High-speed at last!

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leoblob · #1 Post by **leoblob** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:35 pm

13 years on the Internet, every single moment done via dial-up... until yesterday. Now I'm on at 4Mpbs via cable. Quite a difference! I feel like I should throw a party or something!

#2 Post by **JaneL** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:52 pm

Congratulations! It's a heady feeling, isn't it? ;-)

#3 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:03 am

I remember what how it felt when I first used got broadband back in 1998 (I was using a 25mhz ThinkPad 350c on a brand new cable modem then; good times indeed!) and from there, turning back was impossible. I have a friend who still used dial up until about a year ago and when I went to his house, the internet just felt so excruciatingly slow. Still, the mass adoption of high speed internet does have an unweildy side effect: pop up ads are now flashier and even incorporate multimedia. In fact, sometimes it feels like the only reason I need to upgrade my computer is so I can view the latest advertisements without getting a system crash.

dorin · #4 Post by **dorin** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:33 am

worst is when you go backwards! i was working in ro for the biggest ISP, downloading a movie in 3 min, everything beautiful,
till i moved in sri lanka for 3 years, 5 yrs ago, when on that time, for about half year the only connection possible was the dial up...

trying to update the website over dial up... living hell...

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:08 am

The SEKRIT downside to hi-speed ubiquity? Every site suddenly feels the need to turn into a flash/multimedia/animated gif orgy to prove their existence as well as grab the average half-second attention span of your regular web surfer.

#6 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:18 am

christopher_wolf wrote:gif orgy

I'm really not sure what that is but it sounds like something that would involve the banana icon (

) and something I can't say here.

christopher_wolf · #7 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:30 am

*sigh*

You just wait until you see the full power that a deluge of those emoticons could unleash.

Seeing as how the Banana has been popularized, I will choose to primarily use a highly sophisticated, intelligent, and fully mature emoticon that conveys the true importance of a post in a technical and formal manner;

Also, take a look at most popular auto sites or the like. Then see how many of them have their entire home page made out of flash with cute menus and fade effects that slowly suck up memory through your browser like a starved vampire at a blood bank; oh no, people just feel they are *above* using simple HTML. This slaughters most dial-up connections.

#8 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:23 am

Okay boys, back to your corners....

Getting back on topic to an off-topic thread...

I have a couple of 2400 baud modems if anyone is interested

. Probably still have the 9600, 14.4, 28.8, 33.6 and 56K versions around as well.

And for all of you young'uns out there, ask you parents (or grandparents) how fast an acoustically-coupled, 110 baud, ASR/33 Teletype terminal, connected to a Tymeshare BASIC system was. THEN you can really appreciate how fast a 56K modem is.

Getting down from my soapbox (with some aid from my walker...)

P.S. Christopher: Didn't get too much done with the TFD book this weekend. Was busy sniping on eBay

I promise to get back to work on it this next week.

christopher_wolf · #9 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:45 am

*shudder*

Acoustic modems are far in the past, where they should be. I have a few 9600 Baud modems hanging around here, although I have *no* idea why I still keep them.

IRTT TFD, take your time...I am still outlining the format of the chapters, sections, and table of contents. I should be able to make a flowchart/diagram of it as an overview and send that to you to get some feedback.

leoblob · #10 Post by **leoblob** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:32 am

I have four 56K modems that are now available for sale

I also have a 14.4 and a 1200. I remember in the days of bulletin boards, that 1200 was plenty fast. Painting a 24 line screen with characters (only) doesn't take that much bandwidth.

Like people have said, the higher speed is almost necessary due to all the graphic garbage that are thrown onto sites these days. Non-graphical applications that will be nice are things like downloading Windows updates, etc. I'm accostomed to those taking about 45 minutes (depending on how much new stuff there is to dowload).

Also, the time it takes to simply dial the line and make the connection... when you multiply that by the number of times per day you go on line, it really starts to add up... not any more!

#11 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:35 am

I have an old 50mhz Epson laptop with a monochrome screen and an internal 9600 modem. I also at one point had a circa 1991 Acer laptop (and yes, they were flimsy pieces of crap back then too) that had an internal 2400 (I think) modem. Luckily, I've never had to use either for the internet.

epbrown · #12 Post by **epbrown** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:29 am

How fast was the modem in the 355, 2400? I remember starting to download a file, setting the display to off, and going to bed. Eight hours later I got up, showered, shaved, and got dressed for work, all before the file finished.

And yes, computers are sort of like cars: the more powerful we make them, the more we add on to slow them down, and it ends up a performance wash. I've got DSL and wi-fi, so I get my files faster, but they're all a lot bigger as well - am I getting more done now than I did 10 years ago with my 701C using dial-up?

Miller88 · #13 Post by **Miller88** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:05 pm

I took the step backwards. Back in 2001, we got roadrunner. I never had to deal with dialup. All the computers that I worked on were on DSL, Cable or at my house. Now that I got to college, the best download speed I get is 20kB/s. Its terrible. Sometimes during the afternoon, http is impossible and the only thing I can do is instant message.

JHEM · #14 Post by **JHEM** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:28 pm

Miller88 wrote:I took the step backwards. Back in 2001, we got roadrunner. I never had to deal with dialup. All the computers that I worked on were on DSL, Cable or at my house. Now that I got to college, the best download speed I get is 20kB/s. Its terrible. Sometimes during the afternoon, http is impossible and the only thing I can do is instant message.

But, but, but YOU'RE AT ThinkpadU!

No high speed in the dorms? Just at the lounge and STUAC?

That sucks! I thought you guys had campus-wide WiFi!! No?

James

#15 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:35 pm

AlphaKilo470 wrote:I have an old 50mhz Epson laptop with a monochrome screen and an internal 9600 modem. I also at one point had a circa 1991 Acer laptop (and yes, they were flimsy pieces of crap back then too) that had an internal 2400 (I think) modem. Luckily, I've never had to use either for the internet.

1991? How about the Hyperion portable PC ... had one of these back in 1983. The design actually still looks pretty good, though I wouldn't say the same about the performance!

#16 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:51 pm

ok, you guys..

in the modem wars of mine is older than yours, my entry is a Racal Vadic 300 baud job..

not only do i still have this one i have the power supply for it..

i think we need an emoticon that is a walker..

speaking of which, except for a few really old folks, i have SOCKS that are older than most of y'all..

pianowizard · #17 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:58 pm

Back in the mid 90s, I had a Packard Bell Legend 11CD desktop with 50MHz 80486DX2, 4MB RAM and a 2400 bps modem. I signed up for AOL's free 30-day trial and the web site I tried to load was hotmail.com. It took around 6 hours to finish loading! So I canceled my free trial right away. But it worked okay for bulletin boards.

#18 Post by **K. Eng** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:08 pm

I don't think I could ever deal with dialup again. I had the full benefit of broadband in college, and I'm on a fairly speedy cable system right now. Whenever I went back to my parent's house, I had to deal with 36.6k connections, or whatever WiFi I could steal from the neighbors. It was not fun.

pianowizard · #19 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:29 pm

K. Eng wrote:Whenever I went back to my parent's house, I had to deal with 36.6k connections, or whatever WiFi I could steal from the neighbors. It was not fun.

Same here, whenever I visit my mom in TX. I use Juno's free service (up to 10 hours per month) and the speed is only around 20kbps! But since it's free, I shouldn't really complain.

RUSH2112 · #20 Post by **RUSH2112** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:37 pm

I know a few people who still suffer from the plague of dial up. I can't even upload a 2MB file to them. Why do they do this to themselves?

#21 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:29 pm

pianowizard wrote:Back in the mid 90s, I had a Packard Bell Legend 11CD desktop with 50MHz 80486DX2, 4MB RAM and a 2400 bps modem. I signed up for AOL's free 30-day trial and the web site I tried to load was hotmail.com. It took around 6 hours to finish loading! So I canceled my free trial right away. But it worked okay for bulletin boards.

I actually ran two web sites in 1994. On ISDN connections!

f1reverb · #22 Post by **f1reverb** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:27 pm

Dial-up and a hard-wired phone line can be your friend even today. A power failure that lasts any length of time can occur even in SoCal, and normally the phone line is not affected, so you can surf with a laptop (it pays to keep your battery charged) when everyone else is net dead. When the January 17, 1994 EQ hit L.A. I could still log on to Compuserve to get news and email. I keep all my computers ready to dial-up at anytime. It's so easy as all you have to do is tell IE to use the dialer with one check in the settings. It also pays to keep an old Western Electric phone on hand for that line too. I need the dial-up too as one of my friends still runs an old-school BBS (the last of its kind here in L.A.) for MSDOS freaks.

christopher_wolf · #23 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:48 pm

Strange, one would think that most power outages would be a rather serious force in getting people to go outside and, perhaps, stop the classification of sunlight as "that thing that causes glare on my monitor;" then again, there are always mobile devices (laptops, cell phones, crackberries, etc).

Miller88 · #24 Post by **Miller88** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:35 pm

JHEM wrote:
Miller88 wrote:I took the step backwards. Back in 2001, we got roadrunner. I never had to deal with dialup. All the computers that I worked on were on DSL, Cable or at my house. Now that I got to college, the best download speed I get is 20kB/s. Its terrible. Sometimes during the afternoon, http is impossible and the only thing I can do is instant message.
But, but, but YOU'RE AT ThinkpadU!

No high speed in the dorms? Just at the lounge and STUAC?

That sucks! I thought you guys had campus-wide WiFi!! No?

James

I take it you went to Morrisville? We do have wifi and wired gig ethernet ports in STUAC but the problem is, the whole campus shares a T3 line. 3000 people on that slows it down.

But the good news is, they're upgrading this summer.

JHEM · #25 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:53 pm

Miller88 wrote:I take it you went to Morrisville?

Um, no. But I'm familiar with the campus from their "ThinkpadU" label.

James

Miller88 · #26 Post by **Miller88** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:40 pm

The thinkpad u thing is kinda cool. I honestly didn't want a laptop. Then I found the thinkpad u and T60 ...

JHEM · #27 Post by **JHEM** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 7:29 am

Miller88 wrote:The thinkpad u thing is kinda cool. I honestly didn't want a laptop. Then I found the thinkpad u and T60 ...

SUNY has one of the better funded and supported state programs for student laptops.

Programs like NY's are one of the reasons we always counsel folks to check with their educational institutions when they ask where the best place is for purchasing a laptop for school.

James

Miller88 · #28 Post by **Miller88** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:28 pm

Had I not purchased their laptop, I'd be buing a full version of Office 2003, Visual Studio and whatever else will be required in the future.

Morrisville is one of the best colleges for Net Admin though.

JHEM · #29 Post by **JHEM** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:11 pm

Miller88 wrote:Morrisville is one of the best colleges for Net Admin though.

And AG/Forestry.

Nice campus also. Only thing you need to do is petition the FFAs at the dairy center to start making ice cream!

http://www.unh.edu/dairy-bar/

http://conferences.cas.psu.edu/IceCream/

James

Miller88 · #30 Post by **Miller88** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:05 am

They started having Molly's Choice Ice Cream recently, which is made here on campus. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to ice cream

But I do get a new laptop in two years. Which is pretty cool. Geez, this thread has been hijacked.

High-speed at last!

High-speed at last!

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