Topic 'Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?' in forum 'TekSavvy' - dslreports.com

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:16:58 EDT

drjp81 posted :

said by kaiu8:

My ICQ was 7 digits :P

OMG makes me think back how awesome the huge cd-rom player was....

And can't believe floppy disks are dead :P

I still pride myself on my ICQ# (which I never use) 1319144
Took a quick look at ICQ7.. *gag* Facebook chat intergrated

Me ICQ: 217365 (lost password, alas) !
--
Cheers!

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:28:35 EDT

XT0RT posted : Oh let's see how it worked; I think it was 30 cents an hour, so it cost me $30 for 100 hours. Once I saw the photo of the Sportster modem racks, that brought back some memories of my old Internet provider job from 13 years ago. I think we had 50 modems at the time which provided access for the whole town, with a T1 backbone to the lower mainland. Every once in a while I had to go to the rack and power cycle a Sportster that wouldn't handshake properly. I waited for the day that 56K came into town, as our lines were not upgraded to fiber-optic.

Even today that business still exists as DSL and Cable services are not provided in the outside areas.

As for Zoltrix, I don't ever want to be reminded of that IPC/3D Micro garbage. The high school that I went to was that cheap, and they paid the price for buying that brand.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:02:31 EDT

kubus posted : I had AT&T Worldnet service in early '95 for 19.95 a month. i just bought Pentium II 450mhz Micron that had built in 56K modem. Shortly after I moved to a new apartment that was one of the first ones around on AT&T @Home. Back then it was only $45.95 for 3MB down. I had people over nightly to download stuff from Napster and yes Micron came with CD burner.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:34:59 EDT

burner50 posted : The company I work for owns the largest private communications network in the country...

I was at one of our old terminals that has almost zero traffic, but they still have a terminal in the depot.

I had to get into the communications closet one day... Low and behold there was a 33k dial up modem that was still in use.
--
I'm tired of killing stupid people just trying to do my job and go home!

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:35:57 EDT

rhooper posted :

said by mdrejhon:

I've written code to directly control a 16550.

I wrote the 16550 UART software emulation that was used in DOSEMU (Linux DOS emulator) back in 1995. Googling 'rejhon dosemu' still returns a lot of results.

If I remember correctly, you'd also written a stellar split-screen ANSI chat program somewhere back in the '90s too that you used on your BBS... Ah, yes, MultiTerm and SuperChatter!

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:30:01 EDT

rhooper posted : I still use my 7-digit one.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:51:32 EDT

Jethro86 posted :

said by kaiu8:

My ICQ was 7 digits :P

OMG makes me think back how awesome the huge cd-rom player was....

And can't believe floppy disks are dead :P

I still pride myself on my ICQ# (which I never use) 1319144
Took a quick look at ICQ7.. *gag* Facebook chat intergrated

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:40:33 EDT

Jethro86 posted : That's it. Now you made me dig out the modem at work and up some pics. I couldn't bear to throw this beast out. brand new in the box!!!
Must be worth thousands. Free Compuserve account included. Loads of family fun.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:30:17 EDT

olebiker2 posted : As best I can remember I paid around 180.00 or 190.00 a year for unlimited in 1995. I think I went from 28.8 to 33.3 about the same time.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:06:04 EDT

mdrejhon posted :

I've written code to directly control a 16550.

I wrote the 16550 UART software emulation that was used in DOSEMU (Linux DOS emulator) back in 1995. Googling 'rejhon dosemu' still returns a lot of results.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:04:16 EDT

mdrejhon posted :

56K USR Courier Standard modem @ $1200 - that way a huge purchase

I had a sysop deal to get a Courier V.34 Ready (Early model of Courier V.Everything modem) in June 1994 for just $250, something like 75% off. I was required to run it on my BBS and advertise it, and it had a "NOT FOR RESALE" miniplaque stamped on it.

It was only 28.8K V.FC -- V.34 had not yet been standardized. However, several firmware upgrades later it has been software upgraded to V.90 (V.34, then V.34bis, then X2, then V.90 over the years). I probably have one of the oldest V.90 modems, since 56K was still a kind of pipedream in 1994.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 10:13:15 EDT

codecx posted : whoooh 6!

Mine was an 8--31778975
It got hacked and I lost it long ago..

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:47:35 EDT

TwighlightLA posted : 1995 was THE year. Windows 95 came out. The Internet started to take off with direct ISP providers like EarthLink and MindSpring started to take off and AOL offered indirect Internet access.

Modems were 28.8 and they were all hardware functioning. Pentiums were out at a consumer top of approximately 90 MHZ in speed, maybe a bit faster. CD's were 2X I think and about to go 4X.

They were practically giving away PC's and they came super loaded with third party software applications.

Tech support was a LONG wait. But tech support for computers like HP was such that they would stay on the phone an hour a day with you teaching you how to operate the computer.

Everyone wanted to get in on the Internet business and everyone in most of the AOL chat rooms wanted to get laid.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:57:57 EDT

buttaknife posted : Started with a 14.4... dialed in to some sort of Freenet thingy. It was pretty much text based search and the connection lasted for about 15 minutes. It was enough to download some B&B clips, pictures and my first computer pr0n0 clip (was only like 3-5 seconds long lol).

Anyway, after that, I occasionally borrowed a friend's Internet Direct dial up account and I was wow'd. There after I upgraded to 56k and got an unlimited account with www.connection.com - was about $18 a month if I remember right. (I quit before but they eventually merged with Echo Online then Primus I think). I think I had my first experience with broadband with Bell in 1999, the Nortel 1meg modem. It was great but shit at the same time - any time it rained, I was pretty much out of an internet connection (never happened to me while on dial up).

Next was Rogers 3mbit service, when it was still @Home. Stuck with them till about late 2007 or so before I learned about TekSavvy. Switched to their DSL and now Cable. And couldn't be happier.

I also had a 7 digit ICQ number I think.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:28:58 EDT

Bobcat79 posted :

said by DKS:

Anyone remember when the 16550 UART chip was considered a major upgrade?

I've written code to directly control a 16550.
--
Folding@Home Team Helix status

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:58:48 EDT

AOLBites posted :

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· j8T9GaBo
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(sig was too long)

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:44:57 EDT

DKS posted : Anyone remember when the 16550 UART chip was considered a major upgrade?
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:18:33 EDT

ground posted : I am moving so I canceled my Rogers internet because of their 15GB/mo bull.
Temporarily using Diamond SupraMax 56i PCI Modem, getting 48k rock-solid.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:24:48 EDT

BACONATOR26 posted :

said by CanerisErik:

said by kaiu8:

My ICQ was 7 digits :P

Mine's eight digits :)

Pfft mine was 6 but it was so long ago I don't even know if it's still there.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:53:55 EDT

CanerisErik posted :

said by kaiu8:

My ICQ was 7 digits :P

Mine's eight digits :)
--
Erik - Caneris Inc.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 07:13:04 EDT

Bobcat79 posted :

said by codecx:

I eat this stuff up.. Using the analog phone adapter thing was a bit before my time...

I used modems like the brown one in the photo. 300 baud.
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Folding@Home Team Helix status

Re: wow this thread grew!

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 05:53:12 EDT

mr_slick posted : ~4.2KB/sec download BABY!!!!

wow this thread grew!

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 05:48:40 EDT

mr_slick posted : i would have responded earlier but 95 is a little out of my league (neck of the woods) i recalled we had netscape but i didn't pay for it... i do recall getting an awesome 36kbps connection on net zero for FREE (without installing any crapware-- you could fetch the # out of the software and do a regular dial-up connection in windows) ... was rock solid connection and would not time out for a long time.

i even downloaded video over it!!!! (ok it took days, but it was awesome :) :) )

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:14:58 EDT

codecx posted : That defcon demo rocked.

I eat this stuff up.. Using the analog phone adapter thing was a bit before my time... The fact that the modem still works is amazing.

The Explanation he had regarding trying to get the modem to work with IP is not surprising, although--so much for going back in time to invent the internet.. lol

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:49:31 EDT

neuromancer1 posted : Courier was little before my time I didn't get into computers fully until 98, at the time those where the choice 56k modems mind you I ditched 56K for cable about year later. I did mess around with Commodore VIC20/C64/C128 but at those times I was just a child around 10 years old and didn't come back to computers until pentium II days.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:21:43 EDT

DKS posted :

said by 34764170:

said by Exodus:

Nobody had modems better than US Robotics.

Same old tired crap. You probably also think Cisco make the best routers too.

USR certainly did.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:20:17 EDT

DKS posted :

said by Last Parade:

The next person to use "baud" in place of "bps" I am going to make use a 28.8 modem to post on DSLReports.

You would be surprised how fast DSLR loads on a 28.8 modem. I post from the cottage at Sauble Beach on dialup.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:42:25 EDT

Exodus posted :

said by 34764170:

Same old tired crap. You probably also think Cisco make the best routers too.

I worked for an ISP, supporting dial-up technology for four years. During that time, I had taken several thousand calls. One of my good friends was a trainer who had several more years than I did. He knew modems inside and out and I learned from him as well as from experience. USR modems were the modems most capable of keeping a solid connection, the least amount of packet loss, and the most likely to make a best connection on a crappy phone line. They were the most compatible with the various modems used by all the ISPs.

I think I know what I'm talking about.

As for cisco, it is what we use at work, however, I am not qualified to compare them to their competitors.
--
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:10:18 EDT

Bobcat79 posted :

said by 34764170:

said by diskace:

9600 bauds modem with a good old 386 :)

geeze. spoiled rotten. 1200 baud with my C64.

110 baud on a teletype in 1976.
--
Folding@Home Team Helix status

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:26:44 EDT

Guspaz posted : That Defcon demo was pretty cool.

One thing that might have made it slightly more reliable would have been to implement their own error correction. While the modem itself, being a strictly analog device, couldn't do any, it does just transmit stuff bit by bit... That'd be the perfect medium for layering a protocol over top that did some simple error correction.
--
Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:58:51 EDT

34764170 posted :

said by Exodus:

Nobody had modems better than US Robotics.

Same old tired crap. You probably also think Cisco make the best routers too.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:39:09 EDT

anon posted :

said by Exodus:

USR modems were still the best, regardless what a handful of people did to exploit them.

Just like the Alcatel modems Bell gave it's users which is the most exploitable modem there is. Still no fix as far as I know. No Bell recall as far as I know.

All good modems but not many are aware of the exploits, nor do ISP's make people aware (which they should) or recall them. But, that's another topic...

BTW Archivis, yes, of course it was most exploited on IRC... you've been around I C. ;) My respect 2 u.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:19:08 EDT

Exodus posted : USR modems were still the best, regardless what a handful of people did to exploit them. I very much remember the Winnuke wars that went on. There were other exploits. It wasn't like it was that rampant. Usually just IRC folks got targeted.
--
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:09:54 EDT

anon posted :

said by Exodus:

Nobody had modems better than US Robotics.

The USR chipsets were the most exploitable.

An example of one exploit was the Rockwell chipset which was in every USR modem. All I needed was the persons IP and I had complete control over their modem. Could make it dial out after a pre-determined time I sent to it, play mary had a little lamb in dial tone while the person was online to freak them out... you name it, you could do it.

USR was the most insecure modem there was. USR never did release a fix except for a start-up string that no one knew about in a security bulletin. However, they were the most common modems.

What people didn't know didn't hurt them.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:55:36 EDT

Exodus posted : Nobody had modems better than US Robotics.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:19:21 EDT

DKS posted :

said by SimplePanda:

said by neuromancer1:

If you have serial port on your system the below is true hardware 56K modem and only thing gamers used back in the day. there still expensive too.

»www.onhop.ca/product/109 ··· =Shopbot

Sir, I would disagree.

The only -true- modem is this one:

»www.google.com/products/ ··· -sellers

Courier FTW. :)

I started with a USR 14.4 and used a firmware hack to get to 18.8. I migrated to a USR 33.6 internal and then a 56k USR Sportster (which I still have). My best one, however, is a USR Courier v.90. Paid $25 for it when a buddy was giving them away when he closed his ISP in 2000. Still works just fine.
--
Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:16:04 EDT

Exodus posted : We had unlimited for 14.95 with EZonline in 1992, later bought by Mindspring.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:33:16 EDT

anon posted :

said by CanerisErik:

Same here, but with connection.ca (or I think they were called "The Connection") before they were acquired by Echo Online which was later acquired by another party (Primus?). Used it for a while before getting Rogers @Home.

Primus is correct, I'm using an old Echo Online IP block right now. :)

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:13:50 EDT

34764170 posted :

said by diskace:

9600 bauds modem with a good old 386 :)

geeze. spoiled rotten. 1200 baud with my C64.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:09:11 EDT

J E F F4 posted :

said by elwoodblues:

I remember those USR modems, when 56k emerged the fight between x2 and Kflex.

Wow those were the days.

I wonder who here remember Telex in the day of BBS and different protocols such a 'kermit'. I think in 1990 I was doing 240 bytes per second (2400 baud modem - major overhead, so I was basically only getting around 2,000 kb/s (kilobits, as opposed to kilobytes))
--
Some of users ask me what a "Serial Port" is.
The answer is: I don't know.
Is it some kind of wine you have with breakfast?

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:40:31 EDT

Dustyn posted : Those pics got me excited! :o

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 07:17:18 EDT

brassy posted :

said by Last Parade:

The next person to use "baud" in place of "bps" I am going to make use a 28.8 modem to post on DSLReports.

vimeo.com/7644020

(and check out the rest of jasons videos).

and if those in here dont already own BBS: The Documentary, shame on you. its great. (can actually watch it for free because of his licensing, but its still worth paying for)

and I still have all my isa modems, zoom, boca, usr, etc. The way bell is going, bbs's might make a comeback.

And for repsonse to OT, i paid 40 cents an hour for dialup at UW before moving onto golden, ionline, mgl, etc, which I think most were in the 24-30$ for unlimited, then onto highspeed.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 03:23:19 EDT

Last Parade posted : The next person to use "baud" in place of "bps" I am going to make use a 28.8 modem to post on DSLReports.

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 02:42:34 EDT

heyyahblah posted : I had my 1st taste of internet in 1996 I believe I think the year was. I had to get my mom to sign me up.

I was using a Cardinal 28.8 modem. I believe v34 internal, so that would be slot ISA? Anyways it was a used 386DX intel machine with 14" monitor we got it used for probably $1500 or so. The modem was $250 extra in store (my grandpa got it for me for my bday)

Used to call a lot of local toronto BBSes, some names I can recall were The Dark Half BBS, The Wire, and TIBM Wizard I think was the best one, the SysOp had 3 nodes. Wicked BBS. Playing LORD, LORD2 and TW2002, good times.

anyways, for internet (not sure if anyone remembers or heard of this company) ...

The ISP for dial-up we were using was called FRONT.NET (front dot net) internet. Believe it or not, it was located on FRONT ST in downtown Toronto, lol. Anyone remember or ever hear of this ISP? Thats what I used from 1996 to about 2001/2002 when Rogers hispeed became available in our area (they beat bell/dsl)

think we were paying like $25 for 40/hrs, bronze package, can't remember ... but yea the company FRONT.NET INTERNET, :)

anyone at Teksavvy ever hear about them, since all your equipment is located on 151 FRONT ??? curious ...

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 02:17:50 EDT

Guspaz posted : I never did use my USR 14.4K Mac&Fax for actual internet, but other than the BBSes, I did use it to direct-dial friends to play some Warcraft 2 and Doom. You know, back when games supported dialup modems. And when macs had games.
--
Developer: Tomato/MLPPP, Linux/MLPPP, etc »fixppp.org

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:50:53 EDT

kaiu8 posted : back in the day I had this HUGE stack of free 1 month promos with activation codes that I bought for a buck each, and I basically cancelled and use those 1 month promos each month lol...

Can't remember the isp name.... something with spider in it? lol >.> or inet?

I think in the early 90s I used PCanywhere to my dad's business for internet

My ICQ was 7 digits :P

OMG makes me think back how awesome the huge cd-rom player was....

And can't believe floppy disks are dead :P

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:48:16 EDT

LazMan posted : OK - this is awesome...

Back in 92 or so, I was running a BBS out of the parent's basement - it was a big deal - 3, yes THREE lines; FidoNet mail; door games (anyone else remember TradeWars?).

I got invited to take part in USR's Sysop program - and got a HUGE price break on Courier modems - I think I paid $400 a piece for them - which was like $1000 off retail.

I still have one, complete with the riveted on demo tag - still works; it was a 19.2 v.TURBO when I got it, flashed to x2, and finally v.90. Still works, and I still use it once in a while, when I need dial-up for something...

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:11:21 EDT

nitzguy posted :

said by drjp81:

Zoltrix!

I kid you not....but this story ACTUALLY HAPPENNED.

The year was 1994. Nitz's 486 had been upgraded with Sound Blaster PRO and a 1x CDROM drive, Sony, with the CD-Caddy, oh yah, it was a multimedia powerhouse! (Did I mention it was a 486SX...that's right no floating point instructions for you, integer ONLY!) :).

Nitz had a 2400 Baud ZOLTRIX!!!...Supermodem, it worked good, liked COM4...played Warcraft on it...Humans...Orcs...good times.
Used to call his friends house and we'd play.

Then nitz thought...you know, I want something faster. So, he went down to his local computer store, Micro Matters, asked on the price of one of them shiny 14400 modems...$150 dollars you say!!...Wow that's pricey! It was a ZOOM modem...I heard they were good, so I was excited.

I said, I have this 2400 baud modem, what will you give me for it?
50 bucks the counter guy said....I said, 50 bucks!...that knocks down the price of this new modem to only 100 bucks...I took it!!

...That's right, I got $50 for my crappy Zoltrix Modem :). New modem was weird, only liked COM3, so I had to move my mouse serial port to COM2...silly IRQ sharing!! But I worked it out, those were the days.

Just wanted to share a story about how Zoltrix saved me $50 :).

Oh, to update to the post, Nitz's ISP offered him 30 hours for the low low price of $29.95!!....it was pricey....but then they didn't track hours when I was in shell mode, only PPP access...so...nitz used to spend way more than 30 hours online each month :).

Re: How much did dialup cost in 1995?

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:51:13 EDT

vintagewino posted :

said by Walter Dnes:

It works under LINUX for me. Also claims Windows and Mac. The reason it's relatively expensive is that it's a REAL modem, not some "winmodem" crap with a proprietary driver that'll only work with one version of Windows.

That's the problem with the $10 modems. All they suppply is the interface to the telephone line. All the grunt work to make the thing run is done by the CPU, so it slowed your machine down.

The real or hardware modems had the modem to all the grunt work, error correction, etc., and just tap the computer CPU either requesting data or read the data in the cache, so the interface between computer and modem is simpler and faster.