Trying to describe the connection speed of dial-up is difficult. You're using 56K modems, but it's not really 56 kilobits per second. Here's an in-depth explanation of dial-up speeds and what they can accomplish.

Basic Web Surfing. Most webpages will load with dial-up. How long it will take depends on almost a dozen factors. For example, in the last ten years, many more websites are using multimedia technology (videos, music, animations) that are difficult to load on even the best dial-up connection. However, compression technology and other techniques in graphic and web design are improving, making webpages easier to load than before. Some websites have a simple layout view that you can choose if you are on a dial-up connection. Many website will load the prominent features first, then all the pictures and backgrounds. If you see the link or form you were looking for, you don't have to wait for the entire page to load to click or type on it.

Many Internet services, software programs, and browsers that offer tools to help you load webpages faster. You can probably use a combination of these three that will work best for you. These will not change your actual connection speed (measured in kilobits per second, or kbps), but compress webpages or use different loading techniques.

Most dial-up connection speeds are about 28-50 kbps. If your connection is less than 28, you may need to check with your ISP, phone company, and local computer technician for ways to improve your connection, if possible. Assuming you have a typical connection, here are likely loading times for three websites, without acceleration:

• Google.com-On a dial up connection, this page should load in about 5-7 seconds.

• Yahoo.com-This page is much busier, so it would take 35-45 seconds on dial-up. Keep in mind, however, you can begin searches and click on links as soon as they appear, so you rarely need to wait for the entire page to load.

• CNN.com-This site is heavy with text, headings, and images. Using a dial up connection, the home page should load in about 3 minutes.

Downloads. The difference in connection speeds are most visible for downloads. Accelerators can't change download speeds and, on dial-up, every kilobit counts. Smaller downloads (about 1-10 MB) are usually not a problem. If you download a 3 MB song, for example, on a 50 kbps dial-up connection, it take about 8-10 minutes, or 15-20 minutes on a 28 kbps connection.

Firefox 3.5 is the latest version of Mozilla's free browser. It is 7.6 MB, which would take just over 20 minutes on a faster dial-up connection, or about 45 minutes on a slower. If you get disconnected occasionally because of line noise, etc., you may need to make several attempts to download programs that are longer than 2 hours.

Large downloads, like an anti-virus program or major software upgrades are sometimes not possible with dial-up because most dial-up providers have automatic disconnect at 4 hours. The free version of AVG 8.5, for instance, is 63.1 MB. On a good dial-up connection, that would take over 3 hours; on a 28 kbps connection, nearly 6 hours. A download larger than 40 MB would probably not ever download on a 28 kbps connection. You can often download large programs like these to another computer (like the library or your laptop on a public wireless connection) and transfer the installation file to your computer later. Read more about ways to improve your downloads on dial-up or how to calculate download times.

Video/Audio Streaming. Live streaming, like a radio station's website, YouTube, and many interactive multimedia sites are not going to work on dial-up. In some cases, you can play a short video or audio clip if you wait an hour or more to load it. If you need to attend live web seminars or classes, or want to play online games, movies, or music in real time, dial-up will simply not be satisfactory. However, if you need an Internet connection to surf the web, check your email, play small flash games, and pay bills, dial-up will be fine. The money you'll save might make waiting a little easier.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

If you're stuck on dial-up, you probably are open to anything to make it go a little faster. More and more websites now play colorful flash programs and stream audio and video clips that are sometimes impossible for dial-up to load—or at least not any time soon. Here are a few things that may help you maximize your online experience.

Minimize surfing. Keep your browsing to one, maybe two windows at a time. While your email homepage is loading, you can log into your bank account or read a news article. Depending on what you are trying to do, one window may work better. Close any tabs and pages that you are not using to avoid using any unnecessary bandwidth.

Use shortcuts. Create favorites or bookmarks of the pages you visit frequently to minimize extra clicks and load times. Some welcome screens and advertisements give you a "skip" or "close" link so you don't have to sit through it every time. Click the stop button at the top of the browser if don't need the whole page. If you see the link of the page you want, you don't need the rest of the website to load before clicking the link.

Manage necessary updates. Your anti-virus or Window's updates programs will automatically download updates as soon as you connect to the Internet everyday—unless you have changed the settings. Schedule updates at a time that you aren't trying to view web pages, or connect to the Internet half an hour before you are ready to start using it to give the updates a chance to finish.

Eliminate unneeded processes. Some programs like Windows Messenger or a weather forecaster are often set to automatically connect every time you go online. You can change the options in these programs not to start until you prompt them to connect to avoid using bandwidth to start programs you won't be using.

Download later. When you're checking your email, you don't want to compete with the bandwidth it takes to download a program or large update. Save the file to a location you will be able to find later. Let large downloads run overnight or when you're away from home, then install them later. If possible, save large downloads to a flash drive or directly to your laptop while you're at the library or a coffee shop with free wireless service. This will take much less time and can be transferred to your home computer later. Read more about ways to improve downloading on dial-up.

Clear browser data. For every web page you open, your Internet browser saves files, cookies, history, etc. These enable you to click on the forward and back button, or save data you enter on a form or log-in page. Eventually, your browser can get bogged down with all that saved information. You should clear your stored files, cookies, and history every six weeks or months, depending on how much you surf on a daily basis. If you use Internet Explorer, click Tools, then Internet Options. You will see the options to delete stored data here. If you are using Firefox, click Tools, then Clear Private Data.

Try a new browser. If you are like the majority of Internet users, you probably surf the web with Internet Explorer. There are many other browsers to choose from. Most of them free to download and are compatible with most websites. Each browser has different compression and page loading technology that may be faster for you. Some browsers come with accelerators and other features that would be helpful to you. The three most popular browsers next to IE are Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Opera. Each of these are free downloads and their website has helpful information to get the most out of them.

There are other changes to your computer and hardware that can improve your connection speed. Check with your local computer technician for ways to get the computer itself to run faster or call your ISP provider for suggestions, equipment, or upgrades that can affect your surfing speed.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

If you are considering signing up for DSL, you may wonder how DSL compares to dial-up. In this comparison, we will compare dial-up with ADSL, the most common DSL service that connects through a telephone line.

Dial-up and DSL both transmit information through your copper phone wires, but the process is different. A dial-up modem converts the analog signal on your phone line into digital information your computer can translate. Your ISP's modem must convert from digital to analog so it can travel on the phone lines. DSL uses the same lines, but bypasses the digital-analog-digital conversion. This means data can travel faster and the analog phone line can still be used while your connected to the Internet.

The total monthly price for dial-up is about $7-20 dollars a month, and installation is usually free. In some cases, the dial-up modem is not functioning or not automatically installed on the computer, so you would need to buy $20-40 modem. DSL's monthly rate can be anywhere from $15-100 a month, depending on the speed desired and the location of the consumer. More equipment is necessary for DSL and the installation is more complicated, so you can expect about $50 in start-up fees.

Dial-up exceeds DSL in transportability and availability. Dial-up service is available to any computer and any land line phone, which means you can take dial-up with you if you travel or move. Since DSL is strictly available to homes within a certain distance from the phone company's central office, rural areas can rarely be served. Many times several hundred feet determines whether or not DSL is available.

Furthermore, many phone companies do not allow other DSL companies to provide service on their customer's lines. This monopoly can increase the price of DSL, or keep DSL from being available without changing phone companies. When signing up for another company's DSL is possible, further complications can occur when activation and technical support is necessary.

A DSL set-up process takes at least several days and sometimes as much as two weeks, due to the changes to your phone line and the equipment shipping and set up time. Dial-up has a very simple to set up because the phone company does not need to be involved, and no major changes or expensive equipment is necessary. All you need is one phone cord and your existing phone jack and computer. Unless you have to wait for a setup CD to be mailed to you (which is often not necessary), you can be connected within half an hour of signing up. Of course, this means you can also change your connection set up or set up multiple connections with little effort.

DSL is a constant connection with high-speeds compatible with online games, downloads, and videos, but the price, availability, and setup procedure may be critically deterring factors. Dial-up is a simple, available, and cost effective option for many basic online uses, but will not keep up with some high-speed activities.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

Having Internet service in the home is becoming more necessary than ever before, but proves difficult for many rural and low income families. Dial-up internet may be your sole solution to get that much needed Internet service. Whether you’re preparing to connect for the first time, or connecting in a new home, some preparation is necessary to ensure that you will be able to use dial-up. You may want to cover all these checkpoints before signing up with the ISP.

1. Your phone line. You must have an analog landline telephone service to have a dial-up connection—not just a phone jack, or a digital VoIP phone, or even a cable-provisioned phone. Dial-up modems will not connect if they do not detect an analog dial-tone. Your cell phone may have a dial-up modem that can be used with dial-up. Check with your phone provider if you are not sure of these details.

2. Your dial-up modem. Most computers have dial-up modems already included, but some computers are now available without dial-up modems. For your desktop computer, check your tower for a phone port (laptops would have a phone jack along the back or sides). It should look just like the phone jack in the wall and may be labeled with the picture of a phone jack or the word “line”. The dial-up modem phone port is not the same as the Ethernet port, which is slightly larger and used for broadband cables. If you don't have the phone port, you don't have a modem. You will have to buy an external modem, with you can usually find online or in a computer or department store.

3. Your dial-up features. You need to have call waiting on your phone service if you want to be notified of incoming calls while you are online. You also need a V.92 modem—the latest standard for dial-up modems. Caller ID is not necessary, but beneficial if you want to determine if it is worth disconnecting from the Internet to take the call. To check what type of modem you have on your computer, check the phone and modem options on your control panel, refer to the computer/modem manual, or check with a local technician. All new modems come with the V.92 features.

4. Your access numbers. Check with your potential ISP for an access number for your area. Ask for several numbers if they have them and call your phone company to verify that these numbers will not incur any charges on your phone bill. Even if you have unlimited long distance, you should try to obtain the nearest number possible to keep a better connection. Your long distance phone company may have a policy for using data transfer numbers excessively, so check with them anyway.

5. Your total expenses. There are variety of ISP’s available to choose from, so do a little research. Do they have contracts or hidden fees? What are the payment methods? What do the plans and prices cover, and do the prices change over time? While a cheap price is appealing, you don't want to sacrifice quality. However, be on guard for additional “features” that are not worth the extra cost. Clarify the signup, billing, and cancellation procedure to avoid unseen fees and complications. Is there a satisfaction guarantee? There are many ISP’s wanting your business and offering great prices. Once you have chosen your ISP, look for a first time customer discount and save more money!

Now that you are prepared for dial-up Internet, you can connect quickly and avoid some “first-timer” complications.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

Have you ever tried to get help over the phone and waited for hours, just to talk to someone who is poorly trained and is difficult to understand? Are you paying more than $15 for dial-up? Have you been misinformed about hidden fees, contractual agreements, or found cancellation nearly impossible? It sounds like you know a few things about what makes a poor quality dial-up service.

Finding the best ISP can be difficult. If you were to make a list of who provides dial-up Internet, you would probably include AOL, Earthlink, and Netzero. While these companies have become brand names in the dial-up world, they are among hundreds, maybe thousands of dial-up Internet services available. It would be easy to sign up with these well-known companies or the first dial-up service you find in your area, but you could be making a mistake.

Most of the prominent dial-up companies have outsourced their customer service and technical support call centers in order to save money and avoid the hassle of hiring and training their own employees. This only causes never-ending issues with customers and is one of the top reasons customers are not satisfied with their ISP. Some companies require you to sign a contract or charge fees for technical support or cancellation. Multiple factors will affect your Internet service satisfaction, and just because everyone knows who Netzero is doesn't mean they are the best.

You may be surprised what a smaller company has to offer. They might not have been around since the beginning of dial-up, but they probably understand a few things that you want and need. They are concerned about making and keeping great relationships with their customers, not just making money or trying to convince you to switch to broadband. Finding the best dial-up company for your needs will take a little research.

Fortunately, some of this research has already been done. Several websites list the top dial-up providers, based on factors that you would want to know. These sites list less-known ISP's who invest more time to make a more quality experience for you. These three websites are a great place to start:

• ISPCompared.com

• Cheap56K.com

• TheISPGuide.com

There are many comparison websites, but these sites listed above have the widest selection, updated information, and simple navigation.

You will see the basics about each listed company, including the price, ratings, features, and special offers. You will also see written reviews, which can be helpful in narrowing down your options. Keep in mind that single, highly negative reviews could be an isolated situation that does not reflect the opinions of the average user.

Many dial-up companies offer a first-time customer discount. These review websites often directly link to that site's promotional web page, and includes the discount offer. Why not save money where you can?

Choosing the best ISP could be a process of trial and error. These three websites will help make your first choice the right one. You may also find some general information about dial-up and Internet services that will further aid your online experience.

Many companies sell dial-up, and just because everyone you know uses Earthlink, or you had AOL growing up doesn't mean you have to be one of their customers too. Take advantage of a competitive market and find the service that is right for you.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

The dial-up market declines as the broadband Internet services become more widely available at lower rates. Broadband offers faster downloads and web-surfing, flawless video and audio streaming. Dial-up, although it cannot compare in speed to broadband, is still being used by millions, and far from becoming obsolete. Here are a few reasons why dial-up isn’t going away any time soon.

Many people have no choice but dial-up. In the larger cities and other more populated areas in the U.S., wireless, dsl, and cable are becoming more prevalent each day. However, many thousands of rural homes are yet to gain access to most or all types of broadband internet. The majority of them have the choice between a very expensive and potentially unreliable satellite, or slow, but cheap dial-up. Unless these people are using their home internet for business purposes, satellite is hardly worth the expense.

Dial-up is simple to set up. Setting up a dial-up connection takes a matter of minutes. Any computer that has a dial-up modem can be set up with a phone cord to any analog phone line. Finding a dial-up provider is easy, and most of them provide an inexpensive service the same day, unlike many broadband services that require contracts, shipping of expensive equipment, and complicated set up processes.

Some people have minimal surfing habits. Live video and audio streaming is usually not possible without broadband, but reading news, emailing, and banking are certainly no problem for dial-up. Some people, especially in the older generations, do not spend much time online and only need it for a few necessities. Many of these people grew up with dial-up and simply don’t want to change. Since dial-up is often much less expensive, it makes an appealing offer.

Broadband is often available at work. Some people have internet access all day at work and therefore don't use it enough at home to justify paying large amounts of money on broadband. Therefore, dial-up is a back up solution for occasional use.

Dial-up can be improved. The two biggest complaints about dial-up is that it is too slow and ties up the phone line. There are several solutions for slow speeds, like accelerators, different browsers, and other software to help speed up your browsing or downloading. Internet call waiting is now available on most (V.92 standard) modems, and alerts the user of an incoming call while connected.

Dial-up travels. Anyone can establish a dial-up connection at a vacation home, business trip, or hotel in minutes. In comparison, moving even to the other end of the house can be a challenge with all the wires, and equipment required for broadband Internet. With the service being provisioned directly on-site, a dsl, satellite, or cable connection is restricted only to that home. A dial-up customer simply changes their access number if they move to a new home (assuming they move some distance). A broadband customer would have to reinstall all their equipment, and often reorder the service even if they had to relocate several blocks away!

Until broadband becomes more broadly available, or available at less expensive rates, dial-up will continue to meet the needs of those who simply don't have another choice or wish to save money.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

A common misconception among dial-up users is that some ISP's can provide a faster dial-up service than others. This is rarely true. Dial-up connection speeds are often affected by local issues, such as your land line, modem, and telephone service.

Therefore, choosing a dial up provider is important not because one is necessarily faster than another, but because of the quality of customer service, details in payments and fees, and other important factors. The following are 7 areas that will help you pick the ISP that best suits your needs.

• Rankings and promotions. There are many websites who categorize Internet services based on the service quality of various dial-up providers. Search for companies that show up in the top five of several ISP comparison websites. Also, these sites will often link to the ISP’s current promotion specials. Why not get a discount if while you're at it?

• Access numbers. You should check to make sure there is at least one (preferably several) local access numbers. Most ISP’s have a large variety of access numbers to choose from, but just like telephone numbers, if they are not local, you have to pay to use them. The telephone company can verify whether or not an access number would incur any charges.

• Promotions, fees, and contracts. These factors affect how much you will pay in the long run. If you don't ask all the questions upfront, a rise in costs or late fee can come as an unwelcome surprise later. Is the advertised price what you will actually pay? Does the price go up after some time?

• Terms of service. Some of the legal jargon will rarely apply to the average user, but many companies list grounds for termination or limitation of services, or reserve the right to monitor their customer's online activities, etc., in their terms of service. Even if you don't read them, you are still agreeing to them by signing up for service.

• Software requirements. Some ISP’s require that you use their software to connect to the Internet. This is not necessary. Proprietary software is convenient, but it is often bombarded with advertisements or not work at all on your computer if you are using an old or less prevalent operating system. These programs can also slow or corrupt your computer, even after the service has been canceled. You may want to find an ISP that does not require connection software for these reasons. Some software is necessary if you want extras, like accelerators and internet call waiting programs. However, these programs could conflict with software already installed or have system requirements not compatible with your setup. You may want to discuss these issues with your ISP before you download their software.

• Customer service and technical support. Is tech support free? Is it by phone or email? What hours is it available? Where are the calls directed? Many prominent ISP's like AOL and Earthlink outsource their call centers outside the U.S. to save money. This results in poorly trained agents with scripted and impersonal communication. Essentially, these call centers are a waste of time for complicated tech support issues.

• Cancellations. Most companies have a specific method of canceling. If you don't follow that procedure, you probably haven't actually canceled your service. Find out how about the company's cancellation procedure, requirements for refunds, or possible cancellation fees before you agree to sign up.

Once you find a company fits your preferences and you have asked all the questions described above, you will have a satisfactory service and avoid some common frustrations that could arise in the future.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

Email clients, like Outlook Express, can be helpful, quick, and easy, but they can also cause problems or be unsuitable for your needs. Here are a few reasons why you may prefer using an email client:

The Pros

Email clients limits your online time. An email client is beneficial to get what you need and disconnect from the Internet more quickly. You can quickly download new messages and send composed messages, usually in a few minutes. The messages are then available offline to read at your leisure, compose replies to them, organize in folders, or delete. This is especially appealing to dial-up users who don't want to tie up the phone line.

Email clients avoid disconnect issues. If you check messages on your server's website, you have to be online to open, read, compose, delete, and organize emails. On a dial-up connection, you could get disconnected for reaching a session or idle time limit. Furthermore, your modem could suddenly drop the connection from line noise or other problems. This would cause the email you just composed to be lost. On an email client, everything is saved on your computer, so you won't lose anything by getting disconnected.

Email clients save your contacts. Your email client saves your contacts to your computer instead of the server who provides your email. If you use your provider's website for email, you will immediately lose emails and contacts if you switch providers or your account is otherwise lost or terminated.

Email clients are especially helpful if you don't have a constant connection, or if you work on only one computer. Here are a few reasons why people prefer mail websites or can't use email clients:

The Cons

Email clients have problems downloading large emails. A picture or attachment greatly increases an email's size. Downloading these messages takes much longer, and could result in a timeout error. This means that one large email can prevent all the other emails from loading. Checking messages directly from a website allows you to view emails without downloading all of them first. You can view all your messages, then download the attachments at any time.

Email clients are restricted to one computer. If you use a more than one computer to check and compose messages, email clients are a hassle. For example, if you want to access your email from work, you will not have access to everything saved on the email client at home—contacts, folders, drafts, or previously downloaded messages. If you download new messages to an email client at work, they will be completely inaccessible to your home computer. Suppose to avoid this, you specify to download only a copy of your new messages, so you can download them to both computers. Then you have to access the website anyway to delete the messages to avoid filling your server inbox with read messages.

Email clients can have connection and security issues. A simple set up error could prevent downloads. You will get a connection error if use the wrong server addresses, connection settings, and port settings. If you switch connections, you would have to change your settings again. Your antivirus program may block your email client from receiving messages for no apparent reason. Also, all messages flagged as spam by your email provider will not download to your client, so you could be missing an email because it was mistakenly labeled as spam by your email server. These issues would all be avoided by directly accessing your email online.

If you prefer to use email clients and you get an error sending or recieving messages, be sure you are connected and able to view webpages. You may need to contact your ISP to make sure you have the correct settings and check for large incoming messages.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

An email client is a program on your computer that aides you in handling your email. The email client connects to the Internet, logs into your email provider's site, and downloads your email for you to read, reply to, store, or delete. You also have options to save contacts, and set up folders of saved emails to keep them organized. Email clients have multiple preferences and settings, like the following:

• Specify how often you want to check for new messages

• Set up multiple email accounts, the download from one or all of them

• Adjust how long to keep trying to download before a timeout message appears

Email clients typically download emails using two types of incoming servers. POP3 is the most typical server type. POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and 3 is the latest version used. Typically a POP server will connect, download all your messages one at a time, delete all the messages from the server, and disconnect. If you set up folders and organize messages and contacts using a POP3 server, these changes do not affect your mail server settings.

The other incoming server type is IMAP, Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP downloads a copy of the messages from your server, and changes you make to them and your folders will be applied to the server settings. Essentially, you are interacting directly with your server, but also have the option of reading and composing emails offline. This protocol is usually available on most email clients, but not very many mail servers support it.

Outlook Express is the most popular email client, because it is automatically included in Windows computers. To set up your email account in Outlook Express:

1. Click Tools at the top of the page.

2. Click Accounts.

3. On the right side of the window, select Add > Mail...

4. The first field asks you to enter your name or whatever you want others to see when they receive an email from you. Typically, you would enter your name or your email address, but a nickname or other title would work as well, e.g., “Grandma Betty” or “Mr. Ransom”.

5. Click Next.

6. Type your email address.

7. Click Next.

8. Choose your incoming server type (usually POP3) and enter the incoming and outgoing mail server addresses. You can usually find these online or by calling your mail provider. They must be correct or you will not receive mail.

9. Click Next.

10. Your account name should already be filled in automatically. Type your password if you want it to be saved on your computer.

11. Click Next.

12. Click Finish.

Your ISP or mail provider should have step by step instructions similar to these on their website. There may be additional settings that you have to change from your mail account properties in order to send and receive messages. If you have Window's Vista, the Outlook Express program is called Window's Mail, and the setup process is very similar.

There are other email clients that you can use. Microsoft Outlook very similar to Outlook Express. It has a more professional layout and has options like a calendar and task list, which makes it ideal for business and professional use.

Other popular mail clients, most of which are free to download, include Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird 2 allows you to tag messages with different colors for easy organization and features a find bar to search for keywords in old messages quickly.

IncrediMail is a fun multimedia favorite with emoticons, 3D effects, and sound effects to accompany your email handling and sending. Starfish Family Mail features multiple ways to keep emailing safe for kids and is easy to use. Eudora is popular for its handling of spam. Pegasus Mail is a stable and secure email client. You can search online for many more popular email clients and comparisons of them to find one that meets your needs.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles! 

A dial-up modem is an electronic device that converts, sends, and receives packets of information over an analog telephone line. The word “modem” is an abbreviation of modulator/demodulator. This describes the process of converting data from digital to analog (uploading information), then from analog to digital (downloading information).

Uploading includes clicking on links, saving new content to web documents, and sending emails. Your modem converts these digital commands to analog frequencies that can be transported over the copper telephone wires. Downloading is anything that you receive from the Internet, like webpages, email messages, updates, and software programs. Your modem translates frequencies sent by your ISP's modem to bytes of data your computer can interpret.

When you initiate a dial-up connection on your computer, you are prompting your modem to attempt to reach and communicate with a remote computer, or your ISP's modem. Your modem places a call based on the access number you have selected, or that has been preselected by your ISP's software. The call is dispatched through your local telephone company to the ISP's modem.

When the ISP's modem is reached, the two modems send and receive test packets of information to negotiate on a connection speed that will be optimal and functional for accurate communication. The following factors effect the connection speed that will be possible:

• the quality/type of modem you have (e.g., what compression technology it has)

• the amount of line noise on the phone lines that could inhibit communication

• the distance to the telephone company's central office that the signal has to travel.

If the packets are sent too quickly, the information can get lost or jumbled, so a slower connection could be faster in the long run.

Your connection is then established, or allowed, providing your username and password is verified as an active account with the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your modem can adjust its speed while you are connected to accommodate increased line noise, etc. When you choose to disconnect, the modem drops the call and the connection is terminated.

Dial-up modems have come a long way from its earliest models. Only a few decades ago, modems were sending individual bytes of data at a time. Modems now send packets of information at a rate of approximately 56 kilobits per second, hence, the 56K modem, introduced in 1996.

Several versions of the 56K modem have since been developed. The V.90 standard, broadly accepted by 1998, had the compression technology of K56Flex and X2 modems, created by competing modem companies. Both produced a download speed as high as 56 kbps and an upload speed of 33.6 kbps, but they were not compatible with all phone companies and dial-up providers. V.90 resolved these compatibility issues and became the internationally accepted modem standard.

In 2004, the V.92 modem standard was introduced to consumers, and is still the latest standard available today. V.92 connects faster and uploads as fast as 48 kbps. It also introduced Internet Call Waiting, alerting users of incoming calls while connected, and Modem On Hold, placing the Internet connection on hold for several minutes while taking an a call on the same telephone line.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!