iMac no longer has built-in modem

My Apple USB Modem appears in System Profiler | Hardware | USB on my iMac G5 (iSight) running OS 10.4.3; however it is not available for faxing in System Preferences | Print & Fax | Faxing | Set Up Fax Modem.... Nor is it listed among the many modems/drivers that may be configured in System Preferences | Network. Neither the printed instructions nor the Help built into the OS nor Apple's Support web pp. is any help. How can this modem that Apple advertises as a fax modem actually be used as such?

The most interesting thing about the Apple USB Modem is neither fax nor dial-up but the fact that it can handle voice. This means, almost 10 years after Apple pulled its Geoport adapters and Telecom Centre software, the Mac will finally be able to do telephony. We are currently working on drivers so that the new modems can be used with the open source Asterisk telephony server. This means you can turn any Mac which has a USB port into a PBX for only $49 (or $98 if you have two phone lines) as the software is free. More info on Asterisk for the Mac is at http://www.astmasters.net

Smugness is easy. Don't forget that a LOT of people who are natural targets for these machines live outside the reach of broadband (such as here in Alaska, where people 2 miles from the university are outside the reach of cable or DSL).

yeah, I meant $2/day - am heading off to bed now.

For God's sake, people. Apple would not do this without good reason. I am sure their research indicates that MOST people who buy iMacs have either wireless or ethernet connections.
In addition, my own experience indicates that MANY average computer users confuse the phone/modem port with the ethernet port. Just recently, I was at my local Apple Store talking to a genius when the genius next to us was dealing with a couple who had hauled their iMac G5 back very upset that it DID NOT WORK with their cable modem. The problem was immediately solved when they pulled out the cute white Apple PHONE CORD and handed it to the genius, who very politely explained that that was not an ethernet cable. He proceed to hook the iMac up to the store network with a real cable and was surfing in 30 seconds.
Good riddance, built-in modem. I am sure if you look around, you can find a $25 USB modem which will work fine for you, otherwise, spend the $49 and get over it. The iMac G5 has an amazing number of features for that money. Hellava deal.
P.S. if you think you are saving money by not getting broadband, I hope you are factoring in the value of your time, because you waste a LOT of time waiting on dialup. My 6 Mbs Comcast cable connection is $60/mo because I refuse to subscribe to cable TV (I don't have time nor do I want to tempt myself). When I look at it as $1/day compared to other ways I spend my money, it's a STEAL!

I guess you won't fall back on dial-up when DSL/Cable is out ... nor send & receive faxes either. Really a shame. The average computer user is far from ready to go without a modem.

I'm posting this via dial-up. There are a bunch of people who can't get DSL or cable like me and need the modem and don't want to pay $90/month for Sat. The Airport Extreme has one built in that works nicely; mo better solution than a USB one but also mo $$.

Also, were there / are there no answering machine applications for the iMac? There are some pretty nifty PC applications out there for voicemail that allow you to do all sorts of things, like send an e-mail to work with the voice mail message attached. Just curious, ARE there actually any apps like that for the Mac out there?

Argh! I wager that I am not the only one still using the modem TO RECEIVE FAXES!

yay.. no more floppy disk and dial-up modem. Seriously, why need dial-up modem? It's time to move on, we're on new era.