The end of an era

[kcsa75]

AOL ditching dial-up service, a relic of the internet in the '90s and early '00s

The online service provider said it will end the service on Sept. 30.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Decker]

We sold off our modem banks about 4 years ago now. They are still active...

 

[PopUpSteve]

Oh the sweet sounds of a dial-up modem.

 

[mx4789]

The first real adult job I had was working in an office where they had an "internet computer" next to the photocopiers that shared a line with the fax machine. If you needed to send an email (what's that?) or access the internet (there was no web yet) you had to go sit at this crappy little desk in a hallway to do it. Modems weren't cheap, and neither were telephone lines. And you had to know things like finger, gopher, ftp, nntp, to exchange information. Bulletin boards (the forerunner to AOL in a way) were more popular at that time. And we thought a 300 baud modem was screaming fast (which it was, for its purpose).

 

[Art in Denver Co]

It reminds me of how often my dial up connection crashed and burned.

 

[Batou2501]

Heh, if I forgot to turn my speakers down and I went "online " it scared the out of me and the cat,
- end of line-

 

[jmkay1]

internet computer" next to the photocopiers that shared a line with the fax machine.

So funny you should say that.. our internet computer was put in a quickly thrown together cubby of sorts near the fax machines/copiers that were in the hall. So we had a bit of privacy as we pulled data from our outside our geographical area offices. Month end that computer got a workout and we had to have a schedule of sorts to use it to do our job. Inside our general geographic area we could do all that from our personal desks.

 

[MichelleRowell]

...it was always so fun to put the handset (can you even call it that?) into the rubber-ringed cradle of the modem and holler to everyone in the house, "You can't use the phone for a while!"

 

[jmkay1]

@MichelleRowell I so remember that, or the time we were trying to download a game and yelled we "were downloading so, don't touch it", just before running outside to play while it loaded. That's the reason dad ended up buying a second line. He needed to keep the main line open for important work calls 24/7.

 

[Jimbow]

Way back when I was VP of sales and traveling a lot I kept an AOL account because they had local dial up access in every town in America.

My parents kept paying AOL ten years after switching to broadband because everything worked.

 

[mx4789]

My parents did the same thing. They would launch the AOL app and use the internet that way. I kept telling them they could just go to www.aol.com and log in to check their mail, but they preferred the app (and kvetching about the upgrades not being compatible with their old junker computer, lol).

 

[Jimbow]

I would send them the annual here's how many people are paying AOL for nothing article. Hey mom, that's you! Eventually y'all can have a meet up at Denny's.

Them one day she was having a problem getting to the AOL website and called for tech support only to hear "you have to call your Internet provider"

"Then why am I paying you?"

"For dial up service"

"But I don't use a modem anymore"

Then she understood what I was telling her thousands of dollars ago.

 

[Sneezer]

I started out with the acoustic ones that used the handset - like the one used in Wargames. Moved up to a Hayes external smartmodem, and then a 14.4 internal fax modem. I too had AOL for the longest time. I think I still have an internal modem sitting in a box of parts, and I also have a double height laptop pcmcia card that has a modem and network built in. That thing was amazing - no pop out xjacks to break off either.