Appletalk is built into Apple Macintosh computers and supports Ethernet and IBM Token Ring. Appletalk connects Mac computers and PCs if they have the hardware and software from AppleTalk installed.  Because I have not used this, I cannot give an opinion on how effective this form of communication is,  and use instead AOL and ICQ for email and instant messaging.
 

A newer design of modem is now in use over cable TV lines. It has a large bandwidth and makes very fast connections to the web. This will be my next step into technology, as I can be on the internet 24/7 without interruption to my phone lines. The only problem I forsee is possible cable crashes from downed lines or interrupted service. Cable modems offer speeds up to 2 Mbps, and are almost instantaneous in response.
 

Within the DNS there are three components: The domain name space and resource records, the name servers, and the resolvers.

The domain name space/resource records offer and extract information about the domain. Hosts are identified, and addresses are supplied.

Name servers give information about the anything in the domain space. Information is kept in zones with provide data. Resolvers answer questions that users have about the domain and can give a string of other sites for more information. For better perfomance these functions are often coupled and databases shared.
 

A type of network technology called Asynchronous Transfer Mode is based on transferring information in cells of a fixed size. ATM has smaller cells compared to older technologies and it allows audio, video and computer data to be supplied over the same network. The data transfer rates are from 25 to 622 megabits per second, which is faster at the best rate, than the maximum of 100 Mbps for Ethernet, which is what most LANs use. It is possible the internet bandwidth can be helped by using ATM because if has a fixed channel between two points, unlike TCP/IP, which uses packets that go to different destinations. Tracking is easier with ATM, except when there are surges in network traffic. The types of services of ATM are listed below:

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or TCP/IP, is used to connect different hosts on the Internet. The protocols are built into the UNIX operating system and used by the Internet to transmit data over the various networks. All other systems support the use of TCP/IP.
 

The digital subscriber lines or DSL have two main categories being ADSL and SDSL. Two other types of xDSL technologies are High-data-rate DSL (HDSL) and Single-line DSL (SDSL).

DSL uses "modulation schemes" to send data over telephone wires. They provide connections from a telephone switching station to a home or office, not between switching stations. The speeds are up to 32 Mbps for downstream traffic, and from 32 Kbps to over 1 Mbps for upstream traffic.
 

Ethernet is used by many major companies and universities. A newer and faster version is the 10 Base T, which has twisted-pair cables with a maximum length of 100 meters, unlike the older cables in the 10 Base 2 or 5 systems. Cables in the 10Base-T system connect with RJ-45 connectors. Twelve or more computers can be connected directly to a hub.

The 10Base-T system operates at 10 Mbps and uses baseband transmission method.