Hang Ten!
Here in the
Sandbox the need for speed is most noticeable on the Internet. What’s
the difference between phone modems, cable modems, and satellite modems?
Phone Modems
Phone modems
are rated by speed. Mama’s first modem was 14.4Kb. Today modems go at
56Kb. That’s slow! The problem isn’t the hardware; it’s the phone lines.
Plain Jane phone lines can’t go any faster than 56 kilobytes. Actually,
the FCC limits the transfer rate to 53k. In comparison, Mama’s local
area network screams along at 100 Mbs. That’s 2000 times faster than the
Internet transfer rates! But, that’s life as we know it. Modem
manufacturers have improved performance by adding file compression and
other file transfer technologies. Still, it’s like sucking mashed
potatoes through a straw…An alternative to a regular phone line is an
ISDN line. ISDN is a bigger “pipeline” than a simple phone line..
Cable Modems
Cable Modems
use your cable service as the transport. With cable you can reach speeds
of 1 to 2Mbs, or about 1/100th of speed on your LAN. Cable modems
require a network card (NIC) and a Cable Modem. If you would like to
connect all of your computers to the Cable modem, you can use a network
hub.
