Are There People That Still Use Dial-Up Internet?

I'll just tell you about my experiences of using dial-up from about 2001 - June 2009.

I still used dial-up until June 2009 when broadband came to a remote area I was living in then. Broadband was really good when it came to that area until I moved 2 months later in August 2009 to the area where broadband keeps cutting you off every 5 minutes. I did use dial-up again in about September 2011 when broadband went down but it's useless now compaired to the bigger websites we have today. When I joined Facebook in November 2008 I was struggleing to get on and it took about 15 minutes to upload my first profile picture where it took about 30 seconds to upload my last profile picture on Facebook. My Dad would only let me on for an hour as dial-up as it cost money for every minuite you were on and nobody could use the phone.

In future I hope I get optic fibre which is the next generation on from broadband as everyone seems to be on that now.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Unfortunately. I still have the occasional customer at work that still uses dial-up.
 

G80FTW

Active Member
I got tired of dealing with cable companies, so now Im using DSL. Might as well be dial up at times. Cost more as well, but at least they told me the price will never change. Unlike cable companies who seem to change the price constantly.

My friend lives out in the middle of nowhere and has satellite internet. Its pretty close to dial up speeds.
 

MikeN

New Member
America Online

I'm still on America Online 5.0! I have the free CD to upgrade 6.0 somewhere. ;)
 

Geoff

VIP Member
You have to pay per minute? I assumed most places had free local calling, there have always been local numbers to dial into for internet, unless you live in a REALLY remote area.
 

WeatherMan

Active Member
I remember about 7 years back.

My household was on NTL 56k for £12.99 per month.

I was like 14 at the time, and I hated the fact that the connection was so unreliable, engineers at the time told us it was the ancient wiring in our house, so I thought, right! when I'm older and have a job I will get a new phone line installed by BT, and have my own dial up connection to my room, for 1p per minute, the next year broadband became available, so I had my eyes on a 1Mb connection for £30 per month :D

I think at the time BT had a 2Mb connection out, but that was like £60 per month!
 

Geoff

VIP Member
I remember about 7 years back.

My household was on NTL 56k for £12.99 per month.

I was like 14 at the time, and I hated the fact that the connection was so unreliable, engineers at the time told us it was the ancient wiring in our house, so I thought, right! when I'm older and have a job I will get a new phone line installed by BT, and have my own dial up connection to my room, for 1p per minute, the next year broadband became available, so I had my eyes on a 1Mb connection for £30 per month :D

I think at the time BT had a 2Mb connection out, but that was like £60 per month!
Ah yes, those were the days. I also wanted my own phone line so I could have my own internet connection that could be on whenever!
 

AlienMenace

Well-Known Member
A friend of mine live out in the country, is phone company has cable. But they told him they only come out into the country about 3 miles. He's 6 miles out in the country. So yea, he still has Dial-Up.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Thankfully I'm too young to remember dial-up. The second broadband came out, we got it, and I must have been 5 or 6 at the time and too young to care. ;)

I'm sure there are still people who use dial-up, I know that our ISP still supports it. I've not come across or know anybody who does still use it though.
 
Thankfully I'm too young to remember dial-up. The second broadband came out, we got it, and I must have been 5 or 6 at the time and too young to care. ;)

I'm sure there are still people who use dial-up, I know that our ISP still supports it. I've not come across or know anybody who does still use it though.

I remember dialup...good ol' Freeserve, and once they went...AOL!

aol.jpg


I used dialup a few months ago to activate my grandma's laptop! The wireless adapter was not compatible with WPA2-PSK, and she didn't have internet, so I used dialup straight into the phone line to activate it!

Apart from the cost, we get no speed benefit with broadband here anyway.
 

WeatherMan

Active Member
Back in the day our providers were NTL, Freeserve & AOL :p

I remember always getting around a 48/52Kb connection

4KB/s download's FTW :D I used to love waiting half an hour to download a 20Mb file

I remember one night I really wanted a game from BearShare, so I left the dial up running, I got my 90MB game :D
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
I remember dialup...good ol' Freeserve, and once they went...
Yeah but I bet your household was using it for longer than mine was, hence why you can remember it and I can't. ;) With my father being an IT engineer and all, I suspect the day broadband came out, we switched - and living in a relatively urban area, it made a big difference. :p
 

Turbo10

Active Member
A friend of mine live out in the country, is phone company has cable. But they told him they only come out into the country about 3 miles. He's 6 miles out in the country. So yea, he still has Dial-Up.

He should get satellite, it's not as fast as ADSL and whatnot but certainly better than dial-up
 

tremmor

Well-Known Member
cant upload like email. one way. I know a few with dial up. Live in the mountains in a remote area. Nobody there. Thats all they can get. Cant even get satellite because of trees and mountain range. its blocking it. Hillbilly's.
 

tremmor

Well-Known Member
2400 and 4k downloads with dialup when it came out and no internet. it was bulletin boards only. basic cable came out a lot later. My bill with dial up was as high as $300.00 a month. (not a local call for bulletin board) Guessing it was late 60's or early 70's. im positive. And no color monitor then. No hd either. 4 k of memory and green phosphorus screen.
 

OvenMaster

VIP Member
If it weren't for 3Mbps Verizon DSL at $24 a month, I'd still be on dialup. I can't afford Comcast's cable prices.
 
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