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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment.

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Old 3rd Sep 2020, 11:00 pm   #41
arjoll
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

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Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
Yes indeed, two pair telephone cable is fine for 10/100 Ethernet at modest lengths, in spite of what the "experts" would have you believe.
The lengths would have to be very modest! Back in my time as sys admin at what used to be the local E&Y office in the mid 90s, most of the building had been done in AT&T Systemax Cat 3 cable - when it was done in 1990 they were one of the first with UTP in town, most others were still using 10Base-2 with the very occasional Token Ring. It was fine for 10 Mbps, but at one point I experimented with 100 Mbps - copying files down from the server seemed to start off blazingly fast, but within two seconds dropped to nothing as all the retries kicked in! Switched 10 Mbps was the best we could do - and it was a faff having to reconfigure NICs to achieve it.

I had some Cat 5 installed.
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Old 4th Sep 2020, 3:15 pm   #42
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

No, I don't use dial up anymore.

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Old 4th Sep 2020, 3:29 pm   #43
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

Likewise.

To get back to the original question:-

Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?
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Old 8th Sep 2020, 8:32 am   #44
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

No one by the looks of it.
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Old 8th Sep 2020, 8:41 am   #45
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

Are there even any dial-up internet connections available any more? If not, the original question becomes moot.
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Old 11th Sep 2020, 11:02 pm   #46
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

I think there is at least one ISP still offering dialup.

Its called Firefly, and although their website doesn't mention dialup, their access number still seems to be live.

I've not got a modem setup, but a phone call to the number gives the tones expected.

Access Number : 08456041528
Username : firefly
Password : firefly

Maybe someone with a modem can try, and maybe relive that full 56K experience.

EDIT : Don't forget, these services charge by the minute, so don't stay on for hours.

Cheers,

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Old 15th Sep 2020, 11:32 am   #47
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

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Originally Posted by Buzby123 View Post
Maybe someone with a modem can try, and maybe relive that full 56K experience.
I've got a modem set up, but it's permanently engaged for me
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Old 15th Sep 2020, 12:41 pm   #48
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

Maybe they have left the acoustic coupler off the hook?
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Old 15th Sep 2020, 12:56 pm   #49
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

Oddly enough, I was in a pub (or at least, outside a pub communicating with inside staff) here in Suffolk at the weekend, and before we could pay by card, the woman had to go and ask her colleague to relinquish the phone line- she explained that the pub was “still on dial-up”. Bet they don’t offer free wi-fi..
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Old 15th Sep 2020, 7:47 pm   #50
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

I've just tried dialling 08456041528 and get a recorded voice saying "You've dialled an incorrect number. Please check the number and try again."
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Old 16th Sep 2020, 6:17 pm   #51
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

When I first got broadband via cable TV, which came with an unneeded phone line (everyone already knew my BT number), I repurposed my old 56K modem to create a dial-up ISP connection! I had friends with cable phone lines and inclusive calls to other cable numbers, and they reckoned it worked as well as any "proper" ISP.

Unfortunately, it's no longer active; that was all several motherboards ago, and I now have satellite TV and VDSL internet .....
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Old 16th Sep 2020, 7:58 pm   #52
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

Not in the public domain I wager, but having spent a decade or so in the water industry until recently "dial-up" telemetry access is alive and well, as were floppy discs to an extent on some legacy, but still incredibly common and hardy chemical analyzers.

I have boxes of 3.5" discs with various intensely dull chart recordings of ammonia readings of a good deal of sewage works across this fine nation from as late as 2018 if I looked for them.

Anyway, back to the initial point, upgrading remote sites that only need to send a few packets of data a day was never deemed to have any real purpose so calling the control rooms of any of the nations public water utilities and asking for x-reading from z-site will usually result in a 90 second delay with the operator and the classic 'internet noise' in the background whilst they wait for the number to appear on the screen. I dare say this is the same for various public utilities and assorted industrial networks.

Slow, but like I said if you're only sending chart recorder data (say a few bytes of data per day) or instantaneous readings and health indicators of a few instruments it makes practically no difference to being always-online.

Also using POTS I guess it's very, very robust and cheap to maintain.
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Old 16th Sep 2020, 8:33 pm   #53
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

In view of the apparent lack of any remaining dial-up internet services, the following extract from instructions to candidates for some on-line examinations that are scheduled for next month may be of interest - clearly they believe that such services still exist. At least there should be little difficulty in complying with the "no dial-up" requirement!
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Old 6th Nov 2020, 10:05 pm   #54
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Default Re: Does anyone still use a dialup internet connection?

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In view of the apparent lack of any remaining dial-up internet services, the following extract from instructions to candidates for some on-line examinations that are scheduled for next month may be of interest - clearly they believe that such services still exist. At least there should be little difficulty in complying with the "no dial-up" requirement!
I found something in my firm's IS folder, still under document control that warned me not to use company IT to post to USENET, but made no mention of BBS's Web fora, anti-social media or anything else.

Another document about reimbursement for optician's services used the obsolete term "Visual Display Unit" quite a lot.
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Old 8th Nov 2020, 3:51 am   #55
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Default Re: Does anyone still use dialup connection?

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
I agree it would be very difficult to use the modern web over a dialup connection. Even this forum would be very slow, though it would be usable.

There are a few people who do still use dialup because they don't have access to anything better - I don't envy them.
Edit: This seems to be only available on Opera Mini for Android now.
Was discontinued from main browser with ver 59. Was called Turbo mode.

Opera browser has optional "Data Saving" modes that work quite well on limited bandwidth connections. It renders the page remotely on Opera servers and then sends you the screen. I used it for a while on GPRS on a pre-smartphone (feature phone?). Opera-mini was (maybe is) a java based browser that ran on Feature Phones and did the data savings stuff.

Opera has been recently bought by a Russian company

https://www.lifewire.com/activate-tu...indows-4103691
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