I’d rather go back to using the internet that dial up was used for than this high speed cesspool we have now.
AOL’s dial up internet takes its last bow, marking the end of an era
Submitted 12 hours ago by Iheartcheese@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://apnews.com/article/aol-dial-up-internet-shuts-down-08162912737f2fb221f10ba87ce5fc41
Comments
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
kibiz0r@midwest.social 9 hours ago
Idk.
It was hard to find things even with a search engine, and it was full of scams and spyware, and obnoxious designs that got in the way of the real content, and the most popular chat rooms were run by power-tripping nerds with too much free time and an endless interest in CSAM and Nazi ideology.
Not like today, where… uh… well…
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 8 hours ago
I never had too much trouble finding my way around, and it was the real wild West. You could find all kinds of cool shit. Could just visit Jon Does website with a list of game roms and download them with no bs.
whereyaaat@lemmings.world 7 hours ago
The old internet is still out there, you just have to find it.
Psythik@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Nah, I don’t miss forums and chat rooms enough to go back to those days again. I need my comments to be sorted by uovote count to preserve my sanity. I can’t go back.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 8 hours ago
♥️
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 hours ago
It’s 2025 and dial up still exists
Mind = dial up sounds
whereyaaat@lemmings.world 7 hours ago
Really? I use my phone for internet full-time now.
It looks like we’ve come full circle.
robocall@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
In the U.S., according to Census Bureau data, an estimated 163,401 households were using dial-up alone to get online in 2023, representing just over 0.13% of all homes with internet subscriptions nationwide.
Are these households in rural areas without many alternatives?
Starlink is available in the vast majority of the US. What is the cost difference though?
whereyaaat@lemmings.world 7 hours ago
Starlink actually sucks fat dick unless it’s literally your only option.
Even in rural America, you still have access to Visible’s unlimited data for $25/month. They use Verizon’s network, which covers just about everywhere people live in the US.
___@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
I didn’t realize Visible has unlimited hotspotting. ATT/TMO block/paywall that, though it’s possible to bypass using custom ROMs or non ATT firmware in some cases
Zephorah@discuss.online 11 hours ago
Mashable did an article on it, saying it wasn’t easy to find but $9.99/mo appeared to be the cost, still, after all this time. But it would only run on windows PCs.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
No way. Kind of awesome of them maybe unless ulterior motives
ohshittheyknow@lemmynsfw.com 7 hours ago
Im not giving a penny to that Nazi owned company
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Starlink is $120 a month
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 10 hours ago
You can get the roam plan for $50 a month. If you were doing fine with dial-up, then the 50GB data cap shouldn’t be an issue. You could even use the standby mode for $5 a month for 11 months out of the year and will still be an order of magnitude faster than the dial-up connection.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
There are other legacy satellite providers like hughesnet that are somehow still hanging on. They don’t really hold a candle to starlink performance-wise, and they shit the bed in bad weather, but at least they’re not Elon. There’s going to be a lot of latency, but it’ll feel blazing fast if you’re coming from dialup.
There are other dialup providers still remaining as well, besides AOL. I know msn is still kicking at least. It’s kind of funny to think about receiving dialup service when almost all POTS lines have gone away, and much of the modern web will be borderline unusable without lots of tweaking, but at least grandma who lives out in the sticks can check her email, use chat clients, download articles and books, etc.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
New retirement gig: Fill the gap in the markup for super-rural dialup.
It’d be like the new version of a rural post office. I could actually be a lineman for the county!
frongt@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
There’s no market. Fixed wireless is the current thing.
heavyboots@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
Probably about 1 year’s worth of dial-up per month of Starlink, if not more…
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours ago
Its not perfect to replace for all those rural households, but a 5G based internet ‘gateway’ is an affordable and viable option for people at least somewhere near a 5G tower.
Unlike that national fiber build out that never really happened to anywhere near the extent that was promised, its not that expensive to set up a 5G cell tower.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 hours ago
Okay but about the fiber shit, they covered 99.7% of my city and didn’t cover my street and I’m within walking distance of city hall. I really wish there was a way I could compel them to give me fiber. One of the few things I dislike about my location.
shalafi@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Weirdly, I’m seeing fiber in the most unlikely places. They’re running it in my hood, which is on the bleeding edge of a small redneck town, nowhere downstream from here to feed for more money.
What really blew my mind, they’re running fiber in the hood where my camp lies, 900 souls altogether, and that includes a fair-sized surrounding area. Can’t be 50 homes anywhere near. And again, nothing downstream of that hood, it’s just for us. And both places already had cable internet.
No idea how those two ISPs will ever earn their money back from so few customers, with maintenance stacked on top. Maybe running fiber is stupid cheap now? Haven’t worked for an ISP for 20 years, who knows.
shalafi@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Anyone still using dial up as a back-channel solution? Never implemented that myself, but seemed a cheap and easy way to get into your remote network in case of fuck up or outage. Banks used to do it. Anyone know?
frongt@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
I’m sure it’s doable. But a cellular pay-as-you-go data plan and router is pretty common.
I don’t think telcos will even give you copper phone service any more, unless you happen to be in a covered area, or you want to pay an exorbitant amount. Most service is going to be VoIP or cellular with a desk phone.
randomcruft@lemmy.sdf.org 8 hours ago
Not support or a plug for them but, if you are in the USA and are curious… NetZero Dial-up service
It’s still a thing for some people…
BagOfHeavyStones@piefed.social 11 hours ago
Now to hook two modems to two computers and get them to ‘talk’ over WhatsApp…
Would that be a VPN tunnel of sorts?
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 8 hours ago
That’s just a direct connection. It used to be common for 2 player games to connect that way.
rabber@lemmy.ca 11 hours ago
And here i’ve been whining daily about my 50mbps dsl
DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
File this under “things that I assumed happened decades ago.”
JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 hours ago
SDF.org has dial-up. And a Lemmy instance. I think it’s lemmy.sdf.org