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One really cool thing about ISDN was that it connected almost instantaneously (within a second). In fact I remember the first time I used it, I thought the conn
by geertj 3y ago
One really cool thing about ISDN was that it connected almost instantaneously (within a second). In fact I remember the first time I used it, I thought the connection had failed because I could not imagine it connected so fast. This allowed you to have the illusion of being always online by auto dialing just in time. I remember setting up modemd (IIRC) to keep the connection open for at least the minumum charge time of my telco provider. This was in NL some time in the 90s.
- linsomniac 3y agoI was lucky enough to have a grandfathered flat-rate ISDN in my apartment in ~94-97. I had one of those Motorola BitSurfr modems, and would keep it up to my ISP with 128Kbps, but if a phone call came in it would drop one so I had 64K and could talk on the phone. Invariably, these calls were people looking to post adverts in the Thrifty Nickel paper. My number was close to theirs. I ended up staying in a small apartment for a couple of years rather than moving to a bigger, nicer one, because moving would have caused me to lose my flat rate ISDN and instead have to pay by the minute. Being done with waiting for two modems to sniff each-others butts like a couple of dogs was liberating! I moved to a house in 1997 and went back to modems. But I started consulting with an ISP and they offered to let me connect a T1 from my house to their network. I got a contract from the phone company for $205/mo, and got the T1 installed. They charged me $250, and after a few months of me calling them about it they said their tariff wouldn't allow them to sell it for $205, the contract was a mistake. That was a few days after I got a flier advertising DSL: half the speed but a quarter the price. But a lot of speculation that "DSL will never work". However, it did, and it was great.
- kjs3 3y agoIf your house was provisioned with a T1, you already had all the things that routinely screw up a xDSL connection fixed.
- linsomniac 3y agoBack at that time the primary concern about screwing up DSL was cross-talk: "Once more than a few people in your neighborhood have DSL, the cross-talk between lines will brick everyone." There was a lot of hate, not sure exactly where it came from.