system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 When modern computers connect to Wi-Fi, do they still essentially do the same screeching thing as dialup, only quicker and silently?
gpt
Sort of yes and sort of no. That was essentially a handshake: the two systems negotiating what connection characteristics, communication protocols, etc., they could use to talk to one another. That still happens, but the process is very different. Modems screeched and shrieked because they used sound to transmit data--they worked over the standard voice phone lines--but wifi uses RF signals instead (and modern networking software uses electrical pulses).