dialer

Dialers are dial-up programs that establish a predefined connection with the help of a computer. The connection set-up by the dial-up program should be optimized according to certain criteria.

As far as the criteria of such dial-up programs are concerned, these can relate to the way in which the connection is established, to the data rate or the connection costs, to the type of switching technology, the quality of service or the type of service. Dialers reside on the computer and establish an appropriate connection to the desired remote station on request. With autodialers or predictive dialers, such a connection is initiated by a computer program. Once a connection is established, the program delivers a prerecorded message called a robocall.

Dialer technology can also be abused by intentionally switching the connection through expensive connections or to an expensive phone number. The user may not realize this, as the dialer programs have switched the connection to appropriately costly numbers when visiting certain websites. For this reason, certain dialers have been banned by law. However, they are still used as dial-up programs because Internet services can be billed directly via them.