AlexGeek's Web Design and Development Blog

This is a short thought about the characteristics of a modem. In simple terms a modem connects to an ISP which in turn connects it to all the web sites it requests, a task that although is complicated it is just individual computers sending and receiving signals. If you compare this system to turning on the TV with the remote control: press the button; signal is received by the television; TV is turned on, it may riddle you as to why when you send your signal to "turn on your connection to the internet" you may receive an enigmatic "no" or "yes but only at x kbps".

Your ISP isn't a person who decides whether or not you can browse the web yet their machine decides whether or not you can. You may pull this down to it just being the signal not being to be received properly but if this were the case would you ever be able to connect to the internet or only at one fixed speed? And seeing as you are reading this now I can assume that you are.

So where does your inanimate modem and ISP server start thinking for themselves? The sync rate system. A sync rate decides how fast your Internet speeds are depending on how successfully you have connected in the past. If your modem crashes or the connection is lost in some way your sync rate will drop and you may not be able to access the Internet for a while or perhaps at speeds of 160kbps despite paying for 8mbps. Your sync rate is set automatically depending on lost connections which can be caused by habits such as downloading huge files or downloading many files at once. So today you ask your router to download a 4.0GB movie at 20mbps and tomorrow he decides you're being selfish and limits you to 256kbps or if he's really annoyed with you he may not even connect at all. You may make this worse by resetting your router over and over to try and connect but as your sync rate is all over the place you'll get a dozen failed connections and the sync rate drops further causing a chain reaction where you spiral down the Helter Skelter of internet connectivity. Sounds similar to something? Asking your parents for money to go out all the time until they've had enough and will only give you a few coppers until you've asked for so much they won't even talk to you. Even more similar to this situation, if you've been good for 3 days after this incident your sync rate will rise and your modem will accept this apology and start to give you more.

Besides the behaviour above your modem seems to be warm blooded and will refuse to work in the baking heat and would rather lie down and do nothing. My solution to this was providing him with a fan which seems to have suited his needs as my connection tripled.

Thanks for reading this load of rubbish, hopefully someone else has had this thought and will share it so I don't feel like a mental person. Oh and for anyone wondering, My Modem's name is Sam and he's not very outgoing.