Short answer: No.

Long answer:
I have constant issues with trying to use an old modem on new lines. Anything faster than 9600 baud tends to constantly get errors. I have a fax machine, and I had to turn the speed down to 9600 for it to work. A modem is going to have the same issues now that so many people use VOIP based phones.

I'd keep the old, neat looking ones, or ones that are proprietary. Past that, scrap the rest.

In a pinch, they can be used to transfer files from one computer to another by connecting them directly modem-to-modem with a phone cord and manually telling them to dial and answer using a terminal program. HyperTerminal has built-in file transfer capabilities that works good for this purpose. Yes it's slow, but it's a good "no other options available" method for transfer of files between older computers if you lack any other forms of removable mass storage (Zip drive, CD burner, etc) and floppy disks are too small to feasibly do the job.

Note that not all computers support direct modem-to-modem connections like this. Some modems, especially newer PCI "winmodems", require live voltage on the phone line to properly connect, which of course would be missing in this setup. Older ISA modems are more likely to work just fine without line voltage.

torindkflt wrote:

In a pinch, they can be used to transfer files from one computer to another by connecting them directly modem-to-modem with a phone cord and manually telling them to dial and answer using a terminal program. HyperTerminal has built-in file transfer capabilities that works good for this purpose. Yes it's slow, but it's a good "no other options available" method for transfer of files between older computers if you lack any other forms of removable mass storage (Zip drive, CD burner, etc) and floppy disks are too small to feasibly do the job.

Note that not all computers support direct modem-to-modem connections like this. Some modems, especially newer PCI "winmodems", require live voltage on the phone line to properly connect, which of course would be missing in this setup. Older ISA modems are more likely to work just fine without line voltage.

Ugghhh.. I'd rather just have a couple ISA or PCI NICs around for that purpose.

I always wanted to be able to record my phone calls or set up my PC as an answering machine, but I never found a hardware and software combination that was up to the task. The best I could find for Windows was something called "Classic PhoneTools"; Linux has something called "vgetty", but I couldn't find a Windows port.

At this point I would probably be better off trying to set up an Asterisk server, considering I'm on VOIP anyway.

luckybob wrote:

I have constant issues with trying to use an old modem on new lines. Anything faster than 9600 baud tends to constantly get errors. I have a fax machine, and I had to turn the speed down to 9600 for it to work. A modem is going to have the same issues now that so many people use VOIP based phones.

When I first got DSL around fifteen years ago (eep), the modem came with line filters for use with analog devices. Maybe you need one of those?

I have cable. so, no. The "telephone" line is delivered through voip ala Cockmast.

I would keep at least the intelligent modems with their own on-board computer and real serial port.
They can still come in handy for modem games. For example, there's a chess game for Windows/386 which supports that.

DOS games like Megatron also supported that. In Windows, there's Warpath, which can be played via modem (also has IPX support).
Besides, modems can still be useful to set up a BBS software or for file transfer. You can connect two modems, if you dial through an in-house system.

Modern DSL or cable modems (or home routers) may also have one or two telephone connectors..
If they are wired to the outlets in your house, you can connect two vintage systems without having to set up a LAN for that.

These are just some ideas, though.The coolness factor is probably the best.
Who doesn't want to open a terminal program and play with the Hayes commands ? 😉

torindkflt wrote:

In a pinch, they can be used to transfer files from one computer to another by connecting them directly modem-to-modem with a phone cord and manually telling them to dial and answer using a terminal program. HyperTerminal has built-in file transfer capabilities that works good for this purpose. Yes it's slow, but it's a good "no other options available" method for transfer of files between older computers if you lack any other forms of removable mass storage (Zip drive, CD burner, etc) and floppy disks are too small to feasibly do the job.

Note that not all computers support direct modem-to-modem connections like this. Some modems, especially newer PCI "winmodems", require live voltage on the phone line to properly connect, which of course would be missing in this setup. Older ISA modems are more likely to work just fine without line voltage.

I think a serial port to serial port "null modem" connection is preferable in any such situation. I don't want to say all modems are 100% useless, but one really has to have very specialized purposes to ever use one in the future.

Modems are 99.9% useless. I cannot fathom a realistic reason as to why this will change. Ethernet, and by extension the internet, has eliminated the need for a modem. Ethernet is better in practically every concieveable scenario. What ethernet cannot do, is covered by cheap and fast flash memory.

luckybob wrote:

Modems are 99.9% useless. I cannot fathom a realistic reason as to why this will change.

Well, there's still faxing, right? I'm told that for fast, secure document transfers, faxing may still be preferable over E-mail.

Jorpho wrote:

luckybob wrote:

Modems are 99.9% useless. I cannot fathom a realistic reason as to why this will change.

Well, there's still faxing, right? I'm told that for fast, secure document transfers, faxing may still be preferable over E-mail.

I do have to send a fax every once in a blue moon. But for that I already have a AIO color laser machine that has fax built in.

firage wrote:

torindkflt wrote:

In a pinch, they can be used to transfer files from one computer to another by connecting them directly modem-to-modem with a phone cord and manually telling them to dial and answer using a terminal program. HyperTerminal has built-in file transfer capabilities that works good for this purpose. Yes it's slow, but it's a good "no other options available" method for transfer of files between older computers if you lack any other forms of removable mass storage (Zip drive, CD burner, etc) and floppy disks are too small to feasibly do the job.

Note that not all computers support direct modem-to-modem connections like this. Some modems, especially newer PCI "winmodems", require live voltage on the phone line to properly connect, which of course would be missing in this setup. Older ISA modems are more likely to work just fine without line voltage.

I think a serial port to serial port "null modem" connection is preferable in any such situation. I don't want to say all modems are 100% useless, but one really has to have very specialized purposes to ever use one in the future.

Maybe I should make sound recordings of all the different baud connection tones. Making something like that into a ring tone could be quite interesting.

cyclone3d wrote:

Maybe I should make sound recordings of all the different baud connection tones. Making something like that into a ring tone could be quite interesting.

My reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmePLg3hdCw

Jorpho wrote:

Well, there's still faxing, right? I'm told that for fast, secure document transfers, faxing may still be preferable over E-mail.

Except it's not. My mother recently did a refinance, and everything was done over email. The only time we ever had physical interaction with the lender was the final signing. Everything up to that was email. I dealt with faxes in one previous job. Everything was saved as an image, stored on a server where anyone could look at it.

luckybob wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Maybe I should make sound recordings of all the different baud connection tones. Making something like that into a ring tone could be quite interesting.

My reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmePLg3hdCw

HAHAHAHA.

I made a ringtone from the end of a youtube video quite a while ago that gets laughs/stares/comments.

People tell me it sounds like a dying animal or a crying baby. MWAHAHAHAHA.

cyclone3d wrote:

torindkflt wrote:

Note that not all computers support direct modem-to-modem connections like this. Some modems, especially newer PCI "winmodems", require live voltage on the phone line to properly connect, which of course would be missing in this setup. Older ISA modems are more likely to work just fine without line voltage.

Ugghhh.. I'd rather just have a couple ISA or PCI NICs around for that purpose.

There are systems for which NICs are not available (think portable systems, laptops, game consoles, many exotic systems, etc.). There are also systems that can't use a serial connection without special software, and sometimes that special software can't be used for general purposes.

There's a schematic floating around on the internet that might resolve the live voltage issue.

Other than nostalgia, not really.. I used a 56K modem in my MMX build for the sake of period correctness, found it to be absolutely useless so I dropped in a PCI NIC instead.. Modems are a great piece of history and I have very fond recollections of BBS'ing on a 14.4K, but I'd really not ever use one in a build..

I keep oddball ones like 8 bit ISA modems or generic weird or unique ones but toss a lot of them 🤣

Jo22 wrote:

I would keep at least the intelligent modems with their own on-board computer and real serial port.

I would trash the WinModems and keep the intelligent ones. A while ago I managed to buy 3 NOS US Robotics Courier V Everything modems - probably the top consumer modems.

There's no really good reason to hang onto them, no. Maybe the non-Winmodem ones, especially if you have a PCI non-Winmodem (which were rare).

The only ones I keep anymore are external serial modems.

cyclone3d wrote:

Maybe I should make sound recordings of all the different baud connection tones. Making something like that into a ring tone could be quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j-Rb9u3EHc

Not my video, but of significant relevance to your comment. This guy put a Raspberry Pi inside an old modem case, but he also set up a slave RPi Zero to act as a remote modem and simulate dialing into various old BBS, which he's got archived. He even recorded tones with different modem brands and speeds. I haven't looked into such a project myself but maybe that inspires you and/or could be a source for some information if you wanted to do something similar.