External modem... I have a Diamond SupraExpress 56k Ext PRO. It is very
good, works well under both Windows and Linux (as one would expect).
Good price as well. However if you have the money and require the
functionality then the 3Com Professional Message modem is perhaps the
better option.

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Elsa Microlink 56k Internet is a good bet.

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If you don't mind spending the money the advice to this is the same as it
has been for about the last 10 years - buy a Courier "V.Everything"
external. High quality dsp that supports the v standards well, always
gets good negotiations, and has lots of debug lights. Pretty much any bbs
swears by them. On the other hand, they are quite big, ugly and expensive
for a technology that must go away at some point...

And of course don't get anything with winmodem on it (yes, you can now
get external hardware winmodems - its just depressing. 3com pc cards are
particularly bad for this as well).

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Mike's advice to me some months ago was that pretty much any brand doing
a pure simple serial-connect external modem was ok these days.  He further
suggested that I wander across the park to the Queensway Computer Fair, which
I did, and in the end I bought some vaguely anonymous £38 modem - that was
neither the cheapest nor the most expensive.  Worked fine (well, the second
one did - insist they unwrap it and plug it into the mains to see that it
has the right power supply and that the lights come on before accepting it:-))
I actually went back there some months later and bought another similar (not
identical) modem for someone else, and that worked fine first time. Again
about £35 - £40.

(October 2001).