what is a 56k modem ?

An antique dial-up modem, the fastest they made for dial-up phone lines. Although blazing fast compared to the first dial-up modems (2k), they're painfully slow today and virtually useless in certain situations (such as downloading Microsoft Updates).

Hope that helps.

A 24k connection is in fact pretty slow, but the real question is why. If you are using a phone line with multiple extensions, any one of them could be introducing noise into the line. If at all possible, try to connect on a phone cable that has only your modem connected with the other end connected into the phone company point of entry. (if possible disconnect the other extensions and see if problem continues, there is often a special jack that you can use to disconnect all inhouse wire and directly connect a phone or modem to). Even better is too have a dedicated line used only for your modem, but that may not be possible. Of couse, the actual wire distance from your location to the phone companies central office is also a factor and can limit the overall speed. The best clue is how the phone sounds when you are talking to other people, if you hear snapping, hissing, popping, and distorted voices, you can bet your connection speed will suck eggs. Finally, some ISP's just have crappy service in an area. I usually connect at around 46k to the major ISP's such as AOL, People PC, etc. But upon checking one locally advertised ISP, I found that it was impossible to connect at above 28.8k. I tried several modems on different lines and different PC's, and these guys just suck. One trick I have found that works sometimes is to force a call through a different telephone routing. For example, we have the option of 7 or 10 digit dialling by including or ommiting the area code when we dial. I found a downtown location that always had poor connection rates when dialing a 7 digit number, but always connected 15 to 20 k higher when dialing the same number but including the area code.

56k modem means it will connect you with internet a speed of 56 kbs/sec........

but it is not in real case speed of downloading at 56k modems will always 4 to 5 kbs/sec

56kbs is maximum limit of downloading it is only 4 to 5 kbs per sec

AKA "dial up modem...or pos

it means it streams at 56 kb/sec nothing compaird to comcast's 14 megs/sec (one meg is 1000 kb).

The first answer is accurate, but I like the doorstop description better.

A kind of doorstop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56_kbit/s_modem

First link on google.