Why Are Dial-up Modems so Noisy?

Posted by Jason Fitzpatrick on How to geek See other posts from How to geek or by Jason Fitzpatrick
Published on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:00:19 GMT Indexed on 2012/10/16 23:04 UTC
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Throughout the 1990s the majority of internet users began their session with the noisy handshake of a dial-up modem, but what exactly was all that electronic chatter about? Read on as we investigate one of the more iconic sounds of the burgeoning Internet age.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites.

While dial-up modem use might be down from the nearly 100% market saturation in the 1990s to only 10% of current US internet users, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting lives on in the memories of geeks everywhere. This week we’re taking a look at the technology behind the noisy process and what exactly was going on when you dialed in for your internet session.

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