Cisco Networking Simplified

Chapter . Broadband Technologies

Always-On Access

Until recent times, people connected remotely to their offices or the Internet using dialup connections. An “always on” remote network connection was not possible for a reasonable price. To connect to the remote network, the user ran a program that dialed a phone number. Unless he had a second phone line, being online prohibited incoming or outgoing phone calls.

The user entered a user ID and password to gain access to the system. The fastest speed available over phone lines was 56 kbps, which was fine until the web became popular in the 1990s. Downloading large pictures, documents, applications, or audio files took what seemed like forever.

Then, along came broadband. Broadband networking offered ...