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Using Your Modem
This chapter highlights some of the basic functions and
commands necessary to operate your modem. Whether you
consider yourself a novice or an experienced user in data
communications, you may want to read through some of the
examples to become familiar with your modem's operation. For
information on more advanced concepts such as altering data
rates, error correction, data compression, and flow control, see
Appendix D, Advanced Modem Concepts .
What is a Modem?
A modem is simply a device that facilitates the movement of
information back and forth from one computer to another using a
regular telephone line as a transmission path. Picture the
modem as a telephone for computers in that it performs many of
the telephone functions you are familiar with, such as dialing,
answering and disconnecting a call. However, to do this for
computers your modem must go one step further.
A modem translates the way a computer communicates, using
digital signals, into a format acceptable for transmission over a
telephone line, which uses analog signals. Once information is
sent from your modem across the telephone line to another
modem, the analog signal is converted back into a digital signal
so that the receiving computer can use it. This process of
modulating (converting) and demodulating (detecting) a signal
gives us the acronym, modem (see Figure 3-1).
Issue 1 November 1994
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3-1
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