I never had to deal with winmodems either as an owner or a tech person, thank heavens. I started out with the 300-baud Commodore 64 modem, but I knew a couple of Pacific Northwest Bell techs who pretty quickly set me up with a 1200 baud modem, which was extremely high tech at the time. It didn't have a dialer, so I had a separate phone attached to it I used to dial, but at least I didn't have to use acoustic cups!