What's the purpose of a modem when you can just connect a router straight from the outlet in your home?

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GrevenGull
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Title.

loldier
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It depends on the technology used. ADSL or VDSL need a modem. Ethernet connection pure and simple works as it is but a router or a switch is needed to create a home network.

GrevenGull
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Aha, ADSL and VDSL technology, is that coax cable (bigger cable therefore better)?

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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GrevenGull
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Allright, so all DSLs is Ethernet (DSL, VDSL and ADSL), just different technology inside the cable?

How do one know what technology one has?

onpon4
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No. DSL is a method of transmitting information over a phone line.

I don't think you understand what a modem is. See, ISPs connect users to the Internet in all kinds of ways using completely differing methods. Operating systems are not designed to deal with all these different methods. Instead, the operating system on your computer (or on the computer embedded in a router) accepts standard protocols delivered through Ethernet or WiFi, and it's the job of a modem to convert whatever signals the ISP is sending and receiving to and from the standard protocol.

I suppose operating systems could be redesigned so that they can understand all the different signals that an ISP might send you, and computers could be equipped with the many different kinds of wires needed for this to work, but simply having a dedicated modem is much more efficient.

Of course, there's also the phenomenon of modems equipped with built-in routers. The downside of this is that you have to switch routers too if you ever switch ISPs, so it's ultimately less efficient.

GrevenGull
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So in all essence:

A modem make your internet faster?

onpon4
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No. Not even close.

GrevenGull
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Then why would anyone ever want to have an extra thing in their house which takes place and implement the use of proprietary software?

I mean.. there's gotta be a reason for this?

Magic Banana

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A modem (modulator–demodulator) is a network hardware device that modulates one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information for transmission and demodulates signals to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used with any means of transmitting analog signals, from light-emitting diodes to radio. A common type of modem is one that turns the digital data of a computer into modulated electrical signal for transmission over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem

GrevenGull
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According to this:

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-a-modem-required

The telephone cables (and/or coax) are analog signals, and the modem translates the signals from the cable to the computer from analog to digital and vice versa.

But if that's the case, then... then how come Loldier says it's possible to connect the computer straight from to the telephone outlet. Does he/she have a program inside their computer that does this translation in the place of a modem?

loldier
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I never said "connect to the telephone outlet." I said Ethernet outlet.

New apartment blocks usually have fibre and built-in Ethernet and community internet (shared). That means all the apartments are connected to the internet by default through and via one ISP.

The hardware needed is in the Premises Wire Distribution (PWD) Room downstairs. The apartment has no set top boxes or modems, only an Ethernet outlet in the wall. Technically, I doubt if it even is a modem in the PWD. A modem used to be something that converted analog sound to digital signals (MOdulator-DEModulator).

There's always a "modem" between your end of the line and the ISP somewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiring_closet

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/types-of-internet-access-technologies-explained-and-what-you-should-expect/

ADSL/ADSL2+/VDSL are DSL lines, telephone lines. They always need a modem. DOCSIS lines need a cable modem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS

GrevenGull
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Okay what you meant was that in some specific housing setups where all the apartments use the same ISP they are all connected to one big modem somewhere, which then feeds apartments with cables.

I see, so a modem is always needed anyway in any form of connecting to the Internet.

If you want to connect to the Internet, you need a modem in one way or another, plain and simple?

Unless of course every cable all around the network was digital cables, but that is not the case.

loldier
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In my neck of the woods, all new residential buildings in the city area come with in-house Ethernet and Internet connection by default in the basement.

Of course, single owner one family houses or houses in rural settings far away from the ISP main lines need to take care of their connections themselves.

I only brought this up since you were wondering if there was a way to use modems/routers with free firmware.

If the hardware is not yours to begin with, then it doesn't really make sense to care about someone else's freedom issues when you can't do anything about it. Freedom issues you should be concerned with only apply to hardware that you own.

GrevenGull
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I understand.

But there many cases where the customer of the ISP owns the modem though.

Does it exist free modems?

loldier
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I don't know about that but it's not an issue where I live. All local loops are unbundled. I can choose any ISP or hardware I want. The owner of the network cabling has no say.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling

GrevenGull
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Yeah, but do you know if it exists modems that are compatible with free software?

onpon4
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Because it costs less and reduces waste.

As for why it's proprietary software, I don't know, and I suppose it probably varies from method to method.

strypey
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I have seen a DSL-style broadband internet service delivered over coax, mainly by cable TV companies who already have those cables in place. But as per the Wikipedia link provided by MagicBanana, most DSL is delivered over POTS (Plain Old Telephone System); old-school copper phone cables. It's a slight improvement over dial-up, in that it's somewhat faster, and you can stay connected 24/7. Both coax and POTS copper cables are gradually being replaced by fibre-optic cabling to the home, which has already been used for years in most offices and other commercial premises, and for decades in most of the telecom backhaul networks (eg cross-border cables, connections between exchanges).

loldier
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The place I live, we have fibre to the telephone/communications exchange but the local loop's last mile is copper wiring in the house. We get speeds up to 50--75 Mbps down using VDSL2. ADSL2+ is max 24.

The speed depends on how far the ISP line is from the house or apartment. My street has fiber to the kerb, so it's pretty close.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_x

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/03/fiber-its-not-all-created-equal/

GrevenGull
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nice