Do you remember when there was dial-up internet?
In my first article in the 'Do you remember...' series I'm going to be taking a look back at the dial up internet connection. I fondly remember those days as if it were yesterday. Well, I say fondly now, but back then I would constantly curse the slowness of dial up.
When I got my first computer, it had a 56k modem built into it, which according to my friends was exceptionally fast compared to the 28.8k modems that they had. The thing was though, it was still pretty damn slow. Yes, it was a speedier connection than what my friends had, but it still took an age to download Windows Updates, let alone anything else.
One of the biggest issues with the dial up connection was that it hijacked your telephone line, so no one could make a phone call while you were on the interent, unless of course you had more than one phone line in your home. I'm sure others remember being told that they had to get off the internet so their mum could use the phone. Looking back at it now, its surprising that anyone actually put up with it.
The increase in Broadband availability:
Things started to change however in 2004, in the UK anyway. Broadband really started to increase in popularity, especially with the advent of video websites such as YouTube. I remember trying to watch a video on YouTube on dial-up. Lets just say it wouldn't stop stuttering. The problem with Broadband however was that it was actually pretty expensive when compared to dial-up with the former costing around £45 and the latter costing between £10-15.
As Broadband became cheaper though, it slowly but surely muscled out dial-up, and rightly so. My first Broadband speen was 1Mb/s, which, after dial-up was like going from a Skoda to a Ferrari. Just now, I'm sitting writing this with a speed of 9Mb/s, which is truly an amazing feat in just the past 9 years that I've owned computers.
It really makes me wonder how much faster we'll get in the following 9 years, and even what devices we'll use the internet on. One thing I do miss about having a dial-up connection is the dial tone. I can still hear it now, and remember the final part of the sequence, just before it would connect.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about dial up internet below.
