Frank, just some small addenda to John Piper's thorough advice:

 FI> I just cant use the modem in windows 3.1.. If i try, it will freeze
 FI> and the only way it will work is if i move the mouse around..now
 FI> before you say "change the irq's",

Change the IRQ :)  More significantly, the COMport number, which is likely
what your DIP switches are for setting.

 JP> Problem: COM3 uses the same IRQ that COM1 uses, which means
 JP> that if your mouse is on COM1 (which it *probably* is),
 JP> then you won't be able to use your modem and mouse
 JP> simultaneously. This sounds like what the problem is.

It does.  Which slot the card occupies generally doesn't matter, provided
you're having no RF interference issues with, say, your video card.

 JP> Here is what you should do: Provided that you DON'T use
 JP> COM2 for anything at all, configure your modem to use COM4.
 JP> COMs 2 and 4 share the same IRQ, so provided that you have
 JP> nothing plugged into COM2, COM4 is free for use.

As is COM2 itself, unless your machine has one hardwired already (not all do).
If your board / serial card does have COM2, you may be able to disable it
by removing a jumper, or setting BIOS.  Hope you've got docs handy for
these ..

 JP> You'll need to refer to your trusty modem manual for
 JP> instructions on how to configure it for a certain COM
 JP> port/IRQ combination. Have fun .

COM2 is bog standard setup.  If COM2's being used, you can't use COM4
anyway, unless you can configure the modem as COM4 on a non-standard IRQ,
eg 5 or 7.

 JP> Here's one last (and rather biased) piece of advice: ditch



Ian

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