I'll never forget my first experience with connecting to the Internet. I was in high school, using an Apple IIgs with a 1200 baud modem that I had begged my parents to buy for me. The thought of how slow the connection must have been gives me the chills, although luckily all I was doing was connecting to a text-based electronic bulletin board.

The Internet has come a long way since those days, in terms of both access speeds and the availability of media-rich content. Broadband connections have become the norm rather than the exception, allowing computers to further integrate themselves into our work and home entertainment systems. But all of this change has come on the back of an important--and still not forgotten--piece of technology: the 56k modem.

56k Modems For Reliable Internet Access

56k modems are to internet communications what bicycles are to transportation: they're a bit slow, but they're cheap, easy to use and terribly reliable. As popular as broadband connections are these days, few computers are manufactured or sold without a 56k modem inside. 56k dial-up connections are the old standby: when something goes wrong, turn to your dial-up modem.

The great thing about 56k modems is that they're just fast enough to display normal web page content. They're slow, but they're not so slow that you're pulling your hair out waiting for a page to load. This fact (combined with the ubiquity of standard telephone lines and the ease of setting up a back-up or travel dial-up account) means that 56k modems will probably be around for a long time to come.