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What is a winmodem? What does 'telephon.ini' do?
A winmodem, or "Windows modem", is one which only functions properly within the windows environment. The DSP, FIFO buffers, and UART are taken off of the modem and handled by the CPU, the RAM, and the computer's built-in COM port UART. This seems reasonable, since today CPU's can handle a greater workload faster and RAM is plentiful, and it greatly reduces the cost of the modem. But it depends heavily on software files, which can change, be deleted or corrupted, and heavily taxes system resources. A winmodem typically can consume 50% of the system's resources and capabilities while transmitting data, so you can't very well play a CD and surf the net at the same time. Plus early winmodems were not well-standardized (as few new things are) and had difficulties. But software modems have been well-developed by modem manufacturers and conform to some basic standards, so they do work. But they are touchy and don't always work well.
With winmodems, in which the basic duties are handled by the CPU, another file is necessary to translate between the modem and the CPU. This is different from a driver which translates between software applications and the modem. This file is what makes a winmodem a software modem. It makes the CPU's signals look and work like a DSP's signals.
When this file goes whacky (and it often does), the modem will have all kinds of problems doing its job. Usually, expect to see error 633. To fix it, delete or rename telephon.ini and run the program tapiini.exe, and reboot. 90% of the time, that'll fix it. This file is not used by hardware-based modems.
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