Dial-up internet memories

AOL....also known as AOHELL. I usually made a game of it, memorizing the dial up tone and sounding as best I could along with all the weird noises xD

 

I dunno what you guys are talking about, the sound of a Dial-up router connecting is awesome in my opinion! It brings back so many memories of the days of Windows 95, I just love it!
We did swap out our Dial-up router after a couple of years though. I'd much prefer Fibre optic than Dial-up, don't get me wrong!

 

ohhh my gosh yes. My family had dial up for the longest time, and I couldn't even watch YouTube, it'd take forever just to load one short video. I was amazed when I'd go to friends' houses and YouTube videos would just buffer right away. Thinking back, that's pretty funny heh...

I don't remember exactly when we switched, but I think I was maybe 12 or 13 (7-8 years ago). It wasn't terribly late, but my best friend had long switched out of dial up by then (her family was also pretty well off, though).

 

I didn't start using the internet until I was 16 years old. That was back in 2007.

 

I've had dial-up at home for far longer than most others. It wasn't until May 2013 that I was finally able to switch to broadband-I found a good deal through Frontier (our landline phone company), then again, there isn't much of a choice since I live in a rural area, and money is so limited.
At first, it was fun hearing that sound the modem makes while performing the "handshake" to connect to the Internet-but as the years went by, the Web evolved to the point where doing anything on dial-up was a pain. In later years, I also experienced more trouble making a connection to the Internet. I would also get yelled at by my mom frequently to get off the Internet so she could make a call.
I also had some experience with AOL, at an aunt's house, mostly back in 2000-01, and would get on there occasionally whenever I was over there. While I thought the AOL browser's user interface was interesting, I didn't care to click on any of the buttons, I only wanted to go to certain websites I was interested in.
I felt like I was set free when a phone jack was installed near my computer so I could finally get Internet access at home-which was March 16, 2002. My first provider was NetZero-which was a good deal compared to AOL, but eventually, I got tired of the provider-mandated software and toolbar, so we switched to another, smaller provider a few years later.

 

The sweet molasses that was the dial-up tone. <3 Reminds me I've always wanted to make that sound my ringtone, ahah. But yes, I have fond memories of the days when you could go off and make a cup of hot chocolate, come back and the cup would be half-cooled by the time one page loads.

That and trying to step over the length of telephone cable that was plugged into a phonejack all the way downstairs near the door. Ah, those were the days.

 

Unfortunately I remember dial-up internet all too well. I used to plug my ears whenever I heard that awful screeching sound. I had to listen to that noise until I was 11 years old. Then we replaced the old windows computer with a Mac with DSL.

Now years later I'm back to windows, but thank Arceus that I won't ever have to deal with dial-up again.

BTW does Dial-up even exist anymore?

 

Fun fact. Those 'screeching' noises are what's known as a modem handshake. Electrical signals (i.e., data) produced by computers are, in the modern sense, how we send data along the line between senders (you trying to connect) and receivers (your isp, mostly likely AOL back in the day). For dial-up, these pulses had to be transformed into sound by the modem in order to go forth over your telephone wire and are being sent back and forth to establish a number of things, such as the capabilities of both sides and how they intend on operating. Think of them as a set of procedures being voiced in a language humans can't comprehend. After all the hoohah calms down, and the initial start-up procedures have finished, the 'handshake' proper occurs which in turn establishes a connection to the internet, and lets you off on your merry, slow page loading way.

As for the popularity of dial-up these days, to the best of my knowledge subscription rates still range into the low 2 millions. According to Wikipedia, it is still 'barely thriving.' AOL is still hard pressed to make a profit from the legacy communication technology, at any rate.

 

Dial up internet was something that I never got to experience thankfully, or so I remember. I think I would cry if I had to go through it nowadays. However, I'm pretty sure my parents made the switch when they could. They couldn't stand the noise.