Modem Madness!

[artificio]

So, I'm getting a computer together for my mom, and I get the modem working with wvdial as root (I call, it negotiates, then rejects me because I'm using a BS ID/pass for testing). I ended up screwing with the permissions for /var/lock and /dev/modem in the hopes of having users dial out, but now it won't connect at all! It dials, but then there's nothing, no squeek,scratch,grind,etc... noises. I'm planning on copying over /var/lock from the livecd and hopefully recreating /dev/modem, but I was wondering if anyone could give me any insight into this, or better yet, tell me what their permissions for /dev/modem or /var/lock are?
Thanks!

[artificio]

Bump?