Actually, it might be worth checking out USB modems: I think many actually attach as a regular USB serial port that has a modem attached to it - though it's all within a single blob. Not having a USB-to-serial adapter myself I just built myself a dummy phone line (12V battery, 2 caps and a resistor) so my modern stuff (Macs with modems but no serial ports) can talk to my Amiga (and other stuff) via an external modem set to auto-answer. Both on my server (B&W G3 running NetBSD) and my laptop (G4) the modem responds to good old AT commands... This leads me to suspect that the Apple USB modem also will respond to AT commands. The only danger is that it might want firmware to be loaded at attach time from the host to the device (like my %^&!ing MIDI adapter!) Joe.