When is a modem not a modem

By the way, what is it with all these DSL companies calling their Wan / Lan routers a Modem? Modem is short for MOdulator - DEModulator after the way it translates analog sounds send over the phone line as speech, to digital signals understandable by a computer and vice-versa. A DSL connection utilizes a different part of the available spectrum on the phone line and it uses digital signals all the way. There is no modulation going on at all. The thing just connects to separate networks and it works at the OSI Network Layer. Therefore it is a router.

Zaaf