In my message of 18/5 with Subject of "SUSE 9.1 - BAH!" I mentioned that I was having big problems with getting Suse 9.1 to co-operate with my modem/modems (either internal or external - but as I have replaced my internals with externals my comments below only refer to external modems). Since that message of 18/5 I've been doing some testing and have found this (summarised): (a) during the installation of 9.1, at the point where the modem is first configured, is then tested for connectivity with the ISP and then the YOU update is allowed to be done - at this point the modem works perfectly. I get a consistent thruput of 4.4 - 5.9 Kb/s (apart from the occasional drop, of course). However, once the REST of the Suse installation is completed, the modem almost stops working with thruput between 0 and 800+ b/s (not Kb/s but b/s) coupled with periods of total inactivity lasting minutes. My testing has shown that it is NOT the YOU update that causes the modem problem but the completion of the installation- meaning that something gets installed that causes the problem. Configuring the modem during the installation, allowing it to dial the ISP - but not letting YOU to update - and then completing the installation does not solve the modem problem; (b) doing a full install of anything OTHER than KDE-related applications does NOT cause problems with the modem. If, for example, one installs the GNOME Desktop and not KDE then the modem works perfectly after the full installation. In one test I only installed the "Minimum graphical system (without KDE)" - and got the FVWM 'desktop' - and things worked fine but then I added GAMES (which are KDE) to this system. Immediately the modem stopped working correctly; (c) C Hamel and I have been corresponding privately and he mentioned earlier tonight that he found a "funny" about the KDE application "k3b". As a test I re-installed Suse 9.1 with KDE Desktop, Multimedia, Games, plus a couple of other things I normally insall, BUT I deliberately omitted installing k3b. After the full installation the modem was behaving almost normally with thruput again back to 4.4 - 5.9 Kb/s but with quite a number of slowdowns and stops. This degradation in performance could have been caused by the fact that in our part of the world at that time the Net is used pretty heavily. I will be retesting this during the day time (later today) to see if the performance is still below par. In summary, something KDE-related is causing the problem with the modem(s) - and it may be possible that it is k3b. I would pass this info onto to Suse Tech Support but I can't find their address right now. If someone knows it could they please forward this message to them on my behalf? (I got my Suse 9.1 on 13 May but haven't been able to use the darn thing because of the problem with the modem - and I'm getting p***** off :-(.) Cheers. -- I am not young enough to know everything.