modem detection problems - usr 5610b and freesco 0.3.2

the scenario:

we are trying to make a freesco dial-up router. the first modem we used was a viking v1456vqh-r5 (isa 56k v.90/kflex, manually configured resources). this setup works fine.

however, the viking modem connects kind of slow, thus we'd like to use a us robotics 5610b (pci 56k v.92, plug-n-play) which is known to work better.

the problem is that freesco does not detect the modem.

if 3com/usr's dos "driver" (3cmdm.exe/dosmdm.exe - appears to assign the modem resources (com port, irq, i/o)) is installed beforehand, freesco will detect the modem's emulated 16550a serial port, but will not find a modem on the port during autodetection.

any ideas?


system specs:

motherboard: gigabyte ga-586im
cpu: intel p5-60 at 66mhz (with fdiv and f0 0f bugs)
ram: 2x 8mb simm (16mb total)
hard drive: 365mb ibm deskstar dsaa-3360 (96k cache)
video: pci s3 trio64 v2/dx (1mb)
network: 3x 3com 3c592 eisa (10mbit)
case: at-style desktop case with front panel cpu speed display
power supply: lsi mps-200p (200w at-style)
freesco version: 0.3.2

In linux, the USR modem should be assigned to ttyS4 com 5 during setup. That's the only one that will dial out.