Butterfly modem

They really should have given us 28.8

I have to admit that 14.4 Kbps (V.32 bis) is adequate but it's too bad the Butterfly doesn't have 28.8 (V.34) builtin. (Of course the ThinkPad 560 has no builtin modem!)

The Butterfly's modem is DSP-based but unfortunately, it's not the MWave version that newer ThinkPad's such as 755 have so it is not software upgradable.

Note that the Butterfly only ships with a modem in the US and Canada. This is because the modem is not approved for use in other countries. Export versions are built without the modem electronics and jack.

Modem config

Here's the Butterfly internal modem config I use. You can look at your config modem's using the "AT&V" command.

US Robotics Courier

I have a Courier V.Everything PCMCIA modem. Here's the config I use. You can look at your config modem's using the "ATI5" command.

I run my Courier at:

IRQ I/O addr

4 0x3f8

IRQ	I/O addr
4	0x3f8

To use the Courier, you must disable the internal ThinkPad modem in the bios menu and also in the Windows 95 device manager.

To install the Courier under Windows 95, you need to fetch mdmusrcr.inf from the US Robotics ftp site and copy it to c:\windows\inf.

The folks at C/Net liked it in their modem performance review.

Fax under Unix

Once nice package is HylaFAX. It's standard under BSD/OS.

Avoid the XJACK connector

One type of pcmcia modem you should stay away are the ones with the XJACK connector; the Butterfly keyboard gets in the way, especially when you try to use the modem in the top slot. Most if not all USR/Megahertz XJACK modems also come in the dongle flavor, so this shouldn't be a big problem if you haven't bought a pcmcia modem yet.

Other sources of information

A good source of 28.8 modem information is the Navas 28800 Modem FAQ

Another good source is Curt's High Speed Modem Page.

Related Craig's Butterfly pages:

Back to Craig's IBM Butterfly page