ADSL is the acronym (abbreviated form) for the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - a technology that requires a special ADSL modem and permits more data to be transferred over the existing copper telephone cables (POTS). ADSL supports data rates of between 1.5 and 9.0 Mbps (megabytes per second) for receiving data (called the 'downstream' rate) and between 16.0 and 640 Kbps (kilobytes per second) for sending data (called the 'upstream' rate). In order to use ADSL technology one must either use a 'kit', consisting of a small box of tricks and some software, or a 'router'(pronounced rooter) that allows several computers to go online at once. | 
