Is there a modem you recommend?

Nope, they aren't modems.  A modem is a modulator and demodulator that converts digital into analog and then back again.  With cable and DSL its all digital -- the term "modem" is just a holdover. 

Ah...

Fond memories of my old Hayes 300 baud (don't LAUGH) MODEM at school, dialing in via my DEC Rainbow 100 microcomputer to the Manafacturing departments PDP-11/44.

Don't forget, use the line editor only!

No full-screen editing.

It uses up too much System Resources...

Mouse?

There weren't no "mouse".

Characters!

Man...

Characters.

back in those days at 300 Baud, you could see incoming text scroll acroos the screen and read it like a ticker. I had my 300 Baud baud in 1987. Was on my Tandy SX1000, as I remember, but I could be wrong on that old 8088 (or was in an 8086?)

They had BOTH chips.

As I recall...

The 8088 was a true 8-bit (LOL!) processor.

While the 8086 used some 16-bit (Ow...wow!) processing.

Anybody remember the 8087?

A math "co-processor".

Them were the days.

yup, I remember the coprocessor series. I think they used them up to the 387 or 487 just before the Pentium I. Ancient history now. Ican't rememer for sure any more. Those WERE the days. I rember spending 1,100 bucks on a motherboard to build my 80386 PC. That was the very first one I built. Cost a fortune for all the parts. MMMm, expanded memory days.

I remember all the DIP's (not highschool) in the boxes.

Now, you NEED a CPU cooling fan.

Or, water...

Water!

Umm...

NO WAY!

I think they're called "routers" now.

Not the noisy ones, that make a ton of sawdust.

The computator ones.

I think this at&t thing, to my right, is one um!

It keeps blinking at me.

Blinking on a router is good.

Blinking on an appliance could be bad.

Blinking in a car, needs to be "counted".

well since no one here was nice enough to even lend any help but had enough time to repeatedly return back to arguing about something off-topic, here's some light on the subject.  Modems are commonly used today to translate your cable, dsl, or fios line signal into a usable data stream for your router.  The router is connected directly behind this in 'line' in most cases.  The brand of the modem is not nearly as important as the router as it will actually control your firewall, switch, and limit all traffic.  Major brands are always worth looking at for reliability but the performance of these items does not vary to a great degree that I am aware of. 

If you actually are asking about a dial-up modem then the performance you're going to see will not vary by any noticable gap depending on the brand you choose.  However, I have no recent experience with these to help with choosing the brand.

An at&t broadband MODEM (router) works well for me.

AdamO said…

An at&t broadband MODEM (router) works well for me.

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A cable modem is not a router, at least I haven;t seen one! For one PC, you need only the cable modem and a LAN cable from it to the PC. For more than one PC, you also need the router. Even one PC with a wireless connection needs a wireless router plus the cable modem. Phone companies that provide ADSL are different, and whatever I said above may be entirely wrong for ADSL service. I never hooked up to broadband with Verizon, so I am unfamiliar with it.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here in NY the cable company, if you get the broadband service from them, gives you the modem to use as long as you keep their service. I gues you could buy your own modem, like a Motorola Surfboard or a Scientific Atlanta, but then you'd have to give all the MAC ID and other info to your cable company to accept your modem into your account. Why buy a modem when they give you the right one?

Modem is not an antiquated, leftover term.  In general, it is a data decoding/encoding bridge device.

Be it an analog to digital phone modem, or a digital broadband cable modem functioning on Rf (radio frequency), or even optical (light) signals via fiberoptics, they are still modems, because they modulate/demodulate the outgoing/incoming signal, be it analog, or digital.

By the way, cable is radio frequencies, not electrical signals transmitted over wires.

The A/D conversion is just the function the early ones performed, and some still do.

They are a couple dozen manufacturers, but most ISPs supply modems to their customers with the service.

are you going with cable internet?  if so, the modem is included with the price in most cases so let them supply it.

Good point!

Unless you need to hack your bandwidth or need to unlock certain ports your ISP blocks, there's no point to using a non provided modem.

What you're thinking of is called a router, it allows you to host a network and split the Internets connection by aromatically assigning separate local ips.

Got any more questions ask me.

Don't you need to have a modem in order to use a fax machine and send/receive faxes?

My Dell computer of 8 years died (it had the phone jack modem hookup). I had a fax/scanner/copier hooked up to it that did well, until I got rid of the cable company phone service, and got that magic jack phone service.

Aside from that I have been computer shopping off and on for the last several months, and have looked away from computers without modems, because I want my ability to fax back.

I also don't want to have to buy a separate modem unless I absolutely have to, and I don't want to get one from the Cable company. I would like to have my own, preferably on the computer, if that is what I need to do in order to fax.

I would appreciate any valid input about this. Thanks!