noobie looking for help

hey guys. i have been working with vb.net for a few months (mostly creating db programs, games, etc). i feel im rather comfortable to move on to something a bit more challenging. i want to start learning how to work with hardware peripheral hardware. in particular i want to start programing for working with a usb modem. i figure i will need to learn about connecting to usb comports and the commands the modem uses and receives.
can anyone pointe me in the direction of a good tutorial. also, what documentation would i ask the company to provide me so i can develop a program using their hardware (do they even do that or is it proprietary?).
any help would be great.

thanks

jason

You might find some samples upon either codeproject.com or planetsourcecode.com. Failing that try search engines for something like this:
"dot net" and "baud rate"
That might help to get you started :)

for modems google

AT modem command reference

Modems can be easy, and they can be hard, depends on what you want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem