MAY 2006: SMARTLINK OUT OF THE MODEM BUSINESS - SUPPORT & DRIVERS FOR SMARTLINK /ST CHIPSET MODEMS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FROM SMARTLINK:

In May 2006, the Smartlink website appeared only in Hebrew. Now, the site is back in English, but it's contents come from www.voxelle.com, a domain also registered to an Israeli company. The support page of the website stated:

"Smart Link PC Modem Products
Conexant Systems acquired Smart Link's PC Modem chipset business in 2005. As a result of this acquisition, all Smart Link PC Modem products, including SL2800, SmartRISER series, SmartPCI series and SmartUSB series solutions have been transferred to Conexant. To obtain product support and updated modem drivers on any of these products, please contact Conexant ..."

HOWEVER, there is no mention on the Conexant site of this acquisition, nor is there any support or drivers for Smartlink products on the Conexant website. Until April of 2006, the Smartlink website proclaimed that Smartlink was "...the world's third largest supplier of analog modems..."

The last driver Smartlink released for the PCI/voice modem, version 4.20.01 for Windows XP & 2000 is now available from Modemsite Downloads.

Thanks to Evripidis from Greece, a modified, self-signed 64-bit driver is available from Modemsite Downloads that he says will work for the Smart Link SL2800 in 64-bit Windows 7. (Please note: I do not have a Smartlink modem, and have not personally tested or verified this driver - use at your own risk and discretion.) The story behind this driver: he was wanting to use the modem as a Caller ID device for a computer application - but unable to find a signed driver that would work with Windows 7. Spending a lot of time searching and learning, he was able to locate a 64-bit XP driver for the SL2800, and modified the driver self-signing it, and making it available to us as well. If you wanted to spend the time and effort, you could probably do the same (get an original XP unsigned driver for this or any other modem, self-sign it, and use it with Windows 7, Windows 8, or even Windows 10).

Smartlink previously took over support and driver development for modems based upon ST Micro chipsets.  

Updated drivers: Smartlink last released updated driver version 4.20.01 for Windows 95/98, Me, XP & 2k as of June 2005. These drivers support V.92, V.90 and lower protocols.  The new drivers may address some XP-SP2-related problems (see bottom of page). The new driver provides improved V.92 support, and provides modem-on-hold within the driver - there is no separate applet. MoH is controlled from Windows Control Panel->V.92 Applet or via AT commands. The drivers are not digitally signed which may result in a warning when installing the driver - you should continue anyway. If you install a 4.xx version driver on an XP system without service pack 2, and then install service pack 2, Windows will revert back to an old (buggy, but digitally signed) 3.80.01 version - the latest driver will need to be re-installed after upgrading to XP Service Pack 2. Starting with driver versioon 4.00.07, the modem drivers are installed in the \system32\drivers\sldrv folder instead of \system32\drivers.

There is also a driver for 64-bit versions of Windows XP. These drivers will also install in the \system32\drivers\sldrv folder.

Linux: You may find some Linux support/drivers on this page at Softpedia.

A number of modem makers produce modems with Smartlink chipsets. Smartlink, based in Israel, provided a variety of end-user support for modem products at its website. (Makers include: Aztech, CIS, Askey, Creatix, Artchtek, Wellmodem, Castlenet, Billionton, Abocom, Murata, Lectron, TP-Link, Start, and others.)

NetoDragon, also known as NetDragon makes a modem using the "MDV92XP" chipset - but, it appears that this modem may be based upon Smartlink softmodem; however, Smartlink drivers won't work (unless modified) with modem - reporting incompatible codec. (NetoDragon site has drivers.) Carlos in Bogota reports this file: http://www.adrianstaffolani.com.ar/netodragon/slmdm-2.7.10_debug.tar.gz contains modified Smartlink drivers that work on Netodragon voicemodem in Linux.  Netodragon Modem & Smartlink Driver: As described in this newsgroup post, it is possible to use the latest Smartlink Windows98 driver with Netodragon modem by taking the Netodragon-supplied SLAMR.v__ file, and placing it in the same directory as the Smartlink driver. A similar technique can be used for Windows-2000/XP:

Rename slntamr.sy_  from Smartlink's driver to slntamr.sy_.org
Copy slntamr.sys from NetoDragon's driver package to the Smartlink driver folder
Rename the copied slntamr.sys to slntamr.sy_
Install the Smartlink driver using setup.exe and reboot at the end as prompted.

Alex Winn from London reports using the latest Smartlink drivers (Jan'05) with the NetoDragon modem by adding the following in the [Model Selection] of the .inf file:

%Modem1%= Modem1,PCI\VEN_2003&DEV_8800&SUBSYS_28001801

Smartlink makes 4 chipsets: 

"SmartPCI561™" - Feb. '02 - new softmodem chipset for PCI form factor.

"SmartUSB56" - a chipset for external USB-bus modem designs ST7554 (controller) and STLC7550 (Modem AFE) [This was previously sold by STMicro / SGS-Thomson as Pegasus.usB. Smartlink has drivers.]

"SmartRiser56" a host modem solution (audio modem riser, mini-PCI, etc.) HAMR5600 or SL2000 + Si3012 or Si3014

"SmartPCI56" a PCI host modem solution. PCI chip + HAMR5600 or SL2000 + Si3012 or Si3014

All Smartlink chipsets are controllerless without DSP - the PC (or in some cases, the sound sub-system) handle all the signal processing. 'Audio Modem Riser' (AMR) modems also known as HAMR5600 are used in these form factors: AMR, MDC, CNR, ACR, and MiniPCI. The driver supports all popular Southbridge chips from Intel (ICH, ICH2, ICH3), Via (686, 686B, 8233, 8233A, 8231), Sis (630, 961, 962), Ali (1535), and nVidia (nForce, 220, 440). A single driver supports all Smartlink chipsets except for USB, including the SmartPCI form factor. A second driver supports the USB form factor.

Driver/firmware downloads for Smartlink modems:
Netcomm (Australia) - Models AM5060 and AM5070
Wellmodem - Smartlink internal FM-56PCI-SL
Amigo - SA93/SE93 (3.60.03)
Turbocomm - E500 driver for Smartlink USB Modem

Smartlink modems support the Unimodem Diagnostics (AT#UD) command.

AT i2 - will report the software supplier and version (should indicate SmartLink); other ATi commands may be customized to show the OEM vendor name.

AT +MS = commands are used for Speed limit / protocol selection.

The command reference is no longer available from Smartlink (.pdf format).

Also see: Smartlink HAMR5600 at modem-help.

Thanks to Karen for feedback on Neo Blue SL: a utility that currently supports only Smartlink modems that allows tuning of nearly all internal modem parameters.

Modem Audio - Mike Caldwell from Utah writes:

One thing I found is how the sound gets from the modem card to the sound card. I believe the little LED-lights app in the tray plays the sound just like regular wave audio sounds. When logging into a machine with a SmartLink modem using Windows Terminal Services, you can hear the modem sound carried across the network and played back on the terminal client. If you're still fielding issues on why the sound stopped working, surely that little app will be the culprit.

Multi-Link: Smartlink drivers will not support more than 1 modem in a PC - if more than one Smartlink modem is installed in a machine, the blue screen of death is likely to occur. If you want to multilink with a Smartlink modem, the second modem will need to be of a different chipset.
 

Smartlink drivers not fully compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2: Please note - the problems discussed in this section may be resolved by updating to the latest driver - see the top of the page.

I've received report that after update to SP2 the modem will still connect to the Internet, but will not produce any sound through the speaker for call progress and handshake. Other reports include inability to dial at all; inability to use the modem in fax mode; fax software (including Microsoft Fax) does not recognize the modem at all. Additionally, some users have reported XP crashes hard on modem hang-up - unplugging the PC being the only 'recovery'. Modem-on-hold does not work. These reports involve both PCI and USB models. XP Service Pack 2 updates the Smartlink modem to driver version 3.80.1.0 - which is the problem. The new driver on the Smartlink site (see top of page) addresses the problems with the SP2-bundled driver.

Further feedback indicates: Smartlink modems may work properly with the SP2-included driver on a clean install of XP/SP2, but fail on an upgrade. Systems that are upgraded to XP SP2 have the problem - which may be solved if you upgrade to the newest driver. The problem might be avoided if, prior to starting the SP2 upgrade, you physically remove and uninstall the Smartlink modem; then, after SP2 upgrade is complete, re-install the modem.

Here is a list of files used by the Smart Link modem:
mtlmnt5.sys, mtlstrm.sys, ntmtlfax.sys, recagent.sys, slcoinst.dll, slextspk.dll, slrundll.exe, slserv.exe, slgen.dll, slntamr.sys, slnthal.sys & slwdmsup.sys
 

Older versions of the Smartlink driver have been removed from the Smartlink site; however, you may find them at various modem OEM's that make modems using the Smartlink chipset.

Traffic Lights & XP-SP2 drivers: Terry Jones from UK indicates the updated Service Pack 2 driver for XP results in the disappearance of the "traffic lights" - and associated dialog boxes when clicked - in the system tray. Here's his solution to get them back:

Select Start , then right click My Computer and select Manage from the drop down menu.

Select Services and Applications from the menu tree then select Services. Proceed down the alphabetical listing of services until you see SmartLink Service. Right click this and select Properties from the drop down menu. It should refer to slserv.exe in the Path to executable field. Check the Service Status and Start Up Type. If Service Status is stopped select start. As a belt and braces measure force the Apply button in the bottom menu to become active by selecting another Start Up Type from the drop down menu then returning it to automatic . Select Apply and OK and exit the screen.

Next time dial up is used to connect to the internet, the traffic lights should re-appear (and in my case as an unexpected bonus the dialing tones and handshake re-appeared through the speakers which have never been available, despite setting the speaker volume to max in SmartLink properties).

If you have more information on Smartlink modems, please let me know!