Introducing Dialup Connection

Let us first define Internet. There are several ways of defining Internet. Internet can be defined as worldwide network of large and small networks around the globe. Technically, Internet is the largest network in the world. Internet bears a huge amount of data and daily witness incredible amount of data transfer across the world. To access the internet you need to have connection to internet. There are several ways to access internet. The oldest and most used way is a dial up connection.

In technical terms, dial up connection is a procedure in which a terminal is connected via a modem and a public telephone network to Internet. Here, for most people the terminal connected is their computer and add-on devices that they have connected to their computer. The Add-ons consists of fax machine, printer etc. Dial up connection is made through your landline phone connection. In some ways, it does behave like a standard telephone connection. In a dial up connection, parties at the two ends are computer devices rather than people. The main difference is that in a telephone connection, people directly converse at both ends. However, in dialup internet connection the conversation or the data transfer is done through a modem at both ends. Furthermore, as dial up access is a form of internet access in which the end user uses modems, it transfers data in analog form as phone lines. As most people have phone line in their houses or offices, dial up connection is easy to set up. This makes a dial up connection a primary mode of access to internet for most people around the world.

Dial up Internet connections are provided by ISPS or Internet Service Providers. ISPS provide an access number, a username and a password. A user has to dial the access number provided by the ISP. The modem dials it to get on to the network. The user must submit the username and password to authenticate the entry. When an internet connection is attempted, the modem dials through phone line to the internet service provider's central computer. It uses the PPP and TCP/IP internet protocols to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then directed to the world of internet.

The main advantage of dial up connection is that it could be connected through telephone lines. However, like most of the modern technologies dial up connection has its limitations with the advantage. The most Striking limitation is that the dial up connection system uses normal telephone lines! The speed of dial up connection has increased in last two decades. Now days, the maximum data rate with normal dial up access is limited to 56 Kbps. The dial up connection is slower than some other non-dialup forms. It is also not dedicated and you must dial the service provider every time you want to connect to the Internet.

Still despite of these limitations, the dial up connection is the most popular option to access the world of internet due to its cheapness and simplicity of the installation compared to the other internet access options.