Why did dial up exist?

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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,326
14,728
146
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
this is the dumbest thread i have read on ATOT


Come on, if it weren't for dumb threads, what would folks like Goku & Philippine Mango post? ;)
Besides, if we didn't get dumb posts here, the place would be empty most of the time...
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
19
81
Originally posted by: Soviet
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Because for DSL to work you have to be within a mile of a node, which eliminates all rural areas and even some city locations depending on the network

So because back in the day these "nodes" werent as widespread, DSL wasent possible and dial-up was the only option? Like mobile phone masts today werent in place 5-10 years ago, giving no signal or a crappy one.

I *still* have dialup, as do most of the people that live near me. I live within a [line] mile of the RT that I am serviced by, but Verizon says that it is prohibitively expensive to install a DSLAM in that terminal, so everyone in my area is screwed.
 

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
5,481
0
0
I remember the day my parents house got DSL, it was right around my 16th birthday (Dec 1999), it was so fast, when the rest of the world was using 28-56k modems. 1.5 mbps down and 128 kbps up. Sadly, SBC (now AT&T) hasn't upgraded the speeds much, the fastest I can get is now 3 mbps down and 512 kbps up, in more than 7 years. Definitely not keeping up with Moore's law. They are really going to have to install fiber to get anymore speed boost out of those lines.

Of course, in my apartment in midtown Atlanta, I get 25 mbps down and 18 mbps up (yay fiber!)


 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
Originally posted by: Soviet
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Because for DSL to work you have to be within a mile of a node, which eliminates all rural areas and even some city locations depending on the network

So because back in the day these "nodes" werent as widespread, DSL wasent possible and dial-up was the only option? Like mobile phone masts today werent in place 5-10 years ago, giving no signal or a crappy one.

I *still* have dialup, as do most of the people that live near me. I live within a [line] mile of the RT that I am serviced by, but Verizon says that it is prohibitively expensive to install a DSLAM in that terminal, so everyone in my area is screwed.

They are pretty expensive, so in a rural area where it won't be servicing many customers it really doesn't make a lot of sense.
 

blazerazor

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2003
1,480
0
0
It's BA-BELL and AT&T!!1 Hold'n us DowN!Zor!!

PHreak1 1800 redbox whitebox bluebox NoBOX, aint no pay phones Left in America!

.... dude,if you didnt have cable/dsl/t123 (for you titty babies living indorms) you would be crap-tastic happy with some AOL free'bee dial up.

That a retarded post, and I'm even more dumb for reply'n to it.
 

Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
12,402
1,078
126
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Is the OP having a blonde moment?

Anyone else remember when we were HAPPY to have anything faster than 2400 BAUD?
33.6K dial-up was IMPRESSIVE when it first came out!
56K was AWESOME!

I do remember upgrading the 28.8 to a 56k v.92 and thinking that my connection was smokin' back when I dialed into the college modem bank.
 

MrDudeMan

Lifer
Jan 15, 2001
15,069
94
91
Originally posted by: beer
Once you see the number of instructions you have to process on a DSP to make ADSL work, you'll understand. Convolutions don't just happen you know! DSPs of the power used in ADSL modems didn't exist in affordable quantities until the past decade..

:thumbsup:

fast fourier transforms didnt just pop out of someones brain overnight, and neither did DSPs for that matter. the technology had to evolve.
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
19
81
You people and your 28.8 and 36.6 and 56k. I still have 21.6.

Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
Originally posted by: Soviet
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Because for DSL to work you have to be within a mile of a node, which eliminates all rural areas and even some city locations depending on the network

So because back in the day these "nodes" werent as widespread, DSL wasent possible and dial-up was the only option? Like mobile phone masts today werent in place 5-10 years ago, giving no signal or a crappy one.

I *still* have dialup, as do most of the people that live near me. I live within a [line] mile of the RT that I am serviced by, but Verizon says that it is prohibitively expensive to install a DSLAM in that terminal, so everyone in my area is screwed.

They are pretty expensive, so in a rural area where it won't be servicing many customers it really doesn't make a lot of sense.

They could get at least 20-30 people within 1 line mile of that RT to subscribe to DSL, if they tried to. Their engineering department set something so that their computers thought that there was a DSLAM there, and we were all thrilled. I know the tech that got to go around to 25 different houses (all of which ordered within 1 week of it becoming available) and tell them that there had been a mistake.

We've even asked if they could increase our monthly cost (distributed among several of us) to pay for a DSLAM over the course of a year or something. Or even just tell us how much one is, and we'd pay for it up front. Nope.
 

Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
5,594
0
0
Originally posted by: FoBoT
why didn't they just make high definition TV back in 1946?

what were they thinking waiting 60 years to sell these flat LCD and plasma TV's? :confused:

Money dumbass... What better way to make money than to incrementally upgrade televisions and technology so that people have to buy the same ****** again and again.
 

NoShangriLa

Golden Member
Sep 3, 2006
1,652
0
0
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Is the OP having a blonde moment?

Anyone else remember when we were HAPPY to have anything faster than 2400 BAUD?
33.6K dial-up was IMPRESSIVE when it first came out!
56K was AWESOME!
Yeah! and you can't get a connection that is faster than 33.6K even those the modem is 56K. And, by the time they figured out to get it up to 49K transfer rate we have much faster technologies in place.

what impressed me was when I got 9600 & then 14.4 because I was use to logged into the local university with a 1200 or a 2400 baud loaner modem.

Like others has said technology comes with research & time.

 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Right... let me explain my reasoning for asking this.

I know absolutely nothing about the hardware at the other end (companys end) but the hardware on my end can be a pentium 1 or a 486 that can be used as a server, crappy slow hardware can do broadband easily. So i figured if the computer can be crappy and slow on my end, theres no need for anything particularly high-tech/high-end at the companys place so therefore the speed would be limited by the physical wire itsself. I guess thats wrong though huh..... jeez sorry for asking :roll:

I dont do networking or software :p i only know computer hardware.

 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Is the OP having a blonde moment?

Anyone else remember when we were HAPPY to have anything faster than 2400 BAUD?
33.6K dial-up was IMPRESSIVE when it first came out!
56K was AWESOME!

My first modem was 300 baud, for my Commodore 64 :)

I remember when USR courier modems were awesome because they were almost always a little bit faster than the competition...

Ahh, the good ole days, before the internet, chatting on BBSs.
 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: bobdelt
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
this is the dumbest thread i have read on ATOT

That's a rather bold statement.

As a lifer, you MUST have seen something dumber. Hell - recently, bulk beef?
 

Superself

Senior member
Jun 7, 2001
688
0
76
Originally posted by: Soviet
Right... let me explain my reasoning for asking this.

I know absolutely nothing about the hardware at the other end (companys end) but the hardware on my end can be a pentium 1 or a 486 that can be used as a server, crappy slow hardware can do broadband easily. So i figured if the computer can be crappy and slow on my end, theres no need for anything particularly high-tech/high-end at the companys place so therefore the speed would be limited by the physical wire itsself. I guess thats wrong though huh..... jeez sorry for asking :roll:

I dont do networking or software :p i only know computer hardware.

Well if you have a 486 with crappy slow hardware and all you do is visit web sites that are 100% all text, nothing else really matters.
 

zeruty

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2000
2,276
2
81
Originally posted by: Soviet
Right... let me explain my reasoning for asking this.

I know absolutely nothing about the hardware at the other end (companys end) but the hardware on my end can be a pentium 1 or a 486 that can be used as a server, crappy slow hardware can do broadband easily. So i figured if the computer can be crappy and slow on my end, theres no need for anything particularly high-tech/high-end at the companys place so therefore the speed would be limited by the physical wire itsself. I guess thats wrong though huh..... jeez sorry for asking :roll:

I dont do networking or software :p i only know computer hardware.

Someone else already explained this, but I'll kind of reword it for you.
Typical analog modems are limited to working within the spectrum of audible sound, because that is all the phone systems were capable of transmitting. That is why, with a dial-up modem, if you picked up the phone while the modem was connected, you would hear all the beeps and screeches. Every bit had to be transmitted as a beep, and there were only so many different frequencies of beeps, and only so many could be sent per period of time, so there was a very limited amount of data that could be transmitted through the phone line.
Nowadays, the phone system is upgraded to allow transfer on frequencies outside of the audible range. That is why you cannot hear a dsl connection on your phone. The area used outside of the audible range is much wider; it has a much higher bandwidth. Also now, they do not need to use beeps to transmit the data, it is transmitted via electrical signals that turn on and off creating the 1s and 0s of digital data. This is why they are called Digital Subscriber Lines
 

broon

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2002
3,660
1
81
Even 8 years ago you could only get 2.5 gbs on a fiber. Now you can get over 960 gbs on a fiber.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Originally posted by: zeruty
Originally posted by: Soviet
Right... let me explain my reasoning for asking this.

I know absolutely nothing about the hardware at the other end (companys end) but the hardware on my end can be a pentium 1 or a 486 that can be used as a server, crappy slow hardware can do broadband easily. So i figured if the computer can be crappy and slow on my end, theres no need for anything particularly high-tech/high-end at the companys place so therefore the speed would be limited by the physical wire itsself. I guess thats wrong though huh..... jeez sorry for asking :roll:

I dont do networking or software :p i only know computer hardware.

Someone else already explained this, but I'll kind of reword it for you.
Typical analog modems are limited to working within the spectrum of audible sound, because that is all the phone systems were capable of transmitting. That is why, with a dial-up modem, if you picked up the phone while the modem was connected, you would hear all the beeps and screeches. Every bit had to be transmitted as a beep, and there were only so many different frequencies of beeps, and only so many could be sent per period of time, so there was a very limited amount of data that could be transmitted through the phone line.
Nowadays, the phone system is upgraded to allow transfer on frequencies outside of the audible range. That is why you cannot hear a dsl connection on your phone. The area used outside of the audible range is much wider; it has a much higher bandwidth. Also now, they do not need to use beeps to transmit the data, it is transmitted via electrical signals that turn on and off creating the 1s and 0s of digital data. This is why they are called Digital Subscriber Lines

AHA!! I see! Theres more to it than pushing stuff through a wire, excellent. Back then they simply didnt know how to transmit via electrical signal or out of the audible range or if they did the technology wasent cheap enough at the time for mass implimentation. Suppose that might explain the nasty noise the modem would make when it dialled up too.

Awsome :) let it die now, i dislike being labelled stupid :frown:
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
146
Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Gee sand has existed forever. Why didn't we have silicon computers thouSANDs of years ago? :p


...because the aliens didn't allow us to have the technology yet. Same with DSL
 

zeruty

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2000
2,276
2
81
Originally posted by: Soviet

AHA!! I see! Theres more to it than pushing stuff through a wire, excellent. Back then they simply didnt know how to transmit via electrical signal or out of the audible range or if they did the technology wasent cheap enough at the time for mass implimentation. Suppose that might explain the nasty noise the modem would make when it dialled up too.

Awsome :) let it die now, i dislike being labelled stupid :frown:

Yes, that nasty noise they made when they connected was called a handshake. It was where your modem and the modem on the other end were introducing themselves and telling each other what speed they were, what features they supported, and determining the fastest connection speed the two could make over the given telephone circuit.
 

AStar617

Diamond Member
Sep 29, 2002
4,983
0
0
Originally posted by: Soviet
Its the same wires that are used by DSL no? So why was dial up so slow and crap and DSL isnt, considering its the same wall connection thats used. How come they didnt just use DSL or somthing faster to begin with?

And if we can fly to the moon now, like, why didn't the Wright Brothers just do that 100 years ago to begin with?

I'm not usually for ad hominem attacks, but you're either 12 years old, or mildly retarded. :roll:
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
Originally posted by: Soviet

i dislike being labelled stupid :frown:

ATOT is definitely the wrong place for you, boy.

Also, all this could have been avoided if you'd bothered to do some simple research using google or wikipedia, but then I wouldn't have a funny thread to laugh at. :D
 

ForumMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2005
7,792
1
0
there is also the issue of what frequency on the phone lines were used. ever wondered why today you can surf and still talk on the phone at the same time on the same line? telephones use the frequency that we can hear. DSL uses a much higher frequency that doesn't interfere and also has higher bandwidth. there is also the issue with nodes.
 

Al Neri

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2002
5,680
1
81
please.

i had a 14.4 modem in 5th grade (must have been around 1991 or 1992) and that was top of the line (~$5-600)

AOL would only let me dial in at 300 baud so I switched to Prodigy which only allowed users to dial in at 2400 baud, I think compuserve let you go at 2400 or 4800...

I remember when AOL and Prodigy took the big leap and let you log on @ 9600... I thought I was on the Autobahn...

I can't believe I can get 1,000,000x faster speeds than that for the same price or even cheaper.