In message <m0tcHe5-000D2tC@mail>, Rick Byers writes:
>Hi,  sorry if this is really basic, but I'm having some troubles getting netbs
>d
>to access my modem.  It's on com3 IRQ 5.  I can't access it at all.

You need to tell NetBSD that it's a local device.
put clocal in /etc/ttyflags or read the FAQ for how to do it from the cmd ln
I got bit by that too, and I've been doing *BSD for years :)