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Blast from the past....dial up
- Thread starter dukebound85
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I think the last time I used a dial-up was about 12 years ago. I lived in Tulsa, OK for a year and couldn't get a DSL in the apartment I was in.
Also, another aspect of this transition towards computerized and IP-based telephony is that the old analog and even the original digital exchanges had significantly less capacity than what is available now. All this mostly thanks to the increases in the computing power. The telephone exchanges once brimming with equipment are now half-empty, with some having hardly any equipment in them at all.
Also, another aspect of this transition towards computerized and IP-based telephony is that the old analog and even the original digital exchanges had significantly less capacity than what is available now. All this mostly thanks to the increases in the computing power. The telephone exchanges once brimming with equipment are now half-empty, with some having hardly any equipment in them at all.
Back in 2001 I had 56K dial-up...
So slow.... I remember watching the QTVR of the new (back then) PowerMac G4 Cube, which weighted 1 MB... It had taken 10 minutes to load...
And only 6 months ago, I had 640 kbps internet, and I found it extremely slow too... Nowadays 3 mbps is the bare minimum...
So slow.... I remember watching the QTVR of the new (back then) PowerMac G4 Cube, which weighted 1 MB... It had taken 10 minutes to load...
And only 6 months ago, I had 640 kbps internet, and I found it extremely slow too... Nowadays 3 mbps is the bare minimum...
back then I was alright because all I knew was 56k dial up...that is until I went to my buddy's house where he had cable 
...I drop kicked dial up and got DSL around 2000
...I drop kicked dial up and got DSL around 2000 
I remember switching to 128 kb/s "broadband" in 2001 and being amazed at how fast it was
Unfortunately there aren't any ISPs where I live that want to provide services that are fast by today's standards. I get 3.5 Mb/s at the moment, although they're supposed to be upgrading my street soon (September 2009... yeah, right)!
Unfortunately there aren't any ISPs where I live that want to provide services that are fast by today's standards. I get 3.5 Mb/s at the moment, although they're supposed to be upgrading my street soon (September 2009... yeah, right)!
At my last job I had to do some traveling. I was at a hotel circa 2001 that had broadband internet for $25/night. It was two weeks after I broke up with what was my fiancé; so I went to the hotel bar drank myself into a stupor, was hit on by a woman who could have been my mother (I was 23) and cried myself to sleep.
When was the last time a Macbook Pro or otherwise had a modem built in? Do they make external ones that actually work?
I remember switching to 128 kb/s "broadband" in 2001 and being amazed at how fast it was
Unfortunately there aren't any ISPs where I live that want to provide services that are fast by today's standards. I get 3.5 Mb/s at the moment, although they're supposed to be upgrading my street soon (September 2009... yeah, right)!
Surprisingly Comcast is working out very well for me. I have the Triple play, TV, broadband and Phone. The last linux ISO I downloaded I got 1.5MB/sec. Here in Berks County, PA that's very good - considering this place is a social & technological vacuum.
There is the Apple USB modem that can also be used for fax...
It's 50$ or so, and I guess it "just works"
I remember waiting 25 minutes for a 2 minute video on Flowgo to load. I never really used the Internet that much when we had dial up. I had an email account and pretty much the only things I did was dress my Yahoo! Avatar and read news stories on Yahoo.
Really? I'm on a 1.5 Mbps line currently, and find it perfectly adequate. Sure faster would be nice, but for the price, I can't complain.
There is the Apple USB modem that can also be used for fax...
It's 50$ or so, and I guess it "just works"
Yikes.
There has to be a generic version somewhere.
Unfortunately I'm in New Zealand and using a company previously called ihug (originally Internet Home Users Group) who were bought out by Vodafone, who are utterly hopeless!! Plus they are overly expensive. They wouldn't even bother to fix their server problem which meant I couldn't even log in via my Mac OS 9 computer at all - I had to install Mac OS X 10.2 just to get any sort of log in, and it's still flakey which is why I have to use this ancient Windoze PC instead.
The only thing stopping me from changing to another Internet provider is the hassle involved in changing my email address everywhere - I've had it for over 10 years.
Unfortunately I'm in New Zealand and using a company previously called ihug (originally Internet Home Users Group) who were bought out by Vodafone, who are utterly hopeless!! Plus they are overly expensive. They wouldn't even bother to fix their server problem which meant I couldn't even log in via my Mac OS 9 computer at all - I had to install Mac OS X 10.2 just to get any sort of log in, and it's still flakey which is why I have to use this ancient Windoze PC instead.
The only thing stopping me from changing to another Internet provider is the hassle involved in changing my email address everywhere - I've had it for over 10 years.
that's why I use a neutral email address. Lavabit - $8 for two years - the email is encrypted on the server. So when Uncle Sam goes completely fascist they won't be able to read my junk - even with the admin's help.
It really is a great service.
To be honest I stopped noticing any perceptible differences in speed since cable became more standardized, back when dial up was the thing it was easier to tell the difference in page loading and download speeds as it was then things would take minutes or hours now its down to seconds and fractions of seconds for normal large file downloads.
Whenever I use the newish ATM at the deli at the end of my street--it uses a dial up connection to access my account. I can actually hear the tones--which is odd since I live in Brooklyn.
My brother in rural Michigan has dial up--no broadband there yet. I've connected using my MBP and indeed its a throwback for sure. I remember that the MBP was the first laptop to not include a modem and people were up in arms over it at the time.
My brother in rural Michigan has dial up--no broadband there yet. I've connected using my MBP and indeed its a throwback for sure. I remember that the MBP was the first laptop to not include a modem and people were up in arms over it at the time.
My family and I used dial-up service up until 2008 Now we have Clear DSL. It's very nice to have something fast.
Also, in Uni my roommates and I lived in one of two University Housing Apartment buildings that had yet to be refurbished and still had dial-up. The other 8 apartment buildings were newly refurbished and had high speed internet. Thankfully that has all changed. Oh, and there was only 1 connection point for the dial-up and that was in the living room area. We had to string a very long telephone cable into our rooms and had to share that one cable
Now we have Clear DSL. It's very nice to have something fast.Also, in Uni my roommates and I lived in one of two University Housing Apartment buildings that had yet to be refurbished and still had dial-up. The other 8 apartment buildings were newly refurbished and had high speed internet. Thankfully that has all changed. Oh, and there was only 1 connection point for the dial-up and that was in the living room area. We had to string a very long telephone cable into our rooms and had to share that one cable
I like being able to watch streaming videos without actually having to wait for them to load before...
I don't know if it is possible on 1.5 Mbps, but if it is, then this is (in my opinion) the minimum.
I just got high speed (again) less than a year ago. Although it's hard to call what I've got now "high speed", it's much better than the dial-up.
And even better than using dial-up internet is sharing a dial-up connection over your wireless network when you've got two people trying to use it. Bless Apple for having briefly included a 56k modem in their old AEBS, I sure got my use out of that feature. Which, of course, means I never did have to listen to the sounds.
Thankfully THAT'S over now!
And even better than using dial-up internet is sharing a dial-up connection over your wireless network when you've got two people trying to use it.
Bless Apple for having briefly included a 56k modem in their old AEBS, I sure got my use out of that feature. Which, of course, means I never did have to listen to the sounds.Thankfully THAT'S over now!
I live in a very isolated part of southern Ontario, Canada. There are lots of options for broadband but none will reach where I live. I can't even get satellite because I'm surrounded by trees. I was stuck on dial-up until about four months ago when a new cell tower was erected nearby that gave me the option of 3G tethering through my iPhone. I'm now zooming along at around 300KB/s download speeds which is lightning fast compared to the 4.8KB/s I used to get. Only problem is I have to keep a close eye on my monthly bandwidth usage as exceeding the (fairly generous) 6GB/month Rogers cap gets very expensive very quickly. But overall I have to say that internet tethering works great and it is a "last hope" for those of us where nothing else works. 
I live in a very isolated part of southern Ontario, Canada. There are lots of options for broadband but none will reach where I live. I can't even get satellite because I'm surrounded by trees. I was stuck on dial-up until about four months ago when a new cell tower was erected nearby that gave me the option of 3G tethering through my iPhone. I'm now zooming along at around 300KB/s download speeds which is lightning fast compared to the 4.8KB/s I used to get. Only problem is I have to keep a close eye on my monthly bandwidth usage as exceeding the (fairly generous) 6GB/month Rogers cap gets very expensive very quickly. But overall I have to say that internet tethering works great and it is a "last hope" for those of us where nothing else works.
Look on the bright side, you have free healthcare.
I mean except for the VAT, blank media tax, import duty, gasoline tax...
I had dial-up up until about 2005, I suppose. Never minded it, it worked when I needed it to. Finally moved to a supposedly 128KB/s wireless service, and have been stuck with it ever since. (Only time you'll hit those download speeds is at 5 in the morning.) It's like very slightly faster dial up for $129 more per month.