This component is considered to be one of the most important components in your computer in terms of the functionality of it. Of course, the Internet is the reason for this. This component (coupled with the actual "service," of course) is the deciding factor of how fast the information coming from the Internet will be coming down to your computer. Let's begin with the traditional modem-there's not much to tell you about, though. Any modem you find these days will be a 56K modem and will be v.90 compliant, a standard for data transfer for modems. There are basically 2 types of modems you can buy though: external and internal. Usually external modems are more expensive than internal ones because they usually do most of the data processing by themselves, while (most) internal ones steal processor power for processing data. When purchasing an external modem, try getting one that uses your computer's USB port; when purchasing an internal modem, try to get on that's not labeled a "Win modem." These "Win modems," as I explained before, don't have a processing chip of their own and steal processing power from your CPU to process the data, not good if you want to use the 'net and CPU-intensive applications (like multiplayer games) at the same time. Also, try to get one from a reputable brand, so when time comes to update drivers, it's a much easier task.

When it comes to network cards, there's also not much stuff that I can tell you. You have to decide what you need, as buying that $50 100BaseT network card will do you nothing for that "slow" cable connection that only uses a maximum of 3mbps. If, however, you need to run applications through a local network, then that $50 100BaseT network card will actually do you some use. If not, getting a 10BaseT card will do you fine for most tasks. Of course, this is assuming that you have a 10/100BaseT hub to support this (unless you only have 2 computers, where you only need a cross-over cable)! Like purchasing a modem, go with a reputable brand such as 3Com or D-Link to make the task of finding future drivers less of a problem. Other than that, there's really nothing else that I can guide you with in the purchase of this component.

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