When you suggest a hardware modem, do you mean an external modem or will a PCI
card modem work as well?

PCI will be wonderful.....................

PCI may work - mine didn't. The best to be on the safe side is a
serial modem... also better if you use more than one machine as you
can just push in the USB. Don't go wild on price... most serial modems
can be got as NOS on ebay for £1-£2 pounds. I got a BT enabler on
ebay.

You can have my PCI modem if you like... if you're in the UK.

A PCI hardware modem should work without a problem... mine probably
would but i couldn't be bothered messing about to get it going. For a
serial modem all you do is install "setserial" from the repos and it
works. That simple and hardly worth the time or effort trying to get
something else to work. I still find being able to send faxes very
useful and it is a backup for internet access (admittedly only for
reading emails) should i have trouble with the broadband connection
(which i haven't so far for a year). Alternatively if you're
dual-booting which i am on another machine you can just go onto
winblows (goes against the grain i know!). As far as winmodems go i've
got several spare if you like!