Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time… a long time
This is a sentence that won’t make sense to 30 year olds, but there once was a time when we all had a collection of free AOL CDs we could use to connect to the internet, after listening to a series of rather annoying tones. What won’t make sense to people over 30 is the fact that AOL’s dial-up service is still up and running! It was just announced that AOL would be discontinuing their dial-up service this September. According to what Hackaday could find, around 0.2% of the US is still on a dial-up connection; one can only hope they will be able to find reasonable DSL in October. If not there are apparently some ISPs which still offer dial-up service.
One has to wonder if using dial up would now actually be a security feature? Can modern viruses even propagate over a 56K dial-up connection? It would be handy to know, considering the plethora of new security vulnerabilities listed below the fold.
It’s a surprise then to read that AOL are discontinuing their dial-up service at the end of September this year, in part for the reminder that AOL are still a thing, and for the surprise that in 2025 they still operate a dial-up service.
More Tech News From Around The Web
- Ex-White House cyber, counter-terrorism guru: Microsoft considers security an annoyance, not a necessity @ The Register
- Google Calendar invites let researchers hijack Gemini to leak user data @ Bleeping Computer
- Trend Micro offers weak workaround for already-exploited critical vuln in management console @ The Register
- Encryption made for police and military radios may be easily cracked @ Ars Technica
- DEF CON hackers plug security holes in US water systems amid tsunami of threats @ The Register
- Over 29,000 Exchange servers unpatched against high-severity flaw @ Bleeping Computer
- WSJ Finds ‘Dozens’ of Delusional Claims from AI Chats as Companies Scramble for a Fix @ Slashdot
- It’s Steve Wozniak’s 75th Birthday. Whatever Happened to His YouTube Lawsuit? @ Slashdot
- Kioxia Shows LC9 for 8PB or More in 2U and 32-Layer Die Stacked NAND at FMS 2025 @ ServeTheHome
- Don’t Say This DIY Diskette Was A Flop @ Hackaday
” 56K dial-up” lookit mister moneybags, in my day we had 14400, that’s the way it was and we liked it. BY GOD WE LOVED IT!!!!
Sheeeeeettt, member BBSing on a 2400k? We so old
That should have been 2400B, but you got it …. I hope… GET OFF MY LAWN
OK Kermit
Now THAT”S a throwback to old times frog, but I actualy been thinking about this alot latley.
I recently, upgraded to 500mB fiber. I’m old enough to remember going from 2400baud ro 14.4Kbaud (and 120 on the Vic20, but that’s another story), and the chane was EPIC, then the 56k upgrade was GAME CHANGING….. upping to 1M cable was the fastest thing i’d ever seen, and the up to 5m dsl was transidental. Upping to 15 was so fast, so cool…. then the change to 50m was…. less impressive. It helped with onine gaming, less latency and made severa; vLANs way more fun, but other than torrents, and having 2 screens streaming at the same time, there wasn’t much day to day change…. Now on 500m fiber, there is no notisable diffrence. Torrents MIGHT be 10x faster but most of the time aren’t, steam d/ls are 12x faster but honestly, so a AAA game takes 2 hours to d/l instead of 18, but hinestly how often do I install new games anymore….. youtube doesn’t load any faster, we still streaming 4k on 2 devices, everything other than downloading files is exactly the same. DIMINISHING RETURNS it the name of the game these days. And it’s weird for a Kermit like myself to see.
And before you ask, then only reson I went from 50 dsl to 500 fiber is because it was about 30$cdn cheaper, so ya know
Something ain’t right, you should see a difference. Probably gave you a crap gateway. You’re right though, it will never be as cool as going from dial-up to DSL.
I should be clear, there IS a diffrence… IF I look for it, it can be seen…. BUT I’m talking day to day basic usage. SURE I can, if for any reason I need to, start streaming on every screen in the house, Gaming/living room PC, betroom PC, my phone my wife’s phone, chromebook, laptop and tablet, and it all works fine… THAT WOULD BE IMPOSIBLE on my old conection, but IRL that would never happen. What I was talking about is the OLD SCHOOL diffrence, when AMDMB.com would load faster and faster with each upgrade, and with this 10x+ upgrade youtube still takes the time it takes, PCPER.COM still takes the time it takes….. perhaps it might be a few milisoconds faster but in the long long ago you could tell the diffrence with a stop watch. It just seems…. I duno, kinda empty. that with diminishing retrurs everthing is just less cool than it usta be. Perhaps if we had 3-4 kids or a buncha roomates it would be a bigger deal, but in our life it’s just more the same. And that makes being an old “computer wizz” alot less fun than it usta be.
As long as the Coaster still works, that the critical part.