You say MODE-EM, I say Modem

[Dustin Decker]

On Wed, 9 Jul 2003, Mailing List Account for Jason Runyan wrote:

> David Holland wrote:
> > Funny thing happened today after reading these posts.  I installed
> > RoadRunner business class at a customers house.  I had some trouble
> > getting connected and had to call their tech support.  I talked to 3
> > techs and they called it a "Cable Router" rather than a cable modem.
> > Perhaps the tide is changing?
> > 
> 
> Router is close, but it really is a bridge.  All it is doing is using 
> one medium to bridge you onto another.  Its not routing anything.

Well, that sort of depends.  When dealing with the business class it's 
quite common to wind up with a Cisco router, running IOS (instead of their 
low end cheeze products like 700 series or whatever) with Time Warner.

Granted however - in the xDSL world and the like as previously expressed 
in this thread, 9 times out of 10 you're really only dealing with a 
bridge.  DSL, and cable both, are merely a medium by which data can be 
passed.  I'd say rule of thumb is if the marketing droids call it a modem, 
it's a bridge.  If they call it a router, have a look at the IP stack it 
runs and judge for yourself... it just might be.  :)
Dustin

-- 
o-----------------------------------o
| Dustin Decker - CNA, MCP          |
| dustin at dustindecker.com       o-------------------------------------o
| Network Engineer              |                                     |
| Preferred Physicians Group    |                                     |
o-------------------------------|         E = MC ** 2 +- 3db          |
                                |                                     |
                                |                                     |
                                o-------------------------------------o