Sprezzatura FAQ Pages

A modem is a piece of equipment that allows two computers to talk to each other over a phone line. They can be inside the computer (internal) or outside them computer (external).

Computers deal with everything in a language called binary - a digital language. Telephones deal with everything as sound in a process called analogue. To talk across a phone line then, the digital information needs to be put through a techncal process called MOdulation to turn it into analogue and then at the other end turned back into digital from analogue by a process known as DEModulation. Hence MODEM - clever huh?

Jargon busters!

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