Tying Up the Lines: Telephones and Modems

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To connect to the World Wide Web, you�ll need a telephone line. You might be thinking, "Duh, of course I have a telephone line." Here�s the catch. When you dial into the Internet, you have the phone line tied up for as long as you�re connected. If you have a teenage daughter waiting for a call, you might be in trouble. Nobody can call out or call in when you�re online.

One way to make your teenage daughter smile is to install a second phone line. That way, you can use one line for connecting to the Internet, and the other line for person-to-person calls.

Kai Pan is the marketing director for Clarity Connect, an Internet Services Provider in Ithaca, N.Y. He thinks that the decision to purchase a dedicated line depends on the user�s needs. �A minority of users need faster access, as well as higher connection ranges,� Pan said. �Of course, with that comes a higher price.�

If you don�t have the spare change, you can still make a connection to the Internet by sharing your single line with the modem.