Comcast and AT&T call them "gateways".
-----Original Message-----
From: Nate Burke
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 11:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] fascination with the word modem
Just call the POE Box the Modem and everyone will be happy. Maybe make
up a label and put it on the POE. "Yes, Reboot your 'Modem' It's
labeled 'Modem'. You don't need to buy a modem, you already have a 'Modem'"
I think the other thing is both cable and DSL are selling the all in 1
boxes now, the 'Modem' does everything. Comcast with their WIfi
Monstrosity that does 2.4 and 5ghz, and broadcasts the Comcast Hotspot
network (Seriously, does it really need to be the size of a desktop
computer?), and DSL Routers that have the Wifi built in already with the
nice sticker on the bottom with the key on it.
"None of my friends need a router, they only have a modem, why do I need
a router? Your service must be old and slow."
On 11/18/2015 11:44 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
What is this fascination people have with "modem"? They think they have a
modem, need a modem, reboot their modem, look at the lights on their
modem. Modem, modem, modem. I'd say the term comes up in 50% of all the
calls we get.
I even had a customer call today because they were retiring their old
desktop computer, and wanted to know what to do so their phones, tablets
and laptops would still get Internet. Answer of course is nothing, just
unplug the old beast and get rid of it. But "everyone" told them they
needed to get a modem. So they went to Best Buy, where the kid tells them
yes that's correct, you need a modem, and sold them one. You need to take
out that "power over Ethernet injector" and replace it with a "modem".
WTF?
"Modem" seems like "broadband". People use the term like it means
something to them, but if you ask OK what is a modem, what does it do,
they haven’t a clue. But they know they have one, or need to get one. I
explain that a modem is a modulator-demodulator, like when you want to
send one type of signal across a path designed for a different type of
signal. Like Internet across a phone line. But our service is designed
to carry digital data, so we don’t need a modem.
Router on the other hand seems to a term people shy away from. Like it
sounds obscene or something. Which I guess if this were Australia, and
you pronounced it "rooter", would make sense. But the concept seems
straightforward, you have a bunch of devices and the Internet, and the
router is responsible for routing the traffic to the right place. It’s a
router, it routes stuff. Why is that so hard to understand, yet everybody
is comfortable talking about their modem?
