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Hardware that allows computers to talk to
each other through normal telephone lines. It's usually how your
computer connects to the Internet.
A modem modulates outgoing
digital signals from a computer or other digital device to analog
signals for a conventional copper twisted pair telephone line and
demodulates the incoming analog signal and converts it to a digital
signal for the digital device.
In recent years, the 2400
bits per second modem that could carry e-mail has become obsolete.
14.4 Kbps and 28.8 Kbps modems were temporary landing places on the
way to the much higher bandwidth devices and carriers of tomorrow.
From early 1998, most new personal computers came with 56 Kbps
modems. By comparison, using a digital Integrated Services Digital
Network adapter instead of a conventional modem, the same telephone
wire can now carry up to 128 Kbps. With Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL) systems, now being deployed in a number of communities,
bandwidth on twisted-pair can be in the megabit range. |
