How High Speed Internet Works

By Baxter Owens

When the internet was first made available to the common man, the data transfer speeds were not so high. Even a number of years after introduction, the internet was generally availed of by users through the plain old telephone cables using a dial up connection. The modems during those days were different and the connections were very slow because of the inherent signal carrying capabilities of the copper cables.

One more problem during those days that led to data loss or even loss of connection was of the data signals of the internet clashing with the voice signals of the telephone they used to create problems for each other. Apart from this one could not use the telephone and the internet simultaneously. With advances in the principles of modem technology and the advent of modern technology these problems were circumvented, as we shall soon find out.

A measly 56kbps was the highest speeds available during those days. One can find connections where the transfer rate is as high as 1gbps in an era where one generally accepts speeds slower than 1mbps as very slow. The high speed internet connection that we are accustomed to nowadays comes to us through a separate cable by our internet service provider or through the cable through which we receive our TV signals.

This technology is called DSL or direct subscriber line. For making the DSL system work, the subscriber needs to have an ethernet card on their PC and they also need to install a DSL modem. DSL technology allows subscribers to receive and send data and also browse the internet at high speeds over the plain old telephone line. Nowadays the data signals of the internet are transmitted on a different frequency and the voice signal of the telephone is transmitted on yet another frequency.

The splitter at the user's end splits the incoming signals into two parts and sends the data signals to the computer and the voice signals to the telephone. The high speed internet employs a different type of modem. One should also know that there are two different technologies employed by high speed internet. They are known as SDSL (symmetric digital subscriber line) and ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line). Whereas the upload speed of the latter is lower than the download speed, the former provides both upload and download at equal speeds.

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