Are baud rate and bits per second equivalent measurements of modem speed?
A baud is the unit of a modem’s signalling speed, or the number of changes per second in the state of the carrier tone. Early modems only indicated one bit (0 or 1) per change of state, so baud and bits per second were equivalent units. In order to send data faster, modem designers began to use one of several different signals per change, each representing a multibit combination. So although the signalling rate (baud) may not increase, the number of bits conveyed by that rate can be much higher. Because consumers have become familiar with the term baud, vendors and the trade press often continue to use the term inaccurately (that is, when they really mean bits per second). The important specification for a modem is the data transfer speed, measured in bits per second. Dividing this number by 10 yields an approximation of the number of characters transmitted per second. –Randall Couch, ISC Communications Q: Since the current version of Vi-Spy doesn’t produce an on-screen pinwheel to in
