8 Memories of the 56k Dial-Up Connection That Youngsters Nowadays Won’t Understand

Last Updated on 2024-08-18 , 9:31 am

Do you still remember the times when broadband and fibre were far-away terms that didn’t even exist yet?

Welcome back to the 1990s, when computers were almost a luxury and internet connections even more so.

If you ever complained about your internet connection being too slow, then maybe reading this will make you give thanks every minute for the blessings you are enjoying now.

Unplugging & Plugging Wires

To use the internet, we had to unplug the telephone wire before plugging in our internet cable. For those whose computers were far away from the phone socket, they would have to walk over to the other side of the house/world before they could be connected to civilisation.

Oh, wireless? What were you thinking?

That Dial Tone

Only those who have used 56k dial up Internet before will know this. First, the usual phone dial tone. Then a series of rhythmic buzzing that we have already memorised the sound of.

For a trip down memory lane, here’s the sound that used to send kids to happy land:

When The Modem Didn’t Even Connect

After memorising the dial-up tone, you know when the connection is going to fail or succeed. When that buzzing lasts for an extra second or more, you already have this instinctive feeling inside that goes “noooooo”.

Yes, failing to connect was already a thing in the 90s.

Neopets and Flash Game

Back then, we didn’t have anything fancy like 3D graphics or realistic sound effects—they’d take a year to load, so we could only resort to Flash games. However, even the usual games on Neopets like Faerie Bubbles took seconds to load, eating up our precious Internet time.

Fighting with your Siblings

If anyone wanted to use the phone (I mean the fixed line phone), it was a quarrel to the death because the Internet and the phone are mutually exclusive entities. You either use the phone or the Internet.

We are surprised our parents haven’t fainted out of exasperation when they saw us plugging and unplugging the wires during our quarrels.

Waiting for Your Parents to Finish Talking

If your parents were the ones hogging the phone, then you are shit out of luck. By the time you actually get onto Neopets or into mIRC, your friends might have gone to sleep. Tough luck.

Watching the Clock

Unbelievable as it might sound today, dial up actually charged by the amount of time we spent on the Internet.

And we’re not talking about 100 hours or 1,000 hours. A plan could comprise mere 36 hours of Internet per month.

I still remember whooping in delight whenever my mum let me use the Internet for a full precious hour instead of the usual half hour. Nowadays, you can’t even do anything within an hour, not even watching a movie.

Someone Accidentally Tripping over the Wire

Damn it, I have to load that Neopets game all over again. That’s 5 minutes of expensive Internet time wasted—provided that this time, you could connect.

Convincing Your Parents to Make the Switch to Broadband

After broadband starting becoming popular (and affordable) in the 2000s, we all started to pester our parents to sign up for it. “Mum, it’s only $27 a month and the internet is 10 times faster so we can save 10 times the money!” My mathematics and negotiation skills weren’t that good yet, but you get the idea.

And why is it that it’s become more expensive?