Multiple Modems & other aggravatin' Uninstall stallouts

[Mr.Fixit]

hi guys-
OK... I've got this old P-II box with W98 on it; and am having amnesia about some problems that are almost too embarassing to post.

One is that it already has a dial-up modem installed, and I can't remember if it is possible to install more than one modem card at once.

The reason is that the installed modem is a PC Tel HSP 56K that works. The modem I'd like to add is an ActionTec that is actually a Lucent hardware modem that is compatible with Linux (which is the reason I'm fooling around with this box at all.)
Normally I'd blunder ahead without advice, but this old machine is a Monorail handmedown for which almost no info is available if I screw up. (It has already flummoxed me with a soundcard issue- there is onboard sound on the mobo, but somebody in the past installed a Soundblaster card, but then removed it. I set up a new config in system without the card, disabled the software, everything I could think of, but the mobo stayed silent. Until I loaded a Knoppix LiveCD demo, which nicely blasted me with "System ready to launch!" )
But that's another story, my Q's right now are:

a. Can I slot two modems -one for Win to download Linux stuff until the other is working?

b. The Linux distro is a Live CD (Puppy) that autoconfigures most things and runs completely in RAM. It can be HD installed or even on a thumbdrive. When working with modems, would it be better to get all the settings figured before putting it on the HD, or after?

c. will I prob'ly have the same trouble uninstalling the old modem?

d. somebody somewhere said modems should go in slot 4- anybody else heard that?

e. are there any modem mis-match settings that could fry the cards?

[Google]