ScuzzBlog: Diaries December 2018
Entry 11th December 2018: Post 03: US Robotics - Dial Up
US Robotics - Dial Up
Time was when your internet time was dictated by how much you were
prepared to spend on telephone calls. Each and every time you
connected you would hog the telephone and then clock up hours of
call times which cost a fortune. I sometimes had blue fits worrying
about what my telephone bill was going to be like.
In the beginning the connection processes were really complex. You
almost needed a degree in telecommunications to even work out how
to communicate with terminals and login stations just so you could
then hand shake with service providers. I recall buying my Compuserve
software and giant book from Virgin in Southampton. That night I
got very excited about using the internet for the first time. Then,
after four or five hours of trudging through treacle I managed to
download one tiny image.
The next day I rang Compuserve and the nice lady gave me some fresh
numbers to try. It did not get better. After a year or so the services
began to improve and whilst I found Compuserve entertaining I tried
others like AOL until I settled on Pipex. I was advised to use Pipex
cus they somehow owned most of the cabling so it seemed like a safe
bet. The preferred browser was Netscape and I had no issue with it.
However, Pipex moved over to Internet Explorer and I was forced to
change.
Setting up the modem could be a bit tricky with your service provider.
The service could be dreadfully slow depending on how busy it was.
I kept a clock by my desk with the times of Japan and America so that
I could find slots where I could surf quite freely.
The modem sat on top of the computer in clear view so you could watch
the flashing lights. The modem connected to the serial port and took
a feed also direct off the telephone line. Hopefully your line was
clean cus otherwise it was a real problem. On the computer you had
to manually log into the dial-up internet service provider. You got
this wonderful singing fax sound as you dialed in. You soon got use
to the tone of a successful hook up.
On the task bar would be your 'greenometer' that flickered differing
colours depending on your connection. You just didn't want a red.
Thing was that before XP the computer really didn't need the modem
to be connected. Sadly after they changed the protocol making the
internet an essential it became difficult not justifying the move
over to broadband. I did stay with Dial up till very late.
This US Robotics was actually stationed on the Amiga as it worked
very well with YAM and AWEB. I did use the Amiga a lot for mail
and Yahoo Groups. It was just so much easier referring to the
Amiga actually sitting at one. Sadly the dial up service providers
just dried up.
Modems did not last. They had a very bad failure rate. I have a
drawer full of broken modems, and they all fell over through constant
usage. I did like the green screen on the taskbar telling me if
I was connected. I didn't really have any issues with speed as I
generally only used text based applications. With modern computing
however I appreciate it just wouldn't be possible to survive
without the broadband.
However, I do hang onto my modems cus something tells me that one
day, just one day I may just need to plug them in again. Who knows.
I have included some images from the Compuserve book. The whole
concept of Compuserve was very good and based around a club style
of service. A place to not only communicate with like minded folk
but to become friends and join groups...... If only they could
have carried on cus in truth it knocks spots off Facebook.
US Robotics - Dial Up
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