Anyone here still on dial-up internet?

...just curious. I was in Fry's yesterday and marveled at the fact they still had
56k modems on the shelf for sale...


Jedi

 

I know some older folk that are still on dialup but they only use internet for email and basic browsing.

 

I think I still have a bulk palette of 56k modems laying around somewhere that I'd let go for shipping costs only ... so basically trash

 

I miss that sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

 

I still use dial-up. My internet use is e-mail, a few forums like F-chat, some information searching via Google, and a little e-Bay.

Until recently, it all worked well enough and I did not feel too deprived. The good thing about the dial-up is that I could connect from home and from work and it was a very small monthly bill. About two weeks ago, the dial-up connection at home became un-usable: very slow connect speeds and constant drop outs. The very same computer would have trouble at home, but the connection at work was still fine. The phone company said it was the ISP and the ISP said it was the phone line. Just a couple of days ago, the same problem appeared on my work phone. As a test, I got a dial-up account with the phone company just to put the ball entirely into their court. The connection to the phone company works fine at home and at work. Now I am not one given to conspiracy theories, but......

I had a good conversation with the tech at the independent ISP and he was interested in the problem, but had no real suggestions of what to do. He said it would be hard to imagine that the phone company could or would expend the effort to make life difficult for independent dial-up accounts. I am going to try some kind of trace program just to see if there is some evidence of what is going on.

When I was talking to the phone company, they offered a very reasonable package of DSL combined with 25 hours of dial-up access. I signed up for that and will try to get the DSL set up at home and use the dial-up at work. I use OS/2 as an operating system, so the set-up and configuration will be entirely up to me. Since the output from the DSL modem is simple ethernet, I am confident it will work. I know there will be no help from the phone company. If I ever mention OS/2 to any of the techs, they are either silent or they think it is a very old version of the MAC OS......;>)

 

I miss it like I miss banging my head against the wall

[But, then I remember 300baud modems as well....]

Cheers,
Ian

 

.

From my bookcase:
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Chuck Norris has found his successor...

 

The fact that it remains on your bookcase is a little worrying dude!

"Hayes" was *the* standard though - It worked damn well back in the day. ["The day" being around the time that "the experts" were saying "the laws of physics set the speed limit for twisted pair copper at 9,600 baud......]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Indeed!

OS/2 - Wow, just wow!

I guess "if it works, why fix it?" comes to mind......

Cheers,
Ian

 

chuck norris lol

would be funnier if I didn't think it was true

I remember paying $6,000 per 9600 modem, and buying 24 of them! fortunately that was with taxpayer money ..

 

Personally, I think phone companies are trying to make dialup phone service so crappy that they are FORCING us to go broadband.

Another thing I noticed (and I am not alone) is that when I subscribed to (Cox) Hi-def channels, the 'regular def' channels' quality got A LOT worse.
Are they trying to make it so I never want to dump hi-def?
I think so.

 

Far Out and Fast ian:

Oh I know! I feel as if I should be in front of a roomful of other lost souls with my head bowed low, saying "My name is sowest and I use OS/2".

However, it does work. It is something that I am comfortable with and it is very, very stable. I have been using it for years and it never locks up. I don't get viruses or other mal-ware. It just boots up and runs day after day, year after year. I don't know the full truth, but it bothers me to think about the reports that Windows reports back to the "mother ship" about what is on a computer without the user even knowing about it. There is still a small group of supporters that is providing ports of open source software.

Far Out, I see that you are in Germany. I understand that OS/2 was more widely accepted and used in Europe than it ever was in the USA.

Whisky, I understand what you are saying. There are so many people that are in rural areas or simply cannot afford the cost of the latest hardware and the monthly fees for high speed access. There are places in the city where WiFi just doesn't reach. Broadcast television is pretty pathetic in my area. The stations are few and the content is nothing to get excited about. Of course that might just be the general state of TV. I had cable for years and canceled it in frustration a couple of years ago. The length and frequency of the commercials became intolerable. The movie channels had a gem every now and then, but most of it was junk, repeated over and over again. Oh well! I guess that I am just a Luddite and a complainer.

I think it best that I do not mention my CRT projector and Laser Discs....;>)

 

Indeed! As I said, "if it works, why fix it".... Good for you! I liked your comment about tech support folk either going real quiet or assuming it's a really old Mac OS system - I guess most of these folks weren't around when OS/2 was available.....

Is the OS itself now in OSS land? I remember it (*way* back when!) was actually a fairly well respected OS - It got steamrollered by the evil empire, but it did work.....

Nothing wrong with a CRT projector - Still my main TV [Lack of HDMI ports is becoming an issue, but i'm not into a multi-thousand $ TV when the one I have still works great.....]

Cheers,
Ian

 

Hi Ian

You get it! A kindred spirit!! Knowledge and approval of OS/2 and a CRT projector!!!

No, OS/2 has not been open sourced. When IBM announced that it was ending support, there was an effort to get them to release the code. I think they would have liked to, but the usual concerns about liability and intellectual property got in the way. Versions of OS/2 actually had 16 bit Windows included (Win 3.1) However, IBM did come an agreement with a small company to continue development. It is still available for purchase. It is now known as e-comstation. The system has been updated for modern hardware.

On the CRT front. Depending on what machine you have, there are HDMI input cards available. Just in case you don't know, curtpalme.com is a great home theater forum and it is primarily for the CRT crowd. There are lots of good people there and a wealth of information.

For no good reason whatsoever, I am attaching a picture that I posted at curtpalme.com. It was when Paul Newman passed away and I had my own personal Paul Newman Film Festival.
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I guess that is one way to avoid viruses lol, just you systems that virus programmers dont use any more lol.

 

I would probably STILL be on dial-up if my Wife didnt move in and bring her Broadband with her 3 yrs ago.

 

As if it were even humanly possible to achieve 55k posts on a dial-up connection !!!!

 

Well, I was well on my way before Nicole moved in!

Would probably only still be on 25K posts but!

 

I have an extra line as back-up once in a moon time the fast one goes down by Murphys Law just when you have some very important stuff it has saved me a couple of times.

BTW my dial-up connection is still quite good one time I was about to leave the country for a month and in a rush, the Fios was having hiccups I used the dial-up to do some of my stuff and ran to the airport ... forgot the computer ON one month later I came back the line was still on and internet worked right away didn't drop for a month ;-)

Cheers

P.S. Some other countries charge by time of call not number of calls on regular lines

 

I sort of do too....in a way.

A few months ago we moved floors at work and went from being secluded to surrounded by other depts. All the sudden I hear "that sound" from behind me, not sure what they use it for. Immediate flashback to signing in to AOL everyday.

It's truly amazing how patient we were back then. I get impatient now if it takes more than 5 seconds for a page to load fully.

 

I don't know what kind of environment you're in, but the above sounds very "dodgy" to me - Being a paranoid security guy, I suspect they're circumventing the "corporate IT security policy" to get to "stuff" that's otherwise blocked by the firewalls etc.

In many places I've worked at, this is a dismissable offense.......

Just sayin',
Cheers,
Ian

 

They could be using it as a fax service. We still use it for that purpose in some of our remote offices.

 

Don't worry ian, its no security risk. They run a pretty tight ship, but I can still get on fchat. I actually tried to get the IT guys to give me more personal control on my computer. Since they know I'm somewhat knowlegeable they wouldm but couldn't b/c of the "policy".

Its used for some specific program for what that dept does as crusader pointed out.

 

Ohh, I'm not at all worried!

If it's a fax machine, no worries.

However, if it's a virtual fax machine, and it's also connected to your network there are very definitely "risks" - May be there's an exception in the policy for "business reasons" (we used to *hate* those!) to connect to a specific supplier or whatever, but if it can dial out to "random" places there are again risks involved....

As long as the IT security nazis are aware of it, and it's a documented exception, no problem. [Again, I dunno what biz you're in, but auditors can be a real PITA when it comes to exceptions......]

Cheers,
Ian