News AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after it's debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the...

[hwertz]

Not that it's a big deal, but ADSL actually tops out at 8mbps, and typical speeds when it. was common were 0.25-1.5mbps. Which was still way better than dialup. ADSL2+ still topped out at 24mbps. (And that's peak speed under perfect line conditions and shortest possible phone line). It took until after 2010 (in the US at least) for VDSL2 upgrades to bump speeds up to the point where you probably had a typical DSL speed of 25mbps.

Also. the US has very good 5G home internet options now. They're pretty recent but fairly widely available. Well you could debate if they're 'very' good but both pricing and speed would beat any DSL I've ever seen. (Although the DSL could have better pings.)

 

[COLGeek]

I was helping an older neighbor of mine a few days clear out some junk from her home office. She tends to keep everything, including several AOL CDs. These were decades old.

She still uses her AOL email account for daily interwebs business. Horrible spam filters.

AOL certainly has a place in Internet history and getting generations on the web.

 

[hwertz]

I was helping an older neighbor of mine a few days clear out some junk from her home office. She tends to keep everything, including several AOL CDs. These were decades old.

She still uses her AOL email account for daily interwebs business. Horrible spam filters.

AOL certainly has a place in Internet history and getting generations on the web.

Yes. When AOL'ers started flooding online the 'old guard' called it "The eternal September", each September new students would come in, not know the norms of how to behave online or how to do things. And when AOL first let their hordes from a "walled garden" online service to adding a web browser, it was endless September for years.

Did you know they also made AOL floppies? Even 5.25" floppies (although I only saw one of those 5.25" AOL disks, most were 3.5").. These, you would boot directly off the floppy, it would boot into GEOS operating system and they had a GEOS version that ran straight off the floppy.

 

[COLGeek]

Yes. When AOL'ers started flooding online the 'old guard' called it "The eternal September", each September new students would come in, not know the norms of how to behave online or how to do things. And when AOL first let their hordes from a "walled garden" online service to adding a web browser, it was endless September for years.

Did you know they also made AOL floppies? Even 5.25" floppies (although I only saw one of those 5.25" AOL disks, most were 3.5").. These, you would boot directly off the floppy, it would boot into GEOS operating system and they had a GEOS version that ran straight off the floppy.

Very aware and remember the old floppies. eBay has piles for sale. Collectors?

AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, etc. used to send media via the mail often. Wasn't uncommon to get several a week back in the day.

 

[USAFRet]

Out of the literal millions of unique AOL user accounts, I had one of the 17,576 possible 3 letter combinations.
My initials.

I had people beg me to sell it to them...I quoted 1 guy $50,000 (in 1997 money). He got all pissed off.

Over the last couple of decades, I would check that email address once or twice a year. 100% spam.
But in the last year, it wants me to verify who I am. The only option is for them to text the phone number they know about.
Said phone num is/was a landline (no text), and one I've not had access to for near 20 years.

 

[hwertz]

Very aware and remember the old floppies. eBay has piles for sale. Collectors?

AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, etc. used to send media via the mail often. Wasn't uncommon to get several a week back in the day.

Oh yeah my friend back in high school used them as wallpaper -- 1 wall was 3.5" floppies and 1 with CDs. I can't imagine how much money AOL wasted on this -- I don't mean sending out CDs and floppies, that was a great idea, but the sheer numbers of them... like getting a 5th CD in 2 weeks was going to tip someone over into signing up. 😛

Before we got internet access (through an ISP) my dad had a Compuserve account. Dialing up at a whole 300 baud on the Atari. But not for long, the hourly rates were rather high. Good times!

He considered getting a faster modem, but the rates went up the faster modem you had back then, if you were downloading files it would have been easily worth it but for actual interaction (i.e. text), paying like $3 an hour for 300-1200 baud service beat out paying $24 an hour or whatever for 9600 baud. I think Compuserve was charging a monthly fee (like $10 a month) and the other charges were all for Tymnet (local X.25 dialup that you would connect to Compuserve through, they'd bill Compuserve and Compuserve would add it to the bill.)

 

[COLGeek]

I recall a Christmas tree, many years ago, that used mailed media as ornaments. 100s of floppies and CDs.

 

[Sharoy]

"But there remain a few options to plug in your 56K (or slower) screeching modem into."
>Doesn't list who those are, ANYWHERE in the article
JOURNALISM EVERYONE! JOURNALISM! And before you try and quote me the *very last sentence* "However, there remain some niche providers in the U.S. and elsewhere, if you don’t have any other connection options.", I am well aware of that very uninformative sentence. Yes I'd bet there are other options because that's what the headline said! Satellite is not a viable alternative for someone who's paying pennies for dial-up. ADSL and fiber probably costs up the wazoo too but not always, but it's still likely to be much more than the $10 a month people were paying for dial-up.

 

[hwertz]

"But there remain a few options to plug in your 56K (or slower) screeching modem into."
>Doesn't list who those are, ANYWHERE in the article
JOURNALISM EVERYONE! JOURNALISM! And before you try and quote me the *very last sentence* "However, there remain some niche providers in the U.S. and elsewhere, if you don’t have any other connection options.", I am well aware of that very uninformative sentence. Yes I'd bet there are other options because that's what the headline said! Satellite is not a viable alternative for someone who's paying pennies for dial-up. ADSL and fiber probably costs up the wazoo too but not always, but it's still likely to be much more than the $10 a month people were paying for dial-up.

An excellent point. You can get far faster speeds now, and in heavily competitive markets (like New York City) you can apparently get like 100mbps for $20 or so. But outside that... I don't think I can get any service for under like $40. Locally, even the "low income" choices they somehow allowed it to exclude the lowest cost plans, so you end up with some subsidy bringing an $80 plan down to like $40, the ~$40 of subsidies can't be applied to the plans that already are like $40-50 to be actually affordable if someone is short on cash.

 

[Air2004]

I grew up with this guy who was really smart. He could have done anything: physicist, lawyer, doctor, AI scientist, Nobel laureate... Instead he became a crackhead and died in his 30s. Such a shame. So much lost potential. I feel like Yahoo and AOL are the corporate equivalent.

Both of which are owned by Verizon.

 

[vaffangool]

But there remain a few options to plug in your 56K (or slower) screeching modem into.

AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after it's debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the... : Read more

Surely you mean last rites how do you even get employed—nevermind a job in journalism—thinking it's last rights?

 

[silverfang77]

Wow! I never used AOL myself, but I remember seeing the ads and getting the CDs in the mail. I remember wanting to get online so badly in the '90s. I finally did in 1999 and it's been a fun ride ever since!

 

[das_stig]

Finally the government premium rate scam dial up support number for gateway services goes DSL, that's not going to help Labours Rachel from accounts balancing the books.

 

[vanadiel007]

I truly miss the sound of dialup connections.
Nothing beats that magic.

 

[gg83]

I remember being able to tell just from sound if it was gonna connect the first time or not.

If it went eeeeee oooo ah it was good. Lmao

 

[gg83]

I grew up with this guy who was really smart. He could have done anything: physicist, lawyer, doctor, AI scientist, Nobel laureate... Instead he became a crackhead and died in his 30s. Such a shame. So much lost potential. I feel like Yahoo and AOL are the corporate equivalent.

Was this in Troy NY perhaps? I saw that happen all the time.

 

[Eximo]

Playing quake III arena with a 900 ping was the time of my life!!! It amazes me how AOL is still a thing.

My first online game of Unreal Tournament, I was immediately killed by Sprinkles the Elf. Still makes me smile.