The days of dial-up … but no roses

[Mikeo512]

Time was when we all used (had to use) dial-up instead of broadband. As a matter of interest, does dial-up still work? Are some people still using it? Do modern Macs still work with dial-up? If I remember correctly, we didn’t have a router … or did we? I can still hear the bip-bip-bip-beep-bip as the connection was established. Would be interested to know …

 

[MacInWin]

Haven't used dial up in years (maybe decades). The connecting device was a modem, which connected ONE computer to ONE line, so no router. Just the modem.

 

[techiesteve]

The modem tones were music to my ears as it made the connection. The last Mac I used with a built in modem was the PB G4 12", was light to carry too.

 

[Slydude]

You can still find modems on Amazon with names veteran users will recognize. . Amazon.com : dial up modem

On a slightly different search, I found at least one that claims to work with Mac 10.6 or higher.

 

[pm-r]

On a slightly different search, I found at least one that claims to work with Mac 10.6 or higher.

That's fine as long as the buyer has a compatible dial up server within their toll-free phone calling zone.

A good choice:
U.S. Robotics USR5637 56K USB Controller Dial-Up External Fax Modem with Voice

Mac 10.4-10.12

Amazon.com

- Patrick
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[Raz0rEdge]

Ahh the modem/dial-up days. I had a number of Zoom modems since USR was just so darn expensive back in the day. But the USR modems were so robust that they would cut through really crappy phone lines with no problems.

My last modem was indeed a USR 56k until Comcast cable-modem made an appearance.

Most people switched to DSL from the modem, but that wasn't available for me.

 

[badshoehabit]

Remember it being very expensive. I would make a list of stuff I wanted to check before dialling up, and limited myself always to an hour.

 

[Mikeo512]

Very many thanks to everyone who chipped in with info and memories. This brought it all back.
M