Sending Data from Home Without Using a Phone
Line
There is another popular alternative to analog modems and DSL
about which you should at least know the basics. Many homes in the United States
also have cable TV (CATV) service. Similar in topology to DSL, cable modems
provide an always-on Internet access service, using the CATV cable to transmit
the data. You can surf the Internet over the cable and make all the phone calls
you want over your telephone lineand you can watch TV at the same time.
Cable modems use frequencies that would have otherwise been
used for additional TV channels. It's a little like having an "Internet" channel
to go along with CNN, TBS, ESPN, The Cartoon Network, and all your other
favorite cable channels.
Although the details are much different, the general ideas are
just like DSL:
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The cable can be split and connected to both the cable modem
and the TVs in the house.
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The CATV company splits out the data from the TV signals at its
local office.
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The CATV company gives the data to a router owned by an
ISP.
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If the ISP is different from the cable company, you pay a
monthly fee to the ISP for Internet service, and a monthly fee to the cable
company for the basic TV service.
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Cable uses asymmetric speeds, typically maxing out at 40 Mbps
toward the home, but the downstream bandwidth is shared among multiple
subscribers.
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