Broadband internet technology can be a confusing world if you don’t know your
megabytes from your download caps. Choosing the right package however, is only
half the battle as you’ll also need to equip yourself with the right broadband
hardware.
Hardware is the term used for the physical aspects of a computer – such as
keyboards, monitors, etc. The emergence of broadband however, introduced many
new items into the computing sector, from modems to routers. However, do you
really know how these pieces of technology work, what their purpose is and how
to choose one from another? This guide to broadband hardware should put you
on track.
What is a modem and how does it work?
Without the introduction of modems, the world would simply be a different
place – for it is a modem that offers us to access the internet.
The term modem is actually a contraction of the words ‘modulator-demodulator’ –
it modulates an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information and
demodulates the signal to decode the information. In its modern form, wireless
modems, which are examined in
part three
of this guide, convert digital data into radio signals and back.
Modems came into existence in the 1960s as a way for terminals to connect to
computers over phone lines. They were first popularised however, in the 1970s
when bulletin board systems (BBS) became the rage. This would see one person
set up a computer along with one or more modems, while other users would dial
in to connect to the board. In many respects, this was the prerequisite for
instant messaging.
Originally modems had speeds of around 300bps and this was maintained until
1983 when 1200bps modems were introduced. Gradually over the next two decades,
modem capacities and speeds were increased and by 1998 56kbps became the standard.
Up until this point, modems had relied on a system called frequency shift keying
in order to transmit information over a telephone line. However, to take the
technology to a new level, new techniques were required and designers used systems
such as phase-shift keying to cram information on to the bandwidth of a phone line.
However, the limit to this technology was the 56k modem.
As a result new systems needed to be found, and in 1999 modems were taken to
new levels as ADSL modems emerged with theoretical speeds of up to 8Mb.
Guide to ADSL and cable broadband – Part 2>>>
