Any use nowadays for a phone modem?
July 5, 2012 11:38 AM
Going through various bits of old computer equipment in a closet I found a few phone modems, both of the the internal card variety and the external USB variety. Assuming they'll even function (the cards are all wintel), is there anything interesting I can do with these in a world of broadband wired and wireless internet? Or are they fit only for recycling?
Punish telemarketers, if you can script them to not wait for dial tone before dialing.
posted by TomMelee at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2012
posted by TomMelee at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2012
I don't know what computer things you can do - but recycle?
I hope you mean, scrap. There are quite a few precious metals in your old computer.
Plenty of places will buy them as is.
But, you can make a lot more money by scrapping the metal yourself, and taking it to the local scrap yard. Of course, that requires you to know about a bit about metal idenitification.
posted by Flood at 12:28 PM on July 5, 2012
I hope you mean, scrap. There are quite a few precious metals in your old computer.
Plenty of places will buy them as is.
But, you can make a lot more money by scrapping the metal yourself, and taking it to the local scrap yard. Of course, that requires you to know about a bit about metal idenitification.
posted by Flood at 12:28 PM on July 5, 2012
Data calling is usually only one of many telephony tasks newer modems can do. Depending on the card, they may be able to set up complicated voicemail systems ("press one for..." etc). If it can do that, they may be able to be set up for robocalling, if that sounds like fun. At the very least you may be able to set up faxback (on-demand outgoing faxes); once up on a time I imagined setting up a Choose Your Own Adventure game managed by a fax-on-demand system, but I had better things to do. All of these, of course, require having POTS service (some fax stuff can work via VOIP, but that's fudgy, and Asterix can do all of the above for VOIP too). As for using it in relation to modern internet service, they're not much help at all, so you're better off recycling them.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:55 PM on July 5, 2012
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:55 PM on July 5, 2012
You'd be better off throwing them out. If you want a fun electronics hacking project, buy an arduino. These will jut turn into a big waste of time.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 6:57 PM on July 5, 2012
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 6:57 PM on July 5, 2012
"(the cards are all wintel)"
As in the lovely Winmodem? If so, just toss them in the trash. They're almost useless these days.
posted by drstein at 7:23 PM on July 9, 2012
As in the lovely Winmodem? If so, just toss them in the trash. They're almost useless these days.
posted by drstein at 7:23 PM on July 9, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ThisIsNotMe at 11:46 AM on July 5, 2012