computerhead :
I have a 15 yr. old Dell with US Robotics 56k Modem card that I gave to my 87 y.o. dad 4.5 yrs. ago for limited dial-up use (he doesn't want to pay for monthly high-speed service) and it seems the modem card in the computer now with noisy background noise doesn't get a dial-tone or connect with the library server.
So if you're going to throw them out, can we get 1 or 2 of them to keep the Dell able to connect with the Internet?
I am not throwing them out, I am going to sell them in bulk for scrap. Even if I sent them to you for free and you paid nothing but postage, it will still be overpaying for them. You should check if anyone has a few locally. I'm sure at least one friend or relative has a dial-up modem sitting in their old PC and don't even know it. Almost every PC made before 2005 that I have stripped for parts has had a dial-up modem in it. If not, here is one on ebay for $3 + $3 shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/56k-Internet-and-Fax-Modem-/221294730835?pt=PCC_Modems&hash=item3386319e53 There are plenty more on ebay as well. The problem with your father's PC is his operating system. Most of these old legacy PCI and USB modems are probably 100% hardware compatible but the drivers might not be compatible with Windows 98. Windows 98 is extremely obsolete. You might want to upgrade it to Windows XP which will at least make the driver compatibility much broader. XP was around for almost a full decade due to people avoiding Vista like it was the plague. If you do not want to spend any money on an OS, then you might consider a Linux distro. If all you father needs to do is access the internet, then a lightweight Linux distro is perfect. It can be installed alongside 98 and there are no drivers to install. Here is a good place to start if you are interested, it is an article on the best Linux distros for old PCs that require very little resources:
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/1289197/top-5-lightweight-linux-distros-for-older-pcs
You might also want to look into older versions of Ubuntu releases which will run much better on his PC than the later ones: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/
What is your father's PC specs, CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics, hard drive space, etc?
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