I somehow think I have this in a bunch of stuff I haven't touched in decades. 🙁 Hopefully someone else has these more accessible for you.

Samir wrote:

I somehow think I have this in a bunch of stuff I haven't touched in decades. 🙁 Hopefully someone else has these more accessible for you.

a few days ago I found a web archive of the ESS website, it only has the drivers for the card for windows 9x , and windows NT based, up to windows xp , But I think there was a driver that a company made that made this same ESS modem work for DOS and windows 3.1x>. Another thing is this modem is a ISA plug n play, so the modem is on the ISA bus on my laptop.

MichaelWeaser wrote:

Samir wrote:

I somehow think I have this in a bunch of stuff I haven't touched in decades. 🙁 Hopefully someone else has these more accessible for you.

a few days ago I found a web archive of the ESS website, it only has the drivers for the card for windows 9x , and windows NT based, up to windows xp , But I think there was a driver that a company made that made this same ESS modem work for DOS and windows 3.1x>. Another thing is this modem is a ISA plug n play, so the modem is on the ISA bus on my laptop.

I would download the win9x drivers and see if you can find them there. A lot of manufacturers started not mentioning all the drivers in their packages since older stuff was obsolete. Perfect case in point is Intel PCI NICs--you can still find DOS drivers for them in recent driver packages. 😎

Samir wrote:

MichaelWeaser wrote:

Samir wrote:

I somehow think I have this in a bunch of stuff I haven't touched in decades. 🙁 Hopefully someone else has these more accessible for you.

a few days ago I found a web archive of the ESS website, it only has the drivers for the card for windows 9x , and windows NT based, up to windows xp , But I think there was a driver that a company made that made this same ESS modem work for DOS and windows 3.1x>. Another thing is this modem is a ISA plug n play, so the modem is on the ISA bus on my laptop.

I would download the win9x drivers and see if you can find them there. A lot of manufacturers started not mentioning all the drivers in their packages since older stuff was obsolete. Perfect case in point is Intel PCI NICs--you can still find DOS drivers for them in recent driver packages. 😎

Yeah its not there, there are no DOS drivers for it there either. yeah its unknown if the ESS modem even works under DOS , its a total mystery. But I was googling and found what chips ESS used in their modems has been used. http://web.archive.org/web/20080915075215/htt … rivers-dis.shtm this is the archive of ESS drivers on there website , and it even tells what modem Chip(s) is used in a certain ESS modem. The chips were designed by ESS, and used in other modems that weren't ESS, and some of them have DOS drivers even if ESS doesn't supply drivers. most of the drivers for other modems using ESS modem chips use the same drivers as ESS own modem series, for windows 9x . A lot of them did have DOS drivers , So if it uses the same ESS drivers as windows 9x , I am thinking if I can find a DOS driver from another modem that has the same ESS chips as my ESS branded modem , the drivers might work for my ESS branded modem for DOS.

From what I remember about these 'soft modems' (besides the fact that they were horrible), is that many of them didn't work in DOS--only Windows. I know either my brother's winbook xp5 or my original winbook may have had the same softmodem, but both systems haven't been powered on in many years and I don't know where all the software is for them right now. I thought we had it backed up somewhere.

Samir wrote:

From what I remember about these 'soft modems' (besides the fact that they were horrible), is that many of them didn't work in DOS--only Windows. I know either my brother's winbook xp5 or my original winbook may have had the same softmodem, but both systems haven't been powered on in many years and I don't know where all the software is for them right now. I thought we had it backed up somewhere.

Most winmodems / softmodems didn't have DOS drivers but a few actually did , and the chips that ESS designed apparently do , only some though. If I can't find a working driver , I'm going to find a Serial port modem, or possibly a PCMCIA modem.

Gotcha, and that does ring a bell as I used to stay on top of early PC tech like a hawk and recall something like that about the ESS modems.

If you end up going another route, definitely go the route of a serial port as PCMCIA devices had their own set of challenges with card services and then drivers for the devices to interface with the card services. Not much stuff worked directly in DOS without the right drivers. Much, much, much more hassle than a regular external modem attached to a serial port.

Samir wrote:

Gotcha, and that does ring a bell as I used to stay on top of early PC tech like a hawk and recall something like that about the ESS modems.

If you end up going another route, definitely go the route of a serial port as PCMCIA devices had their own set of challenges with card services and then drivers for the devices to interface with the card services. Not much stuff worked directly in DOS without the right drivers. Much, much, much more hassle than a regular external modem attached to a serial port.

I still need lots of help finding a driver for DOS though , google doesn't help at all even though I know a driver was apparently available. I will probably find a driver eventually .

I'm keeping this thread in mind for when I dig back into all of our legacy stuff that we've had to put away. It might be a few years, but I'll try to post back here with what I have. 😎

Win3x driver must include .386 files, not .vxd. Also, PCI modems use Non-Legacy COM ports, and cant work in DOS/Win3x.

MERCURY127 wrote:

Win3x driver must include .386 files, not .vxd. Also, PCI modems use Non-Legacy COM ports, and cant work in DOS/Win3x.

its actually a internal ISA modem on a laptop , and I am trying to find the windows 3.1 / DOS drivers , I have the windows 9x drivers listed, some modems existed used the same drivers that my ESS modem for windows 9x and included DOS/ windows 3.1 drivers , other modem companies used ESS modem chips in there products.

It's interesting.
If it isa, then modem can assign self to com ports, available for dos.
U must look isa pnp configuration space for it ports.

If u want, ask me in pm, then tomorrow i give u astra for dos, where u can look all for self, and generate report for me, then i can say u more...

What I found out is, the modem is basically a winmodem, and only had drivers for windows 95 and up.

MichaelWeaser wrote:

What I found out is, the modem is basically a winmodem, and only had drivers for windows 95 and up.

How old is it though? Because I remember there were also winmodems that had dos and win3.1 drivers.

Samir wrote:

MichaelWeaser wrote:

What I found out is, the modem is basically a winmodem, and only had drivers for windows 95 and up.

How old is it though? Because I remember there were also winmodems that had dos and win3.1 drivers.

The modem is from around 96-97 possibly , or maybe 98 , the laptop is from 1998. I found the web archive of the website for the modem, and its only listed as support for windows 95 and up. http://web.archive.org/web/20080915075215/htt … rivers-dis.shtm

Nothing online for Windows 3.1, just only Windows 95 or higher, unfortunately. Were 56K modems supported for Windows 3.1, or does it require Windows 95 or higher for that? The only modem I had back then was a 14.4K modem, and I have a 2400 baud in my Packard Bell (standard).

bjwil1991 wrote:

Nothing online for Windows 3.1, just only Windows 95 or higher, unfortunately. Were 56K modems supported for Windows 3.1, or does it require Windows 95 or higher for that? The only modem I had back then was a 14.4K modem, and I have a 2400 baud in my Packard Bell (standard).

I think 56k modems existed for windows 3.1, but I am not totally sure