What's My Modem? (Intro + How-to-Use)

What's My Modem? (Explanation & Links page)
This page is designed for those trying to identify an unnamed modem. This page has now been superceded by: Finding unknown modems (how to) Use the Modem manufacturers A to Z if you know either the manufacturer's name or the trade-marked name. Use the Index if you have a model reference number. Use Modem Chipsets & Drivers if this table doesn't work & you have a reference number from one of the chips on/in the modem.
The aim of this section is to use the information-responses given by interrogating the modem to determine at the least the chipset manufacturer & type and therefore a good shot at the manufacturer and upgrade site. Please be aware that, whilst all modems will give responses to ati commands 1 to 8, with some modems most of these responses will be "OK" - in other words, no information at all, which is a curious response for an information command - but that the name of the manufacturer should be contained within one of the responses. It is also normal for some (not all) of the responses to read "Error".
Contents
Why Upgrade? Finding the Manufacturer Modem Command set ati commands How to find the Manufacturer Listing of ati6 Responses Listing of ati3 Responses Modem Model Table using ati Responses This is the table itself Understanding Driver Versions
Why Upgrade?
Millions of people with brand-new modems are searching across the web trying to find the upgrade site for flash-upgrades & drivers and this may seem a little curious to many people. This is gone into more depth elsewhere, but briefly a new standard for modem communications was ratified in 1998 [called V.90 - a more technical discussion of this is here] and, by a process of trial-and-error, the modem chipset manufacturers are bringing their products into line with this standard. Some chipset manufacturers are...
V.90	3Com - now US Robotics
V.90	Agere Systems
V.90	Ambient Technologies - now intel MSO
	AT&T - chipsets sold to Lucent
V.90	Cirrus Logic - now intel MSO
	Combo 2000
V.90	Conexant
	Davicom
V.90	ESS	Thanks to Flavio de Castro Melo for the link.
V.90	Hayes	original company now bankrupt
V.90	intel Modem Silicon Operation
V.90	Lucent Technologies - now Agere Systems
V.90	Motorola
V.90	PC-Tel
V.90	Rockwell - now Conexant
	Sierra Semiconductor Corporation	28 Aug 96 stopped making modem chipsets
V.90	Smart Link	Thanks to Peter Banks for the link.
V.90	SGS-Thomson - now STMicroelectronics
V.90	STMicroelectronics
V.90	Texas Instruments
V.90	Topic - see IC Plus Semiconductor Corp
	United MicroElectronics Company (UMC)
V.90	US Robotics
	WDXMAC
...and, with the exception of USR, they supply their chipsets to other OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] companies that make the actual modems. The line of manufacture can be much longer than this, with unbranded-modems going to other companies that put a name on a box & ship it to distributors, but in it's simplicity that is how it works. It is still possible at the time of writing [May 2000] that the chipset in a modem sat on a shop shelf left the factory before the V.90 standard was even ratified, yet will be emblazoned with 'V90 ready!' on the box - just a slight distortion of the truth, if not actually wrong. Lists of manufacturers using each chipset above can be found on this site's Index. The pace of change in telecommunications has matched that in the worlds of electronics, & the modem manufacturers have taken two routes to respond to this change: One is to produce modems with upgradeable ROMs [read-only memory]. This is the so-called 'Flash Upgrade' which will change the firmware in the modem [firmware is software written in silicon]. Examples of these are Agere Venus, Conexant ACF 1MB ROM, Conexant ACF 2MB ROM, Conexant ACF PLL 2MB ROM, intel MD565X, intel MD566X & Texas Instruments TMS320x2A. The second route is soft-modems, where one or more parts of the modem which are normally implemented in silicon are implemented on the computer in software. This latter route mainly occurs on the Windows^® platform, although drivers for Linux are now available for the Agere Mars, Conexant HSF, intel MD563X-HaM, PC-Tel 1789, PC-Tel AC-Link & SmartLink HAMR5600^TM. With both routes, new protocols usually mean new software-drivers to allow correct communication with the computer, and the practicality at the users end is to find the manufacturer's website & obtain the upgrade, which brings us nicely to the point of this page.
Finding the Manufacturer
This page uses the ati responses from the modem to identify the chipset manufacturer, and hopefully the OEM manufacturer, and therefore a suitable website to upgrade from. First, some background about the Hayes command set, & the ati commands in particular, and then the practical steps of using the table:
Modem Command Set
	Modems are programmed by all manufacturers to perform certain actions in response to particular commands sent to them via the computer. Some of these commands are universal to all modems. Examples are +++ go into command mode d dial [followed by the number to dial] h0 hang up These commands are often referred to as the Hayes command set as they were established by that manufacturer in the early days of modem construction and copied by all others that followed. Almost every command needs to be prefixed with at [for attention?] at the beginning of the line & can be in upper- or lower-case. I use lower-case throughout. This means that i is a lower-case 'L'. Life would be easy if all manufacturers could have standardised upon one agreed set of commands, but then this is as likely as Universal peace breaking out upon all lands, and hasn't happened.
ati Commands
	The i [for information?] command is a universal instruction, but the format of the response is not. The following is true for most Conexant (formerly Rockwell) chipsets: ati3 in 4 parts - shows the driver version with almost all chipsets. example: V1.400-V34_DS Firmware version e.g. V1.400 Basic model e.g. V34 Application code D=Desktop, L=PCMCIA Interface type S=Serial P=Parallel Generally, firmware versions below 2.000 are K56Flex whilst versions above 2.000 are V.90 [more technical]. According to Zoltrix the latest K56Flex code for the Conexant ACF 56k 1 MB ROM chipset is V2.013A. ati4 OEM-defined identifier string in either Hayes-compatible binary format or ASCII ati5 Country code ati6 Data pump model & internal code revision example: RC288DPi Rev 05BA ati7 DAA code Other chipset manufacturers either follow this format in part/not at all, but the commands ati1 to ati7 will always produce something.
How to find the Manufacturer
	There are four ways that singly or together may work:
1	If a modem is approved for connection to the British telephone system, use the BABT approval number to find the license-holder.
2	Use at least the first three digits of the 'Grantee' section of the FCC id. at fcc.gov 808hi.com/56k driverzone.com to find the manufacturer.
3	Use the Askey ID program Echo Communications product ID program J-MARK Computer Corp. product ID program [links are here] to rule these manufacturers in or out of the picture.
4	Use the ati responses from the modem to search the table. There are three ways to obtain these: Windows 95/98/Me users can use More Info... use a terminal program to issue the commands "ati0i1i2i3i4i5i6i7i8" (no quotes) to the modem (the modem should not be connected to another modem whilst doing this). The modem manufacturer's name and/or model name will often appear as one of the results - usually ati4 - & if so this site's Manufacturer's Table or Index can be used to find the manufacturer. A model reference will sometimes appear as the result of one of these or another command: ath3 anything other than 'Error' indicates either an Askey, Dynalink, J-MARK or MagicXpress modem. ati0 a result beginning 'MT' indicates a Multi-Tech modem. ati1 a result beginning 'MT' indicates a Multi-Tech modem. ati2 a result beginning 'MT' indicates a Multi-Tech modem. ati3 a result beginning 'MT' indicates a Multi-Tech modem. ati4 a result beginning 'NCI' indicates a Newcom, Inc. modem. ati4 a result beginning 'FM' suggests an Origo modem. ati7 a result beginning 'NCI' indicates a Newcom, Inc. modem. ati92 a result beginning 'SUP' indicates a Diamond modem. If it hasn't appeared in the listing above use this site's Index to see if it appears there. Windows users can download this program. This was developed by & is copyright BVRP Software, & can also be sourced at modemhelp.com. It principally sucks info from the Registry but will also print out the standard ati responses if the com port is selected. Now try to match the ati6 result [sometimes it is ati7] to the list below - if found, use the link to jump to that section in the table. If ati6 is not there, try to find ati3 in the table of ati3 responses. If... ...ati6 and/or ati3 are similar to your modem, then the chipset manufacturer shown in the Notes will be the same as your modem, but the manufacturer may be different. ...if the id [identifier - under 'Model'] is also identical to your modem, then the manufacturer shown under 'OEM' will be the same as your modem Bear in mind that Rev in ati6 (if it exists) is the revision level of the chipset, & changes when the modem is flashed ati3 is usually used to show the driver version, & changes when the modem is upgraded if you determine which chipset your modem has, that there are often different variants on the same chipset - such as voice options, and so on some manufacturers do not want you to know who made the chipset & will put non-information responses into these information commands
List of ati6 Responses	(sometimes ati7)
If ati6 matches one of the responses at right, then click on the link If ati6 does not match the link, then try to find a match from ati3 below.	RC288DPi	Rockwell ACi/VFC 28.8k [non-flash]
	RC336DPF	Rockwell ACF 33.6K [non-flash]
	RCV336DPF	Rockwell ACF 33.6K [non-flash]
	RCV336DPFSP	Rockwell ACF 33.6K [non-flash]
	RCV56DPF L8570A	Conexant ACF 56k 1/2 MB ROM
	RCV56DPF-PLL L8571A	Conexant ACF 56k 2 MB ROM
List of ati3 Responses
Use this table if ati6 does not match one of those listed above. Click on the number/letter with which ati3 begins. eg if ati3 begins "Soft.." then click on "S".	2
	5
	9
	A
	C
	L
	P
	S
	V
Understanding Driver Versions
It's clear from emails that I receive that many people do not 'get' the idea behind the modem's driver versions (and why should they?), so this little section is a quick primer on the arcane art of software versions. I think the mis-understanding arises because people think that they are looking for a modem with the same ati responses as their own, & this is not quite true. Certainly, if *ati6, ati3, ati4* & the *Identifier* are identically the same you have found your modem. However, the first 3 could be different - and possibly even the 4th - and it would still be your modem. What is being looked for, you see, is a modem with similar responses, which is not the same as a modem with the same responses. Now, I know that this is not easy but please don't blame me. After a little experience you may come to the view that - either deliberately or by ommission - a great many manufacturers simply do not let you know who made your modem, & you need to become a sleuth to determine which one you have. ati4 is supposed to be the OEM identifier, but not all manufacturers follow this format - mine says OK as an example, & the mfc is identified in ati7 - and even if it is followed it may be in binary format, which is not exactly helpful unless you are a Hayes-compatible computer. ati3 is usually the driver version, & this is what the rest of this little piece will concentrate on. The key to understanding driver version numbers is that we humans rarely (and software writers never) get things right first time - we clearly have a learning God. It's a process of try, try & try again. Let's take the Conexant/Rockwell HCF chipset as our example. Now, usually drivers are prefixed with V (for version), but of course, this chipset is not. The first version of a driver is usually v1.000, or perhaps Beta 10, but the first I've found is:
2.1.0.162	The first number (2) is the *major* version number The second number (1) is the *minor* version number Other numbers (0, 162) are lesser version numbers indicating smaller and less important changes to the software.
2.1.2.110 2.1.2.115	These are the next two drivers that I've found, and suggests that whilst the first is a strong improvement to the previous driver, only very minor differences exist between these two.
What is important is to realise that the two above are the *same* modem, simply with different drivers installed.
2.1.2.135 2.1.2.135b 2.1.2.154.002 2.1.2-156.015e 2.1.2.166	This is a sample of other drivers for this chipset. *All* of these can be the same physical modem. It is simply that the software allowing it to work as a modem is different. Even more to the point, if you are having problems connecting, then you need a different driver to the one currently loaded (as long as nothing else is causing connection problems).
That's the end of this primer. It may not make you an expert on driver versions, but it may help to shed a little light on the way to find a modem with responses similar - rather than the same - as your own.