More graphically sophisticated games are downloading faster over conventional dial-up modems because of improved compression and clever manipulations of Internet limitations.

D.S.L. connections promised speeds up to 50 times as fast as conventional modems.

Users would dial into the system using a conventional modem and terminal emulator.

With conventional modems, video comes out grainy and jerky and is usually displayed in a tiny box on the screen.

He had experience piggybacking voice over the Internet with a conventional modem.

One will be for users with conventional modems in their laptop computers.

Data transmission may be slower than it is with a conventional modem or network connection to the Internet.

This sound isn't anything like the normal two-tone handshake between conventional modems and is instantly recognizable to anyone who has heard it more than once.

The fastest conventional modems available today, at 56K, can download nearly 56,000 bits per second.

But that price will soon come down to around $100, about the cost of a conventional modem, said Scott Kurnit, an executive vice president at Prodigy.