This section tries to get you up and running as soon as possible, if you can follow the steps given in this section and they work for you, you can ignore the rest of this howto. This section is updated more often then the rest of the HOWTO so will contain the most up to date information.
First you need to find out if your modem is an HSF or HCF modem. You can find out from your modem by looking at it's Windows drivers or looking at the label on it's chipset, or alternatively you can download the ListModem utility and run it to get the information. Drivers are available for both types, but the HSF driver is further into development then the HCF driver so is likely to be more advanced for now. Expect the HCF driver to come out of beta sometime mid-year(2002). See the following appropriate sections for quick starting with HSF and HCF modems.
Download the driver from http://www.mbsi.ca/hsflinux/, the following instruction are for the Binary RPM version which I recommend you use.
Load up a terminal (or go to a console), change to the root user and enter the directory you downloaded the driver to and use the command "rpm -i" followed by the name of the driver. For instance if it is called hsflinmodem-4.06.06.02mbsibeta02012000-1.i586.rpm you would enter,
[user@localhost]$ rpm -i hsflinmodem-4.06.06.02mbsibeta02012000-1.i586.rpm
Run the program hsfconfig and just follow the on-screen instructions and it should automatically detect your modem and install the driver. If you have any problems consult the documentation that comes with the driver.
You will now be able to setup your internet connection software, you may need to tell it that your modem can be found at /dev/modem. If your internet connection software can't access it you may need to change the permissions on it.
[Technical note: If you have a modem with device ID 2005, then you will need to choose the option to manually configure it before it will work]
If the above steps don't work for you or the above mentioned driver doesn't work with your system (for instance if you have an SMP machine) then read the rest of the howto which explains how to use the older driver in greater detail.
Download the driver from http://www.mbsi.ca/hcflinux/, the following instruction are for the Binary RPM driver which is the easiest to install, if you want to install it using another method consult the README file.
Load up a terminal (or go to a console), change to the root user and enter the directory you downloaded the driver to and use the command "rpm -i" followed by the name of the driver. For instance if it is called hcflinmodem-0.9mbsibeta02030801-1.i586.rpm you would enter,
[user@localhost]$ rpm -i hcflinmodem-0.9mbsibeta02030801-1.i586.rpm
Run the program hcfconfig and just follow the on-screen instructions and it should automatically detect your modem and install the driver. If you have any problems consult the documentation that comes with the driver.
You will now be able to setup your internet connection software, you may need to tell it that your modem can be found at /dev/modem. If your internet connection software can't access it you may need to change the permissions on it.
[Technical note: If you have an older modem, i.e one with the Rockwell brand name rather then Conexant then you will not be able to use this driver at present. You will also not be able to use modems which use SmartDAA. See http://www.mbsi.ca/hcflinux/latest/BUGS.txt for updates.]