Caller-ID
October 2nd, 2006 by: Paul KobeltI used to have a computer whose sole purpose was to display Caller-ID output to a monitor (also logging to a text file), using an old ISA 56k modem (Diamond Supra i56 SUP2480). It was decided that it was a waste of power to have a single computer do just that, and since my webserver (an old Pentium III) has ISA slots, I’d throw it in there. When the webserver was running RedHat 8.1, this was fine. I recently upgraded it to Fedora Core 5 to start a new PHP/MySQL project (that you’re looking at), and have run into the following string of problems.
- The default install didn’t have the ncid program, so I went to sourceforge.com and got the latest precompiled binaries and installed the RPM.
- Ran “service ncid start”, and it failed. Maybe the wrong serial port is linked to the program, so I tried all of them. (running minicom against all of them didn’t help, either.)
- None of them worked. Time to do diagnostics on the ports. Need to download isapnptools, since the modem is old.
- isapnptools isn’t a RedHat package, any longer. Downloaded the source binaries from the isapnptools homepage. Attempted to ./configure.
- I don’t have a gcc compiler installed on my system. Ran yum to install gcc.
- I don’t have flex installed on my system. Ran yum to install flex. Got ./configure to run for isapnptools. Ran make
- Make failed. Got pissed. Started thinking.
- Looked on eBay for a new/used modem.
- Scored a used modem for $5.00
- Stuck it in the ol’ P3, booted it up, ran ncid, success!
If there’s a lesson, here, I think it’s: If at first you don’t succeed, give up and buy new hardware. Maybe I can pass this wisdom on to my customers. Then again, I’d be out of business before you can say Jack Robinson.
