Modem

“ You should remember these or write them down!
o As a last resort, exit the communications program (and all other active programs) and shut off your computer, turn off your modem, and disconnect it from the phone line. Be sure to do these steps in the order prescribed. It is unwise (though tempting) to simply turn your computer off and on, or to pull the plug on your modem with your computer running.
More suggestions for the inexperienced are given in Appendix A.
The final hurdle to using the Internet is that the world, even the world of the Internet, is indeed a very large place. ”

“ 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 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 computer to which it attaches, a modem is useless without software to tell it how to work. Most modems today come with easy-to-install software. Try the program out. ”

“ When telecommuting, however, you may be better off with a modem going 1,200 baud. After all, it can zip material over the phone lines at four times the speed, and that means you’re tying up your modem less on long documents. You might not be tying up yourself if you run an operating system like Concurrent CP/M, which lets your computer handle electronic mail while you’re using it for other purposes; but a 1,200-baud modem is still a good investment if you can afford it. You may well be able to. Soon 1,200-baud modems with auto-answer features will commonly sell for well under $300. ”

“ It is a device that converts digital data from a computer or terminal into analog data that can be sent over telephone lines. On the receiving end, it converts the analog data back to digital data. Most modern modems can handle the dialing and answering of a telephone call and generate the speed of the data transmission, measured in bits per second, or baud rates. The telephone industry sometimes refers to a modem as a dataset. ”

“ So make sure the modem you buy responds to AT commands. A 2400 baud Hayes-compatible modem will cost about $50 by mail-order. You should consider buying a FAX modem ($350) , however. The more expensive modem is faster, has more features, and can turn your computer into a FAX machine. Your connection to the outside world will never be any better than your modem allows, so buy a good one. ”

“ When this is done, he can view text and pictures on the screen, and use the received data in other applications. You can buy modems on an expansion card for installation in your computer, or in a separate box. Often, a modem has already been built into the computer, when you buy it. Whether to buy an internal or an external modem is a question of needs: A portable computer with an internal modem is easier to bring on travels than an external modem with a modem cable and a power adapter. An external modem can serve several computers. ”

“ The public area was like an old-time pub. Anyone could wander in, plop down at the bar and start up a conversation with a group of locals. Just ring up the system with your modem and type in your details—real name, your chosen handle, phone number and other basic information. ”

“ Speaking of corroboration, I received a number of statements a "modem tax" as many seemed to call ANY fee associated with the increased phone rates for using modems, never has happened. I can tell you from my personal experience that I have been at a college where their telco actually charged for an entire extra line wherever any modem was installed. Apparently, they had a system that allowed voice ONLY on "normal" lines so the charge could not be avoided. Apparently our local telcos have tried, and failed, to get additional modem charges as well. ”

“ If you get no reply from your modem, when it is connected to your friend's computer, chances are that it needs to be repaired. Call the seller for help. A last refuge is to buy an extra communications card for your computer . ”

“ Marketing and sales by modem —————————————— The Americans have a gift for this. You meet them in online forums all over the world, in person or through agents, and especially in computer oriented conferences and clubs. Their main strategy is reference selling. Make key customers happy, and make sure they tell others. In Chapter 5, I told you what happened when a member wrote about his upgrade to a 425 megabytes hard disk in CompuServe's Toshiba forum. ”

“ Connecting to the online service ———————————————— The first couple of times, most people think that it is very difficult. Soon it becomes a simple routine. On some computers, you just press a key, and that's it. On others, you have to call and press, and watch, while things are happening. Cheap is often a synonym for more work. If you have a dumb modem connected to your personal computer, these are the typical steps that you must take:
(1) Start your communications program and set it up, e.g., with
2400 bps, 8 bits word length, 1 stop bit, no parity. (This
is the most common setup.) ”

“ Your "physical" contact with the service is when your modem is disconnected. The help menus that you read belong to your program, and not the online service. You read and respond to mail in a reading module (ref. the term "offline reader") . Some offline readers give the caller access to more tools than is available on the online service itself. They may have spelling checkers, multimedia support, let you use your favorite editor or word processor, and offer various storage, search, and printing options. ”

“ The modem allows you to be part of more personal networks than you can possibly cope with in the "real world." Besides, it's much easier to develop personal networks in the online world. We have used words like "clubs" and "associations." By this we mean groups of people interested in helping You and in participating in what You happen to be interested in. Today's communications technology lets us participate in networks in other countries at a very low cost. Many describe it as participation "beyond time and space." Write a message and send it to a person in your network. ”

“ With a home computer, a modem, and communications software, you can connect to other computers over the phone line to exchange electronic mail (E-mail) , trade files, or search for information. Many of those computers are connected to the worldwide network called the Internet. Some few of them will—for a fee—let *you* connect to the Internet. From there you can dial any of 900,000 or more computers, send E-mail to any of 25 million people, and access hundreds of free, informative services. ”

“ This is typically required when your modem assumes that you use it in North America, while you are in a country with different cabling.
Configuring your program ———————————— The modem answers. The dial tone is being detected. Procomm is installed on your hard disk. Now, check if the program has been correctly configured. Press ALT-S to get the Setup Menu. Select 1, Modem setup, from this menu. Choice 1, Modem init string, is a general setup command. This command will be sent to the modem each time you start Procomm. You are free to make is as long and powerful as you want. ”

“ Asynchronous or synchronous modems? —————————————————- Formerly, data communication was done by sending job commands to a mainframe computer, and having the result returned in one batch. The modems were called synchronous. Such modems (and computers) are still in use in some large corporations. Most of today's online services are based on an interactive dialog between the user and the remote computer. The user enters a command, for example a letter or a number in a menu, and the result is returned almost immediately. ”

“ These are "bare bones" prices for the computer systems; when filled out with color monitors, printers, ports, modems, and the rest of an average computer system, these prices usually doubled, and the prices I usually quote as modern comparison figures include VGA, printer, modem, mouse, and software. ”

“ Started in 1969 with funds from the Defense Department's Advanced Projects Research Agency.
backbone A high-speed network that connects several powerful computers. In the U.S., the backbone of the Internet is often considered the NSFNet, a government funded link between a handful of supercomputer sites across the country.
Baud The speed at which modems transfer data. One baud is roughly equal to one bit per second. It takes eight bits to make up one letter or character. Modems rarely transfer data at exactly the same speed as their listed baud rate because of static or computer problems. ”

“ Following will be descriptions of electronic mail, discussion lists, electronic journals and texts, and resources available to those willing to explore. Historical details about the building of the Internet and technical details regarding network speed and bandwidth are outside the scope of this piece.
What's Out There Anyway?
Until you use a radio receiver, you are unaware of the wealth of programming, music, and information otherwise invisible to you. Computer networks are much the same. About one million people worldwide use the Internet daily. ”

“ We live in an age of communication, yet the various media we use to talk to one another remain largely separate systems. One day, however, your telephone, TV, fax machine and personal computer will be replaced by a single ``information processor'' linked to the worldwide Net by strands of optical fiber. Beyond databases and file libraries, power will be at your fingertips. Linked to thousands, even millions of like-minded people, you'll be able to participate in social and political movements across the country and around the world. ”

“ Transmission by wire or wireless means of images, sounds, images and sounds, of a work, performance, sound recording, broadcast in such a way that, where such transmission is the only means of reception, any person other than family members and close friends can receive in any place different from where transmission originates, irrespective of time and place of reception, including time and place individually chosen by means of a computer or any other means. ”

“ These telephone girls are the human part of a great communication machine. They are weaving a web of talk that changes into a new pattern every minute. How many possible combinations there are with the five million telephones of the Bell System, or what unthinkable mileage of conversation, no one has ever dared to guess. But whoever has once seen the long line of white arms waving back and forth in front of the switchboard lights must feel that he has looked upon the very pulse of the city's life. ”

“ In such a sense many of the most common modern conveniences of life would have seemed impossible a century ago. To travel with safety sixty miles an hour, to talk through the telephone with a friend an hundred miles away, to receive intelligible messages across the Atlantic by a cable, and, still more, to communicate by wireless telegraphy would have seemed impossible until recently. ”

“ I go to the businesses and I say: “When are you planning to allow on the network, in your business, machines that have software in it you can’t read, can’t control, can’t modify and which phones home to people on the network in ways you can’t read?” ”

“ For, to take the analogy of wireless telegraphy, we are all of us probably ‘receivers’ to some extent, and catch now and then a message or part of a message that the eternal waves of emotion are ceaselessly shouting aloud to those who have ears to hear, and materializing themselves for those who have eyes to see. Not being, as a rule, perfectly tuned, we grasp but pieces and fragments of such messages, a few coherent words it may be, or a few words which seem to have no sense. ”

“ The idea of increasing the carrying power of a telegraph wire in this way took complete possession of my mind, and it was this practical end that I had in view when I commenced my researches in Electric Telephony.
In the progress of science it is universally found that complexity leads to simplicity, and in narrating the history of scientific research it is often advisable to begin at the end. ”

“ The telephone wires forming a network overhead, the cable trams conveying their loaded cars up the steepest gradients, and other recent triumphs of human ingenuity, all speak of the activity and capacity of its inhabitants. ”

“ So it’s particularly true, because 20th century technology offered us ubiquitous point‐to‐point wire line interpersonal communication called “the telephone”, and there was a very long period—three generations plus—in which the profits of treating that as a commodity for sale accrued to a few favored players who became enormously powerful. ”

“ A net-work, compared with which that of the finest lace ever worn by the fair reader would seem a net-work of cable, has preserved entire, for untold ages, the most delicate peculiarities of its pattern. ”

“ The Bell telephone—The Edison transmitter—The granular carbon transmitter—General arrangement of a telephone circuit—Double-line circuits—Telephone exchanges—Submarine telephony.
For the purposes of everyday life the telephone is even more useful than the telegraph. Telephones now connect one room of a building with another, house with house, town with town, country with country. An infinitely greater number of words pass over the telephonic circuits of the world in a year than are transmitted by telegraph operators. ”

“ Here, in the depths, is woven that mysterious power that carries the wireless message through the rocks of the mountains and the channels of the sea, and wraps the earth in a diaphanous garb that makes the wireless telephone a possibility. ”

“ Railways and steamships had begun this work of binding man to man by "nobler and cunninger methods." The telegraph and cable had gone still farther and put all civilized people within sight of each other, so that they could communicate by a sort of deaf and dumb alphabet. And then came the telephone, giving direct instantaneous communication and putting the people of each nation within hearing distance of each other. ”