOS, disable the following options:
   PnP aware OS
   USB support
   Advanced Power Management
   Anything else you feel like may be important
   
   Also, it's worth updating your BIOS, especially as the end of this year comes around.
   
   On most modern motherboards there are two serial ports and when you add an internal modem it is adding a third serial port to the system. Try disabling the secondary serial port on the motherboard in your BIOS, and then disable plug and play on the modem (if possible) and manually set its resources to Comm-2 (see below). This is most likely done with jumpers on the card. Then within the BeOS, in the Devices preference, add a New Jumpered Device - Modem from the Devices menu with the appropriate setting. COM 2 (serial 4 in the menu) is the most common setting if you're guessing. Feel free to change them to whatever your card is set to or add it as a custom device with these settings:
   Type: Communications, Serial Controller
   IRQ: 3
   IO Port Range - Start: 0x 00 00 02 f8 Length: 0x 00 00 00 08
   
   After you restart the BeOS, you should then see a serial-# option in the Modem configuration and Serial Connect application. Try the instructions in the first paragraph again to test whether it is communicating with the modem.
   
   
3. The BeOS generally will not make use of PCI modems or Plug-and-Play-only configured modems correctly. As the BeOS develops, more options will be made available.

Resolution:

We have worked on this for the next update of the BeOS, so keep watching the Be home page for information on availability as we have it.