Dial up. First got internet at home in 1998. The PC even came with copies of Half Life and Total Annihilation. Good times.
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Did you have dial up at home or did you jump straight to broadband?
- Thread starter Lightning Count
- Start date
Dial up, and we got it pretty late since my parents were sort of resistant to the notion that the internet was ever going to be a big or necessary thing. I don't think we actually got our dial up until 2000 or so, years after I started using the internet at friends' houses. I even had an AIM name that I logged into from friends' houses years before I ever had an internet connection at home.
I think we upgraded to broadband in 2003, and it was amazing.
I think we upgraded to broadband in 2003, and it was amazing.
We started at 56k, but only my dad used it. He had the only computer and it was in his home office. My brother and I used to go on there every once in awhile and there was some skateboarding site that we were obsessed with. It had little video clips of skate tricks and we just couldn't believe it. I wish I remembered how long it took for each video to load, lol.
We then got broadband (256k I think?) around 2001 and we also got a computer for us boys in the house at that time and from then I've been all about it.
We then got broadband (256k I think?) around 2001 and we also got a computer for us boys in the house at that time and from then I've been all about it.
MOM, DID YOU JUST PICK UP THE PHONE I AM ON THE NET ARRRGHHHHHH
That stupid sound while connecting to the net...damn, what the hell was that? couldn't they just like make it a form of beep or something? haha
I remember spending an ENTIRE summer reading/ downloading 3DSMAX tutorials from the internet. By the end of the summer, the whole data was burned on a whopping 600 MB CD. Good times.
That stupid sound while connecting to the net...damn, what the hell was that? couldn't they just like make it a form of beep or something? haha
I remember spending an ENTIRE summer reading/ downloading 3DSMAX tutorials from the internet. By the end of the summer, the whole data was burned on a whopping 600 MB CD. Good times.
Had 56k dialup from 1996..?(could be later) to 2005. Had 800kb satellite internet for a year after that and to be fair, wasn't that much better with the 20GB cap and constant disconnects. We tempted to just go back to dial up lmao, but was able to get 1.5mbps DSL when it got really bad and it was way way way better.
In order:
- Dial-up with AOL free trials (still need to pay for calls).
- Dial-up with Freeserve (no subscription cost, but still pay for calls).
- Dial-up with Screaming.net (no call cost, had to change telephone provider to Localtel).
- Broadband via LAN connection to University residential network ("Resnet").
OP
OP
Most of us over 25 year have used dial up at done point. So the old are the majority
I remember downloading the phantom menace teaser trailer on our 56k modem that would connect at between 9 and 28k (Australia). The connection that would drop out a lot. It took hours for what was probably only a 160p resolution one minute QuickTime video. Download resuming software was a necessity.
Then our internet PC was too old to play QuickTime so I had to split the file across many floppy disks to move it to a faster non internet connected PC. I would run back and forth across from detached office to our house and recreate the file. I think we only had one or two working floppy disks as they corrupted so easily. It was an arduous process but I still remember watching that trailer in awe on the 15" CRT.
Then our internet PC was too old to play QuickTime so I had to split the file across many floppy disks to move it to a faster non internet connected PC. I would run back and forth across from detached office to our house and recreate the file. I think we only had one or two working floppy disks as they corrupted so easily. It was an arduous process but I still remember watching that trailer in awe on the 15" CRT.
We had 56k and i pretty much didn't use the internet. I was a kid so tv, books, and consoles were enough entertainment. When we switched to broadband my mind was blown. Actually watching videos online was so damn crazy to me.
In 1996 the only option was dial-up.
You picked up the phone and it sounded like a spectrum tape loading every night.
You picked up the phone and it sounded like a spectrum tape loading every night.
Started at 56k. Had it for a few years before we moved to 256kb adsl that you could use at the same time as the phone, awesome stuff.
OP
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I remember hearing stories of people trying to use the original Xbox Live on dial up. But yeah downloading on dial up is a major pain in the ads.
Same for all dial up. Pick the phone up and lose connection.
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Dial-Up, and had it pretty late (about 1998/1999) because my parents couldn't afford the internet, but we upgraded straight away to broadband when it was available!
My house had dial-up for well beyond what should have been considered acceptable.
We had dial up until at least the time I entered Highschool (13 years old, about mid to late 2000s)
And then we still only had a 3G USB modem without (No Wifi) until at least 2010. My father never used the internet, only my mother, and she was the type who didn't see why we needed faster internet. My complaints about the internet were ignored because I was little and they were big, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I remember going to friends houses and being dumbfounded that YouTube buffered faster than it played.
Australian internet is currently considered crap, but I never really had a problem with ADSL here (The NBN/FTTN is a different story, because we get constant dropouts), because I know. I remember. *shudders*
To put the timeframes into perspective, I am 23.
We had dial up until at least the time I entered Highschool (13 years old, about mid to late 2000s)
And then we still only had a 3G USB modem without (No Wifi) until at least 2010. My father never used the internet, only my mother, and she was the type who didn't see why we needed faster internet. My complaints about the internet were ignored because I was little and they were big, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I remember going to friends houses and being dumbfounded that YouTube buffered faster than it played.
Australian internet is currently considered crap, but I never really had a problem with ADSL here (The NBN/FTTN is a different story, because we get constant dropouts), because I know. I remember. *shudders*
To put the timeframes into perspective, I am 23.
Bah, I can't remember what my speed was before 56k, pretty sure 28.8k though. Then went to broadband in the early 2000's. I remember the speed jump from 28.8k to 56k seemed like it was blazing fast, haha!
I started with 14.4k modem. It was dark times. It tied up the phone line and no calls got through. Upgraded to 28.8k then 56k modem. I still remember the noise it makes when dialing in to connect. Was using dial-up from the early 90s to early 2000s before switching to dsl, then cable a few years later. I would be surprised if anyone still uses dial-up now.
There are a lot of people in rural America. Especially out west where these farmers and businesses need to be connected but the broadband companies don't see any profit in running all those lines to just service a few businesses, or that single home all the way down a 3 mile road. It's a shame that after close to 20 years of fairly wide adoption of broadband, there are a lot of people still left in the dust!
Pretty much had dial up 56k until like 2002-3. I hated it. Pages took minutes to load, phone calls would knock you offline, trying to download anything bigger than 10mb MB was a excercise in frustration and then there were things out there that tried to rack up charges on your bill if you werent careful.
19.2K > never anywhere near 56k > Cable.
I too am fudging old... ;(
I had dial up until 2010 or 2011, then we got satellite internet, and we dropped that for a mobile hotspot and changed cell phone services in 2017 since we finally had a cell signal at all. The hotspot wifi still is not good, but at least I'm lucky and the data plan on the hotspot is unlimited. Plus my phone works good enough for anything I can manage to do on it instead
I remember the agony of downloading MGS 2 images around E3. I had to go to a friends house to watch the trailer cause it was just impossible otherwise. I remember using napster to download GT videos too.
Edit: Actually i don't think Napster worked for anything other than Metallica music, maybe it was Limewire or something similar, it was always fun to download shit and be surprised by malware and random stuff instead
Edit: Actually i don't think Napster worked for anything other than Metallica music, maybe it was Limewire or something similar, it was always fun to download shit and be surprised by malware and random stuff instead
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Nothing like getting a huge phone bill due to insane per minute connection charges.
28.8k and 56k
I even remember playing Warcraft 2 via direct dial-up even before connecting to the Internet itself.
I even remember playing Warcraft 2 via direct dial-up even before connecting to the Internet itself.
Was a heavy dial-up user back in the day
Plenty of memories yelling through the house at my parents to not pick up the phone when trying to connect to friends for multiplayer gaming.
Got my first taste of broadband when I went to college in 1999, and it was glorious.
Plenty of memories yelling through the house at my parents to not pick up the phone when trying to connect to friends for multiplayer gaming.
Got my first taste of broadband when I went to college in 1999, and it was glorious.
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I had 56k from 1999 - 2005. I started working a job in high school to pay for DSL myself, til I moved out after graduation.
I had 56k from about 1999~2000 (first time having internet at home) up to about 2003~4 when I got cable internet. I can't remember exactly but I remember playing Star Wars Galaxies when getting it installed and the Comcast guy was like, you're going to love it, you can download a 300MB Age of Empires patch in like 15 minutes. I still remember this for some reason, partly because he threw AOE out there and it caught me off guard.
The worst thing I had to deal with pre-cable internet was my dial up was 56K but I only ever got a max speed of 1.5 KB/s. It'd take at least 5 to 15 mins to just download a Counter-Strike skin and all night to download a patch in which you reeeaally hoped didn't mess up at some point and cancel.
The worst thing I had to deal with pre-cable internet was my dial up was 56K but I only ever got a max speed of 1.5 KB/s. It'd take at least 5 to 15 mins to just download a Counter-Strike skin and all night to download a patch in which you reeeaally hoped didn't mess up at some point and cancel.
AOL dial-up on 56K from 1994 to 2001. Then Cable and later FiOS from then on. We actually kept AOL around for a few years after. I dropped it earlier but my dad kept launching it for years after because of the email and messaging. (Ah the days before smart phones made texting the new instant messages. I switched to other IM apps.)