streaming

Definition:

Streaming usually refers to audio or video content played over the Internet. To avoid long delays in waiting for a large audio or video file to download, streaming actually downloads only the first part of the audio or video file using a process called buffering and then immediately starts playing it. While you are listening to a portion of the audio or watching a portion of the video, the remainder of the audio or video file continues to download. So in a sense, when you are streaming you are listening or watching at the same time the file is downloading.

Here's a word you may not know...

modem

A modem is a device used to send and receive data over the Internet. Traditional modems utilized a dial up connection using land-based telephone lines. Modems are being phased out in favor of higher speed broadband Internet connections.

The term modem is still used today when referring to devices such as cable modems although this is really an incorrect use of the word modem. A modem, by definition, modulates and demodulates an analog signal and most broadband Internet connections are all digital requiring no modulating or demodulating.