Modem Drivers: Keeping You Connected

A modem, also called a modulator-demodulator, is a device used for networking. The modem supplies the interface between the network and the system, usually a PC. Most consumers have used telephone based modems, for dial up connections among other things, but they are not aware that the device used for cable or DSL Internet connections are also a modem.

The function of a modem is to provide communication both ways, allowing the modulation of an analog carrier signal to allow the encoding of digital information, as well as the demodulation of the analog carrier signal so the transmitted data can be decoded.

Many companies manufacture modems, including US Robotics,D-Link, and Motorola. Some external telephone modems are still available today, but most are extinct. USB modems have taken the place of telephone modems, but some laptop and desktop systems still have built in ports for external modems, but the popularity of high speed networking has made this unnecessary.

The First PC Modems

The first PC modems available were connected via the serial port, and were very slow, with speeds around seventy five bits per second usually. Many of the first models were acoustically coupled, which required the user to place the phone handset into a modem cradle. The cradle components included a microphone and speaker, and this is how audible signals were received and sent over a network. These modems had a limit of around twelve hundred bits per second, and were replaced in the early eighties by newer modems which were capable of c direct connection through the phone line using an RJ-11 jack.

As faster chips became available, modem speeds increased greatly. In the mid nineteen eighties, a record for the time of ninety six hundred bits per second was reached. Even faster speeds were reached with better error correction processes, like the Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) standards, and advanced data compression techniques. Compression Algorithms, like V.32, V.32bis, and V.42, finally allowed modem developers and manufacturers to reach connection speeds of 56k, but unfortunately the actual connection speeds were frequently limited due to noisy phone lines or bad connections. Modems are specifically designed to automatically connect at lower speeds if the modem can not connect at the maximum data rate. Older modems can still be found, but dial up modems are fast becoming obsolete, and the technology is out of date and no longer useful.

If your PC modem has a hardware controller, it may not need a modem driver to function correctly, and this is the case many times. The driver for these modems is actually flash firmware, which is contained in the modem itself, as an .inf file which tells the modem what to do and how to act.