Alright, so you’ve got yourself internet service! Some wires slam into your home, get stuck in a box, and boom, internet! Heck, maybe you even have a fancy modem-router combo box! But, well- what is a modem? Hell, what’s a router? And why is there an eth- in my -ternet?
EPISODE NOTES/MISTAKES: We mentioned that DOCSIS and EuroDOCSIS are different due to regions using NTSC or PAL (North America vs. Europe). NTSC has been depreciated in the move from analog to digital television, replaced with ATSC. Similarly, PAL is replaced by DVB. Japan actually uses ISDB, as does South America and the Philippines.
Cat7 is backwards compatible, it just has not received a stamp of approval from the IEEE (Insitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) or the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA). This has left very few developers to create support for the GG45 connector that Cat7 uses.
https://www.cablematters.com/blog/Networking/what-is-cat7-and-why-you-don-t-need-it
802.11ad refers to WiGig, and was never retroactively turned into “Wi-Fi 5”. It is a separate standard that has high bandwidth, low latency, but poor wall penetration.
The rebrandings are, therefore:
Wi-Fi 1: 802.11b
Wi-Fi 2: 802.11a
Wi-Fi 3: 802.11g
Wi-Fi 4: 802.11n
Wi-Fi 5: 802.11ac
Sources:
Dial-Up:
DSL:
Cable, DOCSIS:
- Cisco, 3 September 2006, Cable DOCSIS 1.0 FAQ
- Hitron Americas, “Cable Modems 101: Difference Between DOCSIS 2.0, 3.0 & 3.1”
- Excentis, 27 October 2014, “The differences between US DOCSIS and EuroDOCSIS, and will DOCSIS 3.1 eliminate them?”
Fiber ONTs (Optical Network Terminals) & MoCA:
- Hitron Americas, “Do You Need a Modem with an ONT?”
- Pilot, “What is an ONT?”
- Screenbeam, “How does MoCA work?”
Ethernet:
- Lifewire, 17 June 2020, ‘The Fundamentals of an Ethernet LAN, Explained‘
- How-To-Geek, 13 December 2016, “What Kind of Ethernet (Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a) Cable Should I Use?“
Gateways:
Hardware Rental Fees & ISPs using Gateways as Public Wi-Fi Hotspots:
- Ars Technica, 18 December 2020, “”Law banning “rental” fees for customer-owned routers takes effect Sunday”
- Allconnect, 15 April 2020, “Is Cox turning your home Wi-Fi into a public hotspot? The details you need to know”
- Stop the Cap!, 26 November 2019, “Spectrum Preparing to Turn Cable Modems/Routers Into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots“
- Consumer Reports, 2 February 2017, “Lawsuit Offers Reminder to Avoid Cable-Company Router“
Website to help pick out a new Modem:
- Android Central, 18 December 2020, ‘Google has time to reflect on itself before antitrust trials begin in 2023‘
- CNN Business, 11 December 2020, ‘The antitrust case against Facebook: Here’s what you need to know’
- Android Central, 22 December 2020, ‘Google and Facebook made a shady pact to fight antitrust allegations’ (Jedi Blue)
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