Dial-up networking: the set of protocols and software used to connect a computer to an Internet service provider, an online service, or a remote computer through an analog modem and POTS (plain old telephone system).

Dial-up networking is the most widely used type of computer connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, over a quarter of a billion subscribers were dialing in to the Internet--more than four times the number of users of other popular access methods, namely broadband DSL, cable, and ISDN modems. Here are the facts you need to know:

• Dial-up networking uses a modem as the interface between a single PC and a network such as the Internet; the modems are typically capable of speeds up to 56 kbps.
  
  
• Dialing up with a modem is still the cheapest and most widely available way to connect to the Internet, but because it offers comparatively slow connection speeds, graphics-intensive Web sites can take a long time to load.
  
  
• The maximum speed at which you can download data using dial-up networking is limited by the telephone system's analog bandwidth, the line quality, and the Internet traffic load.
  
  
• Dial-up networking usually communicates with the ISP using the Point to Point Protocol standard.