Comment on What’s Usenet and how can I access it with modern hardware (phones/laptops)?

• RiderExMachina@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is it. This is the comment that makes me realize that I’m old.

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• some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Wow, this caught me off guard. I read an article about kids being given old tech and they knew people waved Polaroids (even though it doesn’t enhance development) from pop culture. Are young people really unaware that we used to dial with a modem to connect to the net?

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  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    No I meant do analog modems use tones to transmit information, or how does it work?

    Like what is the process of “dial with a modem to connect to the net”.

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    • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Modem is short for modulator/demodulator. It took a data stream and encoded it onto tones, multiple (audible) frequencies were used to increase data rates. You had to dial in to either a server, another computer, or an ISP. If you picked up the phone you would hear what sounded like white noise.

      I lost many a download, or ‘online’ game to my mother picking up the phone to make a phone call.

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      • bartolomeo@suppo.fi ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’s very clear, thanks. I remember reading about the original phreakers, one guy had perfect pitch so he could just sing the tone to open a long distance line and then dial away. I think he got sued by one of the American phone companies for stealing.

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    • Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Think of it like a “fast”, automated telegraph that speaks in audible binary instead of Morse code.

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      • bartolomeo@suppo.fi ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        audible binary

        Thanks yea, that’s exactly what I was wondering.

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• AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Watch Wargames. The main character uses the Ethernet somewhat realistically compared to more modern “depictions” of “hackers,” and has to use an absolutely ancient modem to connect to the network.

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  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Omg “a 1983 American techno-thriller film”… sounds awesome B-)

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    • sangriaferret@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      And probably more relevant today than it was back then.

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• tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  That I can help. Back in the day, to access someone’s else computer you literally hooked up yours to a phone line. Your desktop would then dial to some number you got that had another computer listening to answer, and they would start a “conversation”. Your computer sent what to us would sound like noise, the receiving computer would listen to that noise and answer back. Voilá, you’re connected to a network!

  This is how it sounded like

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  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s binary with low tones representing 0 and high tones representing 1. Thanks for the link, that’s just what I wanted to know!

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