A technical run-down in laymans terms: A better label than winmodem/non-winmodem would be hardware modem vs software modem.
A hardware modem has the physical circuitry to modulate the communication signals down the telephone line. A software modem lacks some of the specialised hardware, and uses software to modulate the signal. Any modem that plugs into the serial port will be a hardware modem. A modem that plugs into a usb port could be either h/w or s/w. A modem that slots into a pci slot inside the computer is almost certainly s/w. The reason that s/w modems are called winmodems is bcoz the manufacturers used to release the software required to make them work only for windows. yuri
