8 ms·

I get waves of nostalgia when I hear that screeching sound. At work, when the fax machine was still sitting in my office, I deliberately turned the sound on (f

by krylon 9y ago

I get waves of nostalgia when I hear that screeching sound. At work, when the fax machine was still sitting in my office, I deliberately turned the sound on (for those who don't know: the initial handshake part sounds pretty much the same for modems and fax). Then we got a shiny new printer/scanner/fax that now sits in the hallway. When I had Internet access for the first time (1996), I used a 14.4 modem for about a year, before I could switch to ISDN. To me, sound always signified a window opening to a new, magical world, where the only boundaries were your imagination and available bandwidth. A friend of mine once dialed the wrong number, and a human picked up. Hearing a human voice from the modem was really strange. Ah, good times (except for the crappy bandwidth and the fact that the phone company charged by the minute).

ChuckMcM 9y ago
I used to have it as the ringtone for my boss at work, and chuckled when I heard it because it meant work was 'dialing in' to me to figure something out :-) It does confuse people when your phone makes that noise though and then you start talking to it.
userbinator 9y ago
for those who don't know: the initial handshake part sounds pretty much the same for modems and fax I believe Step 11, in particular, is the one very recognisable as "the fax sound": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_7lEXaJyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_7lEXaJyo
Cthulhu_ 9y ago
It was when Going Online was still a ritual, just like starting up the computer was - it took a while, sometimes you had to go through a menu or start up Windows or whatever separately still, you got this jingle when starting up, sometimes a login screen, all that stuff. Then going online, dialing up, telling the family (if any) that you're using the internet for a while, firing up the browser, etc. Using the internet was (for most people anyway) a very focused task too, given the per minute charge - get online, do what you want, get offline again. I noticed that myself very quickly after getting DSL; while we had a bandwidth limit (1500 MB / month iirc), I still spent a lot of time online; freed from pay per minute, you get a lot more time to just browse and explore. Still do the latter. Usually it's browsing Reddit, but sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole.
- barrkel 9y ago
  Trumpet Winsock; login and initiate PPP; fire up Netscape Navigator.
  - bringtheaction 9y ago
    Never heard of Trumpet Winsock before. Found this. https://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/ https://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/ http://www.trumpet.com.au/index.php/news/3-latest-news/17-mar-2011.html http://www.trumpet.com.au/index.php/news/3-latest-news/17-ma... > As a result of some recent discussion about Trumpet Winsock and its use during the early 1990s, a group of users at Hacker News have decided to donate to Peter Tattam in appreciation for their use of Trumpet Winsock during the early years of the Internet. > As a gesture of good will, Peter Tattam, the sole copyright owner of Trumpet Winsock, has also issued an amnesty on any copyright infringement by all users (individual and corporate) of Trumpet Winsock indefinitely for use prior to Jan 2011. He does however reserve all other rights in the copyright of Trumpet Winsock. Please note that Trumpet Winsock is still available for sale and is NOT free - should you wish to continue to use it, you should order a registration key from us.
    - bdamm 9y ago
      Shareware!
    - katastic 9y ago
      Kind of strange how certain, obscure topics reappear on the same site. Like Reddit reposts, Hacker News apparently has articles that hit every year or every few years. That first link literally mentions HN the last time it slashdot'd it. >Update 20 January 2016 >After 5 relatively quiet years, Trumpet Winsock is back on the front of Hacker News. Welcome back to memories of the dawn of the mass internet age. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10935532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10935532
    - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
      > Never heard of Trumpet Winsock before. That sound you just heard was half of HN sighing at how old they feel, including me. :/
exabrial 9y ago
Pre internet, I had 600bps modem, and my dad had a 1200bps. Would dial into bbs systems for no reason other than curiosity haha
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  At one point, modems used to cost about $1/baud, when 300 baud modems cost $300 and 1200 baud modems cost $1200.
  - technofiend 9y ago
    I once traded an original Hayes 2400 baud modem for a Honda CB360 motorcycle. The Hayes was a thing of beauty in its milled aluminum case.
    - jandrese 9y ago
      I didn't get into it until the 14400 baud modems came out and the prices dropped precipitously. I remember we had one for the Mac that plugged into the keyboard/mouse port (ADB) which I thought was pretty weird at the time. Then I went to school and got a PC and an ISA modem. Turns out it was a precursor to the Software Modems (Winmodems) that came out a couple of years later. It had all of the hardware to negotiate the connection and modulate the data, but offloaded the error correction and compression to the host os. Of course the drivers only worked on Win3.1, so I had to go without most of the time. Turns out it was actually better for gaming since they added latency and my phone lines were clean enough that it wasn't an issue. The only bad thing is that if someone picked up the phone, even for a second, you would lose your link. It just couldn't recover.
      - Jedd 9y ago
        > I didn't get into it until the 14400 baud modems came out You almost certainly mean 14400 bps.
        Jedd 9y ago
bdamm 9y ago
Curious why my BBS wasn't coming up after several redials, and with the volume off late at night so as to not disturb the rest of fam, I switched on the volume to my modem to hear this: click "Hello, Maple Ridge Police Depar.... damnit, not this again. Let's get a line trace go.." RESET
- corobo 9y ago
  Hah I had something similar except with the volume on. Managed to figure out it was a faulty line splitter where we split the phone and modem Turns out (at least here in the UK) if you repeatedly hit the hangup button it will dial emergency services and the splitter was doing the equivalent of that Very disconcerting as a new internet user to have the police tell you to stop calling them through the back of the computer under the desk
- paulmd 9y ago
  Left your dial-out prefix set to 0118 999 881 999 119 7253, eh?
awj 9y ago
They used it as weird sound an alien makes in the PBS show "Read Jet Go" (which is a fantastic kids show, btw). It was so strange having my kids laugh at this strange noise that was a deep part of my childhood and eventual profession.
samstave 9y ago
Crappy bandwidth? I was playing populous over a 300 baud modem in the 80s with my friend. Also, i was grounded in the early 90s for calling into PCLink and running a $926 long distance phone bill that month. Then, we setup a warez BBS as the backside to the computer systems we setup in highschool One of my first jobs was desoldering bad memory out of apple IIs Man the 80s were fun times.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
I used a 14.4 modem for about a year "No one will need more than 14.4 kb /s. 14.4 kb /s ought to be enough for anybody."

by krylon 9y ago

ChuckMcM 9y ago

I used to have it as the ringtone for my boss at work, and chuckled when I heard it because it meant work was 'dialing in' to me to figure something out :-) It does confuse people when your phone makes that noise though and then you start talking to it.

userbinator 9y ago

for those who don't know: the initial handshake part sounds pretty much the same for modems and fax I believe Step 11, in particular, is the one very recognisable as "the fax sound": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_7lEXaJyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_7lEXaJyo

Cthulhu_ 9y ago

It was when Going Online was still a ritual, just like starting up the computer was - it took a while, sometimes you had to go through a menu or start up Windows or whatever separately still, you got this jingle when starting up, sometimes a login screen, all that stuff. Then going online, dialing up, telling the family (if any) that you're using the internet for a while, firing up the browser, etc. Using the internet was (for most people anyway) a very focused task too, given the per minute charge - get online, do what you want, get offline again. I noticed that myself very quickly after getting DSL; while we had a bandwidth limit (1500 MB / month iirc), I still spent a lot of time online; freed from pay per minute, you get a lot more time to just browse and explore. Still do the latter. Usually it's browsing Reddit, but sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole.

barrkel 9y ago
Trumpet Winsock; login and initiate PPP; fire up Netscape Navigator.
- bringtheaction 9y ago
  Never heard of Trumpet Winsock before. Found this. https://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/ https://thanksfortrumpetwinsock.com/ http://www.trumpet.com.au/index.php/news/3-latest-news/17-mar-2011.html http://www.trumpet.com.au/index.php/news/3-latest-news/17-ma... > As a result of some recent discussion about Trumpet Winsock and its use during the early 1990s, a group of users at Hacker News have decided to donate to Peter Tattam in appreciation for their use of Trumpet Winsock during the early years of the Internet. > As a gesture of good will, Peter Tattam, the sole copyright owner of Trumpet Winsock, has also issued an amnesty on any copyright infringement by all users (individual and corporate) of Trumpet Winsock indefinitely for use prior to Jan 2011. He does however reserve all other rights in the copyright of Trumpet Winsock. Please note that Trumpet Winsock is still available for sale and is NOT free - should you wish to continue to use it, you should order a registration key from us.
  - bdamm 9y ago
    Shareware!
  - katastic 9y ago
    Kind of strange how certain, obscure topics reappear on the same site. Like Reddit reposts, Hacker News apparently has articles that hit every year or every few years. That first link literally mentions HN the last time it slashdot'd it. >Update 20 January 2016 >After 5 relatively quiet years, Trumpet Winsock is back on the front of Hacker News. Welcome back to memories of the dawn of the mass internet age. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10935532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10935532
  - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
    > Never heard of Trumpet Winsock before. That sound you just heard was half of HN sighing at how old they feel, including me. :/

exabrial 9y ago

Pre internet, I had 600bps modem, and my dad had a 1200bps. Would dial into bbs systems for no reason other than curiosity haha

DonHopkins 9y ago
At one point, modems used to cost about $1/baud, when 300 baud modems cost $300 and 1200 baud modems cost $1200.
- technofiend 9y ago
  I once traded an original Hayes 2400 baud modem for a Honda CB360 motorcycle. The Hayes was a thing of beauty in its milled aluminum case.
  - jandrese 9y ago
    I didn't get into it until the 14400 baud modems came out and the prices dropped precipitously. I remember we had one for the Mac that plugged into the keyboard/mouse port (ADB) which I thought was pretty weird at the time. Then I went to school and got a PC and an ISA modem. Turns out it was a precursor to the Software Modems (Winmodems) that came out a couple of years later. It had all of the hardware to negotiate the connection and modulate the data, but offloaded the error correction and compression to the host os. Of course the drivers only worked on Win3.1, so I had to go without most of the time. Turns out it was actually better for gaming since they added latency and my phone lines were clean enough that it wasn't an issue. The only bad thing is that if someone picked up the phone, even for a second, you would lose your link. It just couldn't recover.
    - Jedd 9y ago
      > I didn't get into it until the 14400 baud modems came out You almost certainly mean 14400 bps.
      - Jedd 9y ago

bdamm 9y ago

Curious why my BBS wasn't coming up after several redials, and with the volume off late at night so as to not disturb the rest of fam, I switched on the volume to my modem to hear this: click "Hello, Maple Ridge Police Depar.... damnit, not this again. Let's get a line trace go.." RESET

corobo 9y ago
Hah I had something similar except with the volume on. Managed to figure out it was a faulty line splitter where we split the phone and modem Turns out (at least here in the UK) if you repeatedly hit the hangup button it will dial emergency services and the splitter was doing the equivalent of that Very disconcerting as a new internet user to have the police tell you to stop calling them through the back of the computer under the desk
paulmd 9y ago
Left your dial-out prefix set to 0118 999 881 999 119 7253, eh?

awj 9y ago

They used it as weird sound an alien makes in the PBS show "Read Jet Go" (which is a fantastic kids show, btw). It was so strange having my kids laugh at this strange noise that was a deep part of my childhood and eventual profession.

samstave 9y ago

Crappy bandwidth? I was playing populous over a 300 baud modem in the 80s with my friend. Also, i was grounded in the early 90s for calling into PCLink and running a $926 long distance phone bill that month. Then, we setup a warez BBS as the backside to the computer systems we setup in highschool One of my first jobs was desoldering bad memory out of apple IIs Man the 80s were fun times.

tryingagainbro 9y ago

I used a 14.4 modem for about a year "No one will need more than 14.4 kb /s. 14.4 kb /s ought to be enough for anybody."