33. Modem

A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that you connect to your computer (if it doesn't have one built in) with a USB cable or a Ethernet cable. With the modem connected to your computer, you'll then connect it to your (TV) cable, a telephone pair, or a USB cable. This will tie your computer to a server belonging to your internet service provider, or ISP, so you can tie into the World Wide Web. If you connect to a phone line, it's not like dial up; you will still receive phone calls while being connected to the web. A device that converts data to a form that can be transmitted, as by telephone, to data-processing equipment where a similar device reconverts it

The most familiar example is a voice band modem that turns the digital 1s and 0s of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts those 1s and 0s back into a form used by a USB, Ethernet, serial, or network connection. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second, or "bps". They can also be classified by Baud, the number of times the modem changes its signal state per second.

Baud is not the modem's speed in bit/s, but in symbols/s. The baud rate varies, depending on the modulation technique used. Original Bell 103 modems used a modulation technique that saw a change in state 300 times per second. They transmitted 1 bit for every baud, and so a 300 bit/s modem was also a 300-baud modem. However, casual computerists confused the two. A 300 bit/s modem is the only modem whose bit rate matches the baud rate. A 2400 bit/s modem changes state 600 times per second, but due to the fact that it transmits 4 bits for each baud, 2400 bits are transmitted by 600 baud, or changes in states.

Here are more opinions and answers: A modem is a device that ''mo''dulates and ''dem''odulates data. In most cases, a modem connected to your computer exchanges information via your phone line or cable line with another modem connected to a server. Modems allow this connectivity by converting the binary data from your computer into anaolg signals, transmitting these signals through the line and then converting this analog data back into binary data for the server at the other end. A modem a device that accepts a serial stream of bits and produces a modulated carrier as output (or vice versa). A modem is a thing that connects your computer to internet.