Net technical support handles hundreds of support requests every day. These are also the two most common modems shipped with new PC's.
All modems contain two main parts, a controller and a datapump .
The controller includes the command set used to configure and then dial the modem, plus the routines for error checking and data compression. The datapump handles the actual sending and receiving of data. As recently as two years ago, most controllers and datapumps were built with dedicated hardware chips, and we refer to modems with these designs as hardware-based modems . Since then, fast computer processors have become the norm and manufacturers have created modem chips that offload some or all of this work onto the processor. Both the USR Winmodem and modems with a Rockwell HCF chip are called winmodems or controllerless modems , because their hardware controller has been replaced with a Windows-based software driver.