But if you're curious, or have friends or family who need help, print this article and send it to them. To connect online your computer must be equipped with a modem , a device that translates the digital signals from your computer into analog signals that travel over a standard phone line. Those are the scratchy sounds you hear from a modem's speaker. Believe it or not, there is actually meaning in all that noise. A modem on the other end of the line understands it and converts the sounds back into digital information.
Modems come in different speeds and are measured in bps or bits per second .
A 28.8 Kbps modem transmits data at speeds up to 28,800 bits per second. A 56 Kbps modem is twice as fast, sending and receiving data at a rate of up to 56,000 bits per second. Most modems today are 56 Kbps. On the Internet, you are constantly exchanging data with other computers. Some of these digital files can be quite large, especially for audio and video clips.