eBeast going away again!

Yes, this frequent traveller is once again on its way to Utah. At this point, when I call for support, the poor techs are overwhelmed by the saga of the errant box which confronts them as soon as they open the file. Or boxes, because this is a replacement for one which was too flawed to fix. I have decided this one requires a diet of cards and other computer guts. It regularly fries and eats them. So I scrambled around for something to use in the interim. Managed to cobble together an old Packard Bell with a 14,400 modem, and it really isn't very much slower than the eBeast. Big, with an awkward housing that has to be accessed from three sides, but it works fine and has Windows 95. I really never wanted to give up Win95, and it makes the substitution easier to accept. It seems to me one must keep a stable of different computers in order to have any continuity.

Question: Is it risky to attach an enternal modem I have in order to boost the speed? How can I be sure what I can do and how to do it? Are there any special tips I need to know? Meiyu gave me this modem, but it didn't seem to work on my HP, so I think I missed a step. Okay, it's several questions, sorry.