6 ms·

One of my first jobs was working for a mom-and-pop dial-up ISP. I persuaded my mom to get an account with them when I saw them in a computer magazine. I did not

by hrunt 4y ago

One of my first jobs was working for a mom-and-pop dial-up ISP. I persuaded my mom to get an account with them when I saw them in a computer magazine. I did not even have a web browser! A little after that, they hired me. One of the things we used to do when I first started was shuck modems. We would buy the consumer models, break open the plastic cases, pull the circuit boards out, and slide them into slots of custom enclosures. Then we would hand-assemble DB-to-ethernet adapters and plug them into serial controller banks. We bought any and all modems, but the cheap models from US Robotics and Supra were really a game changer. The only tough part was that dealing with the slight differences in command differences on the client side needed to connect to the different modem types.

ghaff 4y ago
There was a period when various modem manufacturers were pushing speed limits and they did some non-standard things to do so. As I recall, USR's 9600 bps was one of the more non (Hayes) standard. Since you mention ISPs though, this was probably a bit earlier.
- bhauer 4y ago
  You might be right about the USR 9600 bps mode, but for certain their original 14.4k bps mode was proprietary and named "HST." I still fondly remember when I got my Courier HST and witnessed its intense speed boost versus my prior 2400 bps modem.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    There were 9600 bps USR Courier HST models. Pretty sure I still have one up in the attic unless I've tossed it. I forget what I had in the 14K generation.
    - bhauer 4y ago
      Maybe I am misremembering, then. Perhaps I had a 9600 bps HST.
- hrunt 4y ago
  Yeah, but there were definitely incompatibilities with every speed increase. When 28.8k modems were coming out, the spec was not set yet, so several vendors released early versions (anyone remember v.fast?) and then updated the modem firmware later when the standard was set. And then when 56.6k modems came along, USR had X2 and Motorola and others had K56flex. About a year later, v.90 and v.92 came along to standardize everything. If you were an ISP, you had to support everything. For the 56.6k stuff, I remember us having two separate dial-in pools for X2 and K56flex.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I vaguely remember v.fast. I was still using dialup into the the 56K days. When I bought my house in the late 90s, it was pretty much peak dual POTS phone lines days. I didn't even have cable TV at first and it was probably a few years before I was able to get broadband.
- rasz 4y ago
  USR had HST (High Speed Transfer), but the king was Telebit with TrailBlazer utilizing PEP (Packetized Ensemble Protocol). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebit#PEP_and_the_TrailBlazer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebit#PEP_and_the_TrailBlaze... Supra on the other hand offered ridiculous discounts "A manufacturer that disappeared leaving a trace in the industry Supra where cheap modems were sold in large quantities even in Akihabara" 2/3 https://ascii-jp.translate.goog/elem/000/001/425/1425488/index-2.html?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc https://ascii-jp.translate.goog/elem/000/001/425/1425488/ind... >Smartmodem 2400 had dropped in price to around $500 in 1987, but was still an expensive product. In 1987, Supra Corporation launched the SupraModem 2400, which is fully compatible with the Smartmodem 2400, for just $179.

by hrunt 4y ago

ghaff 4y ago

There was a period when various modem manufacturers were pushing speed limits and they did some non-standard things to do so. As I recall, USR's 9600 bps was one of the more non (Hayes) standard. Since you mention ISPs though, this was probably a bit earlier.

bhauer 4y ago
You might be right about the USR 9600 bps mode, but for certain their original 14.4k bps mode was proprietary and named "HST." I still fondly remember when I got my Courier HST and witnessed its intense speed boost versus my prior 2400 bps modem.
- ghaff 4y ago
  There were 9600 bps USR Courier HST models. Pretty sure I still have one up in the attic unless I've tossed it. I forget what I had in the 14K generation.
  - bhauer 4y ago
    Maybe I am misremembering, then. Perhaps I had a 9600 bps HST.
hrunt 4y ago
Yeah, but there were definitely incompatibilities with every speed increase. When 28.8k modems were coming out, the spec was not set yet, so several vendors released early versions (anyone remember v.fast?) and then updated the modem firmware later when the standard was set. And then when 56.6k modems came along, USR had X2 and Motorola and others had K56flex. About a year later, v.90 and v.92 came along to standardize everything. If you were an ISP, you had to support everything. For the 56.6k stuff, I remember us having two separate dial-in pools for X2 and K56flex.
- ghaff 4y ago
  I vaguely remember v.fast. I was still using dialup into the the 56K days. When I bought my house in the late 90s, it was pretty much peak dual POTS phone lines days. I didn't even have cable TV at first and it was probably a few years before I was able to get broadband.
rasz 4y ago
USR had HST (High Speed Transfer), but the king was Telebit with TrailBlazer utilizing PEP (Packetized Ensemble Protocol). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebit#PEP_and_the_TrailBlazer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telebit#PEP_and_the_TrailBlaze... Supra on the other hand offered ridiculous discounts "A manufacturer that disappeared leaving a trace in the industry Supra where cheap modems were sold in large quantities even in Akihabara" 2/3 https://ascii-jp.translate.goog/elem/000/001/425/1425488/index-2.html?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc https://ascii-jp.translate.goog/elem/000/001/425/1425488/ind... >Smartmodem 2400 had dropped in price to around $500 in 1987, but was still an expensive product. In 1987, Supra Corporation launched the SupraModem 2400, which is fully compatible with the Smartmodem 2400, for just $179.