Subjects         Chips & Upgrades   Computers   News   Opinions   Peripherals Systems Software   SysOpt

internet.commerce Be a Commerce Partner

Search for more hardware and systems terms . . .

host-based modem Last modified: Thursday, August 30, 2001

A modem that uses the computer's processor to handle some operations. Because host-based modems require less processing power of their own, they should be less expensive than conventional modems. There are also software modems, in which there's no modem device at all. Instead, all of the modem's functions are handled by the computer's processor. In the PC world, host-based modems are sometimes called Winmodems.