Remember the days of old-fashioned internet?
My brain has been churning out post ideas at the speed of light, but most of them are lengthy and my blogging time has been limited recently due to a number of other more important things needing my attention. In addition, if I had the time to post a long post, I probably wouldn't be able to since our DSL service has been really flighty and S-L-O-W the past 24 hours.
For some reason, our wireless has decided to only work in certain parts of the house at certain times and those certain times and places keep moving. The rest of the time, it kicks in and out - working, then not working, and back and forth we go. Needless to say, getting things done quickly online has not been the easiest today and what I can usually get done in my thirty minute computer slot in the morning took me three times as long today. I keep thinking to waaay back (all five years ago or so) when we had the old-fashioned dial-up version of the internet.
Anyone remember those days? We had to unhook our phone, string a phone line from the modem to the phone jack, hit the connect button, wait for it to dial and connect, and then finally - after about ten minutes of preparation - we could actually check our email. Of course, we had to hope that no one sent a batch of pictures (which usually took 20-30 minutes to download) because we could only be on the internet in 15 minute time block intervals lest we tie up our one phone line too long.
Those were the days, weren't they? And we thought that was something else at the time. Little did we know how technology would advance. Now I can check my email and visit multiple websites in seconds on my laptop from anywhere in the house - or even on the front porch or back patio! I wonder what another five years will bring? I'm guessing I'll probably have cracked down and gotten a PDA by then because I'm guessing that mini-computer type of gizmos will have replaced all cell phones so it will be the only option. And we probably won't know how we ever lived without them and we'll laugh about the days when all we carried around was one of those old-fashioned cell phones. Or, wait, maybe we've almost made it to those days now?
At any rate, I don't know how we functioned using dial-up. I think, sad to say, I've fallen for the instant gratification of DSL. My family still has dial-up (Yes, my dad is frugal like me and can't bring himself to pay the extra for something they don't really need.) and when we are visiting at their house, it's practically not worth checking my email since it seriously takes five minutes to do what I can do in 30 seconds or less with high speed internet.
Out of curiosity, does anyone out there (besides my family, of course!) still have dial-up?
For some reason, our wireless has decided to only work in certain parts of the house at certain times and those certain times and places keep moving. The rest of the time, it kicks in and out - working, then not working, and back and forth we go. Needless to say, getting things done quickly online has not been the easiest today and what I can usually get done in my thirty minute computer slot in the morning took me three times as long today. I keep thinking to waaay back (all five years ago or so) when we had the old-fashioned dial-up version of the internet.
Anyone remember those days? We had to unhook our phone, string a phone line from the modem to the phone jack, hit the connect button, wait for it to dial and connect, and then finally - after about ten minutes of preparation - we could actually check our email. Of course, we had to hope that no one sent a batch of pictures (which usually took 20-30 minutes to download) because we could only be on the internet in 15 minute time block intervals lest we tie up our one phone line too long.
Those were the days, weren't they? And we thought that was something else at the time. Little did we know how technology would advance. Now I can check my email and visit multiple websites in seconds on my laptop from anywhere in the house - or even on the front porch or back patio! I wonder what another five years will bring? I'm guessing I'll probably have cracked down and gotten a PDA by then because I'm guessing that mini-computer type of gizmos will have replaced all cell phones so it will be the only option. And we probably won't know how we ever lived without them and we'll laugh about the days when all we carried around was one of those old-fashioned cell phones. Or, wait, maybe we've almost made it to those days now?
At any rate, I don't know how we functioned using dial-up. I think, sad to say, I've fallen for the instant gratification of DSL. My family still has dial-up (Yes, my dad is frugal like me and can't bring himself to pay the extra for something they don't really need.) and when we are visiting at their house, it's practically not worth checking my email since it seriously takes five minutes to do what I can do in 30 seconds or less with high speed internet.
Out of curiosity, does anyone out there (besides my family, of course!) still have dial-up?
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:24 PM
45 Comments:
Crystal,
Wow I would love a laptop with a wireless connection, but I am still so grateful for my dsl! My parents still have dial up. At least at home they do, which is my mom's primary internet source. My dad has a super high speed connection at his office. My mom will acctually call me to research something for her since I can do it about three minutes (what would take her 45 minutes)! Well at least she has email and internet access. My in-laws don't even have that. But we are proud of them...they got call waiting this year!
The laptop and wireless are compliments of the business - one of the perks of having a home business! The added bonus is that they are a tax write off, too. :)
My mom has DSL and this summer my brother and I got her a laptop because her desk top computer pretty much died and even though she does have DSL, it's quite fast when connecting. I was suprised. She pays $10 per month for DSL. $10!!! LOL. I pay €60 over here in Germany for high speed. Our choices are limited here in the military so we have to go with the one on base. :/
Blessings!
Dawn
I definitely still have dial up . . . and it is still a pain :). We are blessed, though, to have two phone lines. We cannot get broadband where we live.
I don't still have dial-up, though I did a short two years ago! And the connection I have right now is wireless (read: undependable) and just about as slow. My speed is listed right now as 11Mbps. Yep, that's a small "b" for "bit." My rocket scientist husband tells me that's significantly slower that a "bite" which is what the big "B" stands for and what most people have as their internet speed (somewhere between 3-11MBps). So I usually avoid clicking on links within blogs or looking at pictures online.
Someday, when we have the big bucks...
Our home computer has dial up on it and it is very very very slow.
Hubby has a laptop that has wireless capability.
He has told me we can get DSL in a few more weeks.. we have to say the $90 for the install and well i have to get reading glasses so that bumped it back a few weeks. UGH! But I have to have the glasses if I want to continue reading to the children, etc. I sure wish thre was a quicker way to fast-track that money for the dsl hookup... that would free our only phone line up too. We'll get there.. just slow.
You just described my life. i am sitting here with my laptop all wired up with the phone cord. leaving comments takes forever.
Yep, we still have dial up, and we're not happy. But we have no choice. We're stationed with the US military in Italy, and our off post house is in a town with no DSL.
I did get a laptop so I can take it with me to post to use the WIFI several places on post though!
We have dial-up but we have a totally seperate line for it. :) I don't think it is that slow. Except if someone else is hauling all the bandwidth. We have four computers on one internet connection here. Right now three are using the internet. I have never had DSL or highspeed so I guess I don't know how much faster it would be, although I have used that at friends houses. :)
We have dial up and have no choice in the matter; to top it off it is extremely slow!!! It has taken my computer up to 3 mins just to pull up your blog!! I check it willingly every day though. I glean so much information from your site and your readers. Maybe in a couple years broadband will be available here in my neck of the woods. Just to clarify I live in SW PA and very far into the country. I am happy that we have electricity, call waiting and paved roads. It takes 30 mins to reach the closest Wal*Mart. You can't get cable out here only satellite.
As for now I am content with my dial up and someday when I am old and gray and not able to read the screen, we will have the option of high speed internet, then again, I will probably keep my dial up because I will need that extra time to rest!!!
Blessings to all of you, dial up and high speed :)
~Mrs. Johnson~
I FINALLY convinced my mom to get high speed internet. My parents lived with us for a few months, and she became spoiled by my laptop, wireless and high speed so she eventually even got a lap top! I have to have high speed because I sell on ebay and I am creating a website so it just makes sense! My husband blessed me with a lap top a few years ago completely by surprise when home PC was struck by lightning. He had some selfish reasons for it too, as our computer was in another room and he likes me to be in the same room with him cause he loves me so! He he!
My grandmother still has dial-up because you can't get DSL where she lives. We have cable (broadband) here, and we did have wireless as well, but the cable co. had so much trouble getting the wireless and broadband working at the same time that we just dropped the wireless.
Dh has one of those new-fangled PDA computer/phone thingys...necessary for his work, but I use whatever cell phone he has currently cast off. We don't have call waiting either! I could care less about modern gizmos (except my high-speed internet, of course!), but dh is sort of a gadget nut, so we do have a few techno-toys around.
My parents do -- and my mom will only e-mail once a week... when she could be e-mailing 3 times a day!!! Nope -- just once a week... then apologizes for it being so long. She's crazy!!!
E-mail every day MOM!! I'd love it if you did!! Ü
Ahh... the good old days -- I'm so old fashioned, I still love getting mail... so I still send it! I ask for stationary for Christmas.
Oh, yes, we still have dial-up! We live in a slightly rural area but we are only 8 minutes from our county's industrial park and 12 minutes from city limits - however, we are in the mountain foothills. Cable does not recognize my street, and broadband and satelite internet are not available here (at my home) yet. We do have two phone lines due to some home business work, but it is still very frustrating at times. My husband's work laptop has wireless, but is useless here at home.
HAHA!! This post made me laugh!! We just got wireless in our home about 3 months ago and what a difference!!! We knew dial-up was slow, but goodness!! Now we fly!!!
We live in the middle of nowhere and NOTHING comes out here, so we have to have dial-up. Thankfully, a huge business across the street from us allowed us to hook up with them! How kind!!!
Anyway, I do NOT miss dial-up and am very thankful that I can download pictures in email in a few seconds now instead of hours!!
His,
Mrs. U
My husband and I just recently convinced my parents to switch from dial-up to a DSL connection. They have been amazed at the difference. :o)
my inlaws still have dial up but only because dsl is not available where they live (if hey moved 1 mile up the road they could have dsl or cable internet). They are happy with it since they are only home 6 weeks at a time and on the road working for 6 to 8 weeks or so and then they have dsl in the hotel rooms (and a laptop provided by their work too!) They have a cell phone so if their home kine is busy we call their cell (free from my cell)
I finally convinced my mom she needed a computer at home this past year and that she needed either cable or dsl (she went with the cable internet) so now I can reach her online if I need to and she doesn't have to check her presonal email at work anymore
Unfortunately, yes we still have dialup. Living in the country has its advantages and disadvantages. We usually head to the library for wireless when we want to do a lot of uploading pictures or checking blogs that have lots of pictures. We have three computers in the house but only one can operate at a time. Talk about jockeying for position to be the next one to dialup!!
We have had DSL for 8 years.We have been using the computer for about 20 years as away of communicating.Back in the late 80's we had FIDO net and instead of email we used bulletin boards.The "mail'used to take forever to get and sometimes the phone would ring at 3AM to pick up the messages.This is a real old fashion way of before the internet of what we know have.
;-)
I've learned to live with dialup. And I can actually check my email in mere seconds with Gmail on dialup... and people have learned not to send me toooo big attachments.
Of course, people always are so surprised to hear that --- since they know I'm a web-developer... but...
;-) I survive. For a while longer. Satellite is the only option for me... and it's still a bit expensive.
Yes, I still have dial up at home. At work we have it through the cable. Honestly, sometimes the one at home is faster! I don't know why.
Oh, yes! It's really not all that bad when you get a decent connection speed. I'd love to have DSL, but am extremely grateful to have an internet connection of any sort. Someday we'll be able to afford high-speed.
Yes we still have dial up. It is awful to do anything on. It took me 5 minutes for this site to load. I'm trying to convince my brother(who pays for it) to go to DSL.
Angela
We still have dial-up. We live in a rural area, 30 minutes from the city (population a little over 100,000), and high-speed internet isn't out here. There's a good chance we'd get it if it were available.
However, we have a separate phone jack so that we don't have to unhook our phone. However, we only have one phone line, so we do tie it up when we're online. Though we don't even average 1 call a day (if you exclude my husband predictably calling home before he leaves work in the evening).
Crystal,
Our family just got a Cable connection December 2006, and before that we had Dial-Up! This highspeed stuff is still a "new" thing for me! We would've gotten DSL years ago, but we can't get it where we live - too rural an area. A Cable connection has always been too expensive until recently. Still, I can't imagine having dial-up ever again! :-)
I probably would, if I had to pay for internet. I love having the connection, but the speed never really bothered me! My BIL, my father and brother all work for a ISP. I get free internet right now through them.
I was just listening to an older story tape from Focus on the Family, he mentioned a modem and they acted like it was a odd thing.... It is funny how things change so fast in the technical world!
Dear Crystal,
My family just recently got wireless.
I have dial up and a desktop computer! YES it is soooo slow and DH and I really must just get the high speed, time is money and we waste sooo much time on the dial up not to mention it makes our phone line busy. But we are sooo frugal!
It is really annoying...pictures, not to mention email and websites load so slowly. truly the time it takes to do something with the bank, for example, is so long it will often quit - which is scary bc it is a money transaction.
I hate it! But we are just too cheap. however, when we move we are going to get high speed if it means we have to cut back somewhere else.
We used to have dial-up up to a few years ago for our family and business. When we got DSL it didn't seem to be *that* much faster! Probably the biggest hangup we had with dial-up, was that everyone complained that they couldn't phone us...our line was always busy! :)
We just 'bit the bullet' and got DSL back in December and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! My family has followed suit and my parents just got it and they can't believe the difference either! It saves so much time!
However, now that we've moved to KC things are so different. I just found out that I actually have to get a wireless router so that I can actually GO places with my laptop. We didn't have to do that in Iowa! LOL So, for the past two weeks, I've been stuck here in one spot and am ready to 'move' with my laptop again!
Well, we were among the dial-up users until about 1 month ago...now it's almost astonishing how quickly things move! Not sure that we have any more than 24 hrs in our day due to this though. ;-)
We have DSL, but it's actually cheaper than dial-up here. I believe that Vermont is the only state where we are charged for local calls. Dial-up can get pretty expensive! I was paying $19.95/month for dial-up plus $25 for the difference between basic phone service and unlimited local calling service (to call the dial up number without paying separately for each time). DSL is also $19.95/month for the slower speed from Verizon, and there are no local call charges, so we switched back to the cheaper basic phone plan.
We still have dial up here in SE Missouri. However, I found my computer went way faster when I added a 512 MB stick of RAM! Amazing. So as soon as I can afford it, I'll be buying a 1024 stick to add.
We have dial-up. It's not that bad. ;)
Living in a rural area, dsl isn't an option neither is cable.
You just learn to deal with it. Usually I do something else on my computer, or in the room or something. :)
I still have dial up. I work (I don't have children) so I can do most of my internet stuff there, so I only ocassionally use internet at home, and it's just not worth the expense... it's VERY slow though, and I don't know how many more months I'll be able to tolerate it!
Crystal,
I was going to mention or ask if you have heard of Windows Live Writer?
http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas
It is a free program that you can write your blog posts offline. You can save your draft and then upload it when you want. That way if your internet connection is down, you can still do your blogging. Just thought I would mention it in case it would be beneficial to you.
my sweet hubby just got us wireless this week ~ this is my first time online. yeah!! so fast!!!
Well, I am still on dialup. Since we don't need the internet for business, we don't see the point in spending more than the $8/month that we do. And our phone plan has an answering service, so we're good on that front.
We do not have dialup...however it might work about as good as our cable does. We have a desktop and a new laptop computer now. We have learned that we must unplug the black box from the cable each time we get off the computer. It seems with a modem (partly which helps provide another type of firewall, according to hubby and which we refuse to dispense with) we will get SUPER slow speed if we leave the power on to it and the black box. At least this way when we plug it back in, things run as they should for some time. Hubby thinks he saw some repairs down the street going on...so maybe they have fixed their problem finally. This company likes to blame us for everything that does not work...numerous times, hubby has proven to them that is not the case. With 2 new computers this year, seems they ought to know.
One other thing, wireless is convenient, but it is slower than a hard-wired connection. We chose not to use the wireless option with our computer, because we want to get the most out of our high speed internet, and that can only be done with a wired connection. Also, there are more security risks to consider with wireless if you live in apartments or condos where your neighbors are very close (they could potentially use your wireless signal).
Oh... yes. I remember. I also remember what message forums looked like 5 years ago. ;) Amazing how far we've come since then. Makes you wonder what will happen in the coming years!
Dial up for me... at least when I'm home in WI. (and not home in NE.... I have a universal family :)) I'm just thankful to have a brand spankin' new laptop to replace my sweet and grandmotherly desktop--win 98. I have a frugal streak.... very frugal.... :)
We had dial-up until just 3 months ago. We couldn't afford anything other than the $10 basic dial-up. That, at least, was off-set by learning about all the great deals out there and having help with my shopping.
Now that DH finally has a good-paying job, we upgraded to $25 DSL, and that's as much as I'm willing to spend! I sometimes think about upping it a little, but do I really *need* that little bit of extra speed. Nope. So I'm resisting and being frugal.
My family have only recently got wireless! I am far too impatient a person for dial-up.
Lorna
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to say that on my previous comment on wireless Internet, I was referring to a wireless home network being used with a wired DSL or cable Internet connection. I just learned that there are wireless ISPs, I hadn't heard of that before, so my comments don't apply to that.
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