What does Modem Stand For

I always find ‘modem’ as a word that has been intelligently carved out of the words ‘modulator’ and ‘demodulator’. Technically speaking, a modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information and demodulates it to decode information. It is commonly used for Internet access.

How does a modem work?

When a modem starts making a connection, the sounds that you hear from the modem are digital sounds that are being modulated into audible signals. Modems use different pitched tones to represent 1s and 0s. The sounds thus produced can be transmitted over telephone lines. When the computer you are connecting to, receives these signals, they are demodulated back to digital signals, which is a form used by the network connection.

Modems may implement checksums, which allow the computers communicating over a network to check data integrity. The modems can resend missing data segments, if they find a loss of integrity in the data being transmitted over the network. Some modems also employ compression strategies to increase their capacity of data transmission. Sometimes, modems have to use their buffers to hold data, while it is being compressed before transmission. At times, the computer is instructed to pause data transmission. How to know your connection speed? To find out how, read about the Internet connection speed test.

Different types of modems

Cable modems and ADSL modems are examples of faster modems in use today. Cable modems use the cable TV infrastructure to provide users with an access to digital signals. It harnesses the high bandwidth of cable television networks. Read about finding the best cable modem.

ADSL modems connect computers or routers to a DSL phone line. Some DSL modems allow the sharing of ADSL service between a group of computers. For a comparative study of DSL and cable modems, read about choosing the best Internet service.

Satellite modems use communication satellites as relays to bring about data transfers. These modems convert bit streams into radio signals. They provide Internet users with a satellite Internet access.

Wireless modems have revolutionized Internet access as they can offer Internet connectivity with the use of the very ubiquitous mobile phones. Mobile phones serve as gateways between the service provider and computers. Find information about the wireless Internet access.

For information on the different types of Internet access, browse broadband Internet and dial up Internet access. You may also like to go through information on high speed Internet.