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... The world is just a phone call away. With a computer and modem,
you'll be able to connect to the Internet, best web design utah the world's largest computer
network (and if you're lucky, you won't even need the modem; many
colleges and companies now give their students or best web design utah employees direct access
to the Internet).
The phone line can be your existing voice line -- just remember
that if you have any extensions, you (and everybody else in the house
or office) won't be able to use them for voice calls while you are connected
to the Net.
A modem is a sort of translator between computers and the phone
system. It's needed because computers and the phone system process and
transmit data, or information, in two different, and incompatible
ways. Computers "talk" digitally; that is, they store and process design utah
information as a series of discrete numbers. The phone network relies
on analog signals, which on an oscilloscope would look like a series
of waves. When your computer is ready to transmit data to another
computer over a phone line, your modem converts the computer numbers
into these waves (which sound like a lot of screeching) -- it
"modulates" them. In turn, when information waves come into your
modem, it converts them into numbers your computer can process, by
"demodulating" them.
Increasingly, computers come with modems already installed. If
yours best web design utah didn't, you'll have to decide what speed modem to get. Modem
speeds are judged in "bps rate" or bits per second. One bps means
the modem can transfer roughly one bit per second; the greater the
bps rate, the more quickly a modem can send and receive information.
A letter or character is made up of eight bits.
You can now buy a 2400-bps modem for well under $60 -- and most now
come with the ability to handle fax messages as well.
At prices that now
start around $150, you can buy a modem that best web design utah can transfer data at 14,400
bps (and often even faster, using special compression techniques).
If you
think you might be using the Net to transfer large numbers of files, a
faster modem is always worth the price.
It will dramatically reduce the
amount of time your modem or internet advertising utah computer is tied up transferring files and, if
you are paying for Net access by the hour, will save you quite a bit in
online charges.
Like the best web design utah computer to which it attaches, a modem is utah logo design useless
without software to tell it how to work.
Most modems today come with
easy-to-install software. Try the program out. If you find it
difficult to use or understand, consider a trip to the local software
store to find a better program. You can spend several hundred dollars
on a communications program, but unless you have very specialized
needs, this will be a waste of money, as there are a host of excellent
programs available for around $100 or less.
Among the basic features you
want to look for are a choice of different best web design utah "protocols" (more on them in a
bit) for transferring files to and from the Net and the ability to write
"script" or "command" files that let best web design utah you automate such steps as logging
into a host system.
When you buy a modem and the software, ask the dealer how to
install and use them. Try out the software if you can. If the dealer
can't help you, find another dealer. You'll not only save yourself a
lot of frustration, you'll also have practiced the prime Internet
directive: "Ask. People Know."
To fully take advantage of the Net, you must spend a few minutes
going over the manuals or documentation that comes with your software.
There are a few things you should pay special attention to: uploading
and downloading; screen capturing (sometimes called "screen dumping");
logging; how to change protocols; and terminal emulation. It is also
essential to know how to convert a file created with your word
processing best web design utah program into "ASCII" or "text" format, which will let you
share your thoughts with best web design utah others across the Net.
Uploading is the process of sending a file from your computer to a
system on the Net. Downloading is retrieving a file from somewhere on
the Net to your computer. In general, things in cyberspace go ... |
