ADSL means Asymmetric Digital subscriber Line
With DSL, a normal telephone line can be used to send and receive information very quickly. There are basically 2 types of DSL: ADSL and SDSL. With ADSL, receiving information is faster than sending. With SDSL, this bandwidth is equal and sending is as fast as receiving. Consumers generally have ADSL, business users have occasional SDSL. To use ADSL, an ADSL modem is necessary to connect the computer to the telephone line. This modem makes sure that 1 part of the line is used for sending data, another part is reserved for calls. ADSL is specifically developed for sending multimedia information (video, music), competitors of ADSL are ISDN and cable. Nowadays there is also still ADSL 2 +, which allows higher speeds than 8Mbps, and VDSL, the successor of ADSL 2 +.