Laine Stump wrote:

> It isn't $8, but a company called Road Warrior sells a little device
> called the "Modem Saver Plus" which does that - before connecting a
> modem to a line, you plug in this little doo-hickey press the "test"
> button. If the red LED lights up, you shouldn't plug the modem into
> the line. It can also tell if the two wires are swapped - I never knew
> that made a difference, but once last summer it made the difference
> between a very bad connection (22kbps) and no connection at all.
> 
> Their website is at www.warrior.com, and according to it these little
> things cost $39.95. Luckily mine was a gift from my brother ;-)
> 
> I just opened the thing up and there isn't much to it - just a few
> resistors and diodes, one 8 pin IC, a momentary switch, an RJ11 jack,
> and a little two layer circuit board. Probably the most expensive item
> is the lettering on the board that says "Patent Pending" :-P. Surely
> there must be something similar on the market for less...

I've actually got a miniature Radio Shack palm phone, no bigger than a
pcmcia card and just carry that with me.  When plugged into a digital
jack it "squeals and squelchs" but when plugged into an analog you get
a dial tone.  I've used it quite a few times and it hasn't blown up
yet. (the phone that is)

-- 
Bill Schoolcraft	Linux/Unix System Engineer
650 Townsend Street	San Francisco, CA 94103
SF (415) 354-4878       http://www.linuxcare.com          
           
	   "Linux/Unix, A Way Of Life."