A modem is essential in order to connect to the Internet through your Internet Service Provider. Think of it as a telephone and your PC as you.

When your PC starts to log on to your ISP it must dial the telephone number.

Your PC sends the dial signals through the modem, which in turn go to your local telephone exchange.

The telephone connection is made with your ISP and it sends a signal back.

Your modem receives the signal and passes it to you PC. Your PC decodes it, recognises the connection has been made and logs on for you. The PC does the talking, just like you on the phone, and the modem does the sending.

The speed of communication depends on a few factors, among them the telephone lines and the modem type.

Modems have different speed ratings: the highest that can be used with an ordinary telephone line is 56k, (that's 56,000 bytes per second).

One byte is one character. Imagine you have typed a letter, each character and space on that page is a byte, so the rate of transfer is one whole page of text in less than a second.

Information supplied by www.ottimo.co.uk

November 30, 2001 14:31