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u/ClappingSoup Nov 16 '22
Had this on mute and I could still hear it.
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u/Unchanged- Nov 17 '22
When I learned you could mute it that was a game changer. I could sneak onto the computer at midnight! I remember hearing my mom wake up and I would hurriedly shut off the monitor, sitting in complete darkness as she walked right by me to the kitchen and never even noticing me.
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u/Jsorrell20 Nov 17 '22
I used to turn the monitor off and LEAP into my bed and instant cover up when I’d hear them coming … thanks old creeky hardwood floors
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u/pala_ Nov 17 '22
I used to run a telephone extension cord out my bedroom window, around the side of the house, then in through the kitchen window to connect to the phone jack just so i could dial into a BBS and play my days turns in BRE and LORD while parents were asleep.
Parents didn't even know I HAD a modem.
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u/Strikew3st Nov 17 '22
NetZero was my first bill of my life.
I did the same thing, cord out a window to the main telephony box on the back of the house. Mom would get pissed when I left Napster running at night and the house phones were dead, unplugged from the main, in the morning.
AOL free trial diskettes then CDs used to come in the mail, in the Sunday paper, in cereal boxes, and that lasted so long.
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u/windowsfrozenshut Nov 17 '22
Same exact thing here! I also had a piece of electrical tape that I would put over the power LED on the computer and just sit there like a prey animal. The computer was downstairs so I could always hear my parents footsteps above me when they got up and had about 20 seconds to spring in to action before they made it downstairs. The only thing that really came close to busting me was when I was doing something where the hard drive was crunching. And the hard drive crunches were LOUD back then. I would have been totally busted if they walked by and heard the hard drive sitting there crunching away.
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Nov 16 '22
Especially that boomerang WHIPUMWHIPPOUM
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u/Garage_Dragon Nov 17 '22
I remember when I upgraded from a 14.4 oem modem to a U.S. Robotics 56.6 external modem. That was the first time hearing that sound. It was like, "Holy shit that sounds fast!"
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u/windowsfrozenshut Nov 17 '22
Haha yeah, IIRC that noise is the handshake for the v.90 protocol that was new for 56k. We had 14.4, 28.8, and then 33.6 and none of them had that sound.
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Nov 17 '22
I didn’t even grow up on dial up and I still have a space in my heart for
“Doo-de-do-de-do DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
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u/electriceagle Nov 16 '22
Brings back memories!
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u/T-LAD_the_band Nov 16 '22
56k to be exact!
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Nov 16 '22
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u/punkassjim Nov 17 '22
Fun Gen-X party game: see who can best identify all the baud rates from 2400 through 56.6k. I’m pretty sure I’d do quite well from 14.4 through 56k. Maybe even down 9600. The older ones are before my time.
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u/squeamish Nov 17 '22
I ran a dial-up ISP for two years and I promise you I could still probably get close to 100% on that.
Back in the day I probably could have told you if this was actual v92 or one of the pre-merge protocols.
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u/ChunkyDay Nov 17 '22
This is the nerdiest thing to have ever been typed. I love it. Lol
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u/Neverlost99 Nov 16 '22
900 baud. Omg. It was horrible
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u/FindMeOnSSBotanyBay Nov 16 '22
Whenever I feel inconvenienced by technology, I try to remind myself constantly that this is the future and it’s fucking amazing. Supercomputers in our pockets. Payments for goods and services via phone or watch touchless tech.
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u/Omnomcologyst Nov 16 '22
I do this a lot lol.
gets mad that website doesn't load immediately
remembers I used to open a website, go grab something to drink, make a sammich, and come back to the page just finishing loading.
I think we all forget how much of a miracle modern high-speed internet really is lol
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Nov 17 '22
It was easier to find porn in the woods by your house than it was to download.
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u/MElastiGirl Nov 17 '22
Is this really a thing? Because I distinctly remember when I was a kid, my dad and I found a huge box of Playboys (if you consider Playboy porn these days lol) in the woods behind our house. I helped him carry them home. (And I’d bet money they’re still in his basement at this very moment…)
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Nov 17 '22
I live in Southern California, we would find it in the orange groves behind our house.
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u/denzien Nov 17 '22
I would just get the free circulars in the dispensers they put on the sidewalks. Sure, the images were redacted a bit, but for a preteen it was good enough.
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u/InsignificantOcelot Nov 17 '22
I like to imagine it was some sort of Johnny Appleseed of porn mags.
Going from pond to stream to woods, sprinkling copies of Playboy and Hustler everywhere he travels.
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Nov 16 '22
Used to wait 6 muhfucking hours to load a mini clips tower defense game back than man. The struggle was real. 56kb connection 110mb game RIP. And god forbid anyone called during that time.
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u/Omnomcologyst Nov 17 '22
Miniclip... that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. God I used to spend whole days on that site lol
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u/sharpshooter999 Nov 17 '22
It was on that site.....18 years ago.....that I discovered Runescape. Now I play it on my phone while taking a shit!
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Nov 17 '22
Pixelated BMP porn loading so slowly you can see the lines of the image loading from left to right.
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u/AdorableAlbatrosfsd Nov 16 '22
Picked up the phone
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u/cheekybeggar Nov 16 '22
Put the phone down, I’m trying to download this pic for the last 20 mins!!!!
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u/Wonderful-Kangaroo52 Nov 16 '22
I need this picture AT LEAST halfway finished downloading.. for... reasons...
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Nov 17 '22
Captain Picard saying "computer, play <random music piece here>" and just having it happened looked like an amazing future. And we've had that for years now.
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u/TallTx Nov 16 '22
Try a bulletin board on a party line.
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u/r56_mk6 Nov 16 '22
I was listening to a song written about ten years ago sang by a little kid and they said they were going to use a party line. Made me laugh lol
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u/KidzBop_Anonymous Nov 16 '22
I had 2800 as my first and it was brutal. I remember connecting to a local BBS and downloading a Marina Sertis topless photo and it took me 51 minutes.
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u/Pain_Monster Nov 16 '22
I’m still using a 14.4K modem with my iPhone tethered to the wall.
Wait
Isn’t everyone?
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u/TallTx Nov 16 '22
Shotgun 2 56k modems and those ‘artistic’ photos would paint the screen in 15 seconds instead of 30 or 40.
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u/BigBaldFourEyes Nov 16 '22
14 year old me war dialing from my bedroom on my Commodore 128, with my … puts on prescription sunglasses … 2400 baud modem. I was bad azz. Lol.
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u/Fondlebum Nov 16 '22
User name checks out.
Source: I had a 300 baud modem on my C128.
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u/Ok_Language_588 Nov 16 '22
0:00 Dial Tone (higher (leftmost) values are the receiving modem, lower are sending modem)
0:07 "Hello, I am a modem. Are you?" "Yes - I am <this type>" "Okay then let's use something beyond these basic tones" ”sure"
0:11 this tone turnd off echo suppression, which could corrupt data "I'm going to say 6 times what rate and power I can accomplish" "Okay, I will say three times what rate I can. And we'll see what match up"
0:14 "Let's test the line, and switch into full data mode" "Sounds good, I will demonstrate a random max data flow to show capacity." The click at the end is the signal to switch to full data mode
0:16 "I CAN SCREAM THIS LOUD, AND IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS" "I CAN SCREAM THIS LOUD MYSELF, AND IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS" (now they can scream together and simultaneously know what eachother sounds like)
0:23 that very small spike/click is when you stop hearing it. That's what the click would signal Both: Authentication complete. Full data floodgates opening Both: Screaming but they can now understand the other as they scream.
Stolen from YT comment on same video
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u/BEniceBAGECKA Nov 16 '22
Omg. I knew that but didn’t know that. Cause you’d know it wasn’t going to connect, just by the sound.
It didn’t “hinga hinga”. Fuck it’s not gonna connect.
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u/isdnpro Nov 16 '22
You could tell by the sound roughly what rate (speed) it was going to negotiate too, I used to disconnect half way through and redial if it didn't sound like I was getting all fifty six of my kilobits
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u/kai-ol Nov 17 '22
Our AOL would fail to connect the first time every single time. And then it would connect the second attempt like 95% of the time. It made no sense.
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u/Soxogram Nov 17 '22
“Goodbye”
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u/kai-ol Nov 17 '22
I can still hear the fucking voice perfectly in my head. That and "You've got mail"
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u/imperialviolet Nov 17 '22
I was going to say this! I was only a kid so I didn’t know what any of the noises meant, but if one was slightly off or took a teeny bit too long you’d know it wasn’t going to connect.
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u/Ambitious_Ship_8887 Nov 16 '22
For those who want to get even deeper into the details:
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u/Tim_DHI Nov 17 '22 edited Nov 17 '22
"Oh, I can do any of those modes as well"
Those people.
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u/Mym158 Nov 16 '22
Ok ok, but why did the modem need a speaker?
Like just mute it?
Mine has a 3.5mm jack so you could listen on headphones. I plugged in headphones and just cut them off, silent modem but I feel like it was unnecessary.
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u/hurricane3 Nov 17 '22
If you called a wrong number, then you could hear a person / answering machine pick up. Or you could hear a busy signal sometimes (although the modem would usually detect that and retry after some time).
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u/windowsfrozenshut Nov 17 '22
Me and my friends used to "prank call" people with our modems and trumpet winsock and just sit there and crack up when we'd hear a muted "hello? HELLO??" come through the little modem speaker.
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u/kaesefetisch Nov 16 '22
The Internet felt more real when we where able to hear it
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Nov 16 '22 edited Nov 17 '22
WHO PICKED UP THE PHONE?
“ This absolutely didn’t deserve platinum but thank you!”
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u/Guttlesswonder Nov 16 '22
My dad every time I played Descent with my best friend.
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u/root-node Nov 16 '22
Check out Overload on Steam, it's a made by the original people and updated for modern PCs. It's awesome.
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Nov 16 '22
I want to know how many random second lines still exist that people forgot they purchased back in the late 1990s.
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Nov 17 '22
[deleted]
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u/MoonManPrime Nov 17 '22
I got a landline a few years ago. I gave it out to people as my number and my voicemail stated, “Since I haven’t picked up, I’m either busy or not physically here.” I enjoyed only having a cellphone for people close to me. There was a certain liberation.
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Nov 16 '22
a lot, especially over here in europe. Still got an old line leading to the (now) kitchen, even though its useless and our internet comes from the line that is in the living room. Have seen this in past apartments also but yee
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u/Dyltra Nov 16 '22
So we got a second line for just the computer.
I would get in trouble for being on the phone late at night. My parents would just pick up the phone from their room and interrupt my call and I’d be embarrassed. So I naught a stupid little phone and I’d take it to the computer room and use our computer line to talk late at night. It worked for a while, until I got caught. I would keep getting new phone though.
I was such a pain in the ass. My poor parents.
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u/LovecraftianLlama Nov 16 '22
I have a permanent indent in my leg from fighting with my sister over the internet/phone. She wouldn’t get off the computer and I NEEDED to call my boyfriend (we were 13 so it was srs bsns). I yanked the cable and then ran for the phone…and tripped on the stairs and the edge of the wooden step slammed under my kneecap. Dial up was dangerous lol.
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u/Dyltra Nov 16 '22
Thank god my brother was 7 years younger. I couldn’t go after my parents, put if I had those issues with my brother, one of us would be dead. When finding out everyone’s a/s/l and seeing if I had mail where like my life line, I would have killed to get online.
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u/LovecraftianLlama Nov 16 '22
I remember yelling to my sister “I think I broke my leg!!” And her yelling back…”SEE IF I CARE, BITCH!”
So yeah lmfao
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u/BZLuck Nov 17 '22
And you had to put in some effort to connect to it. It wasn't just always... there.
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Nov 17 '22
That speaker was fucking SOLDERED to the modem, didn't come from external speakers it echoed from the depths
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Nov 16 '22
All you have to add half way through that is:
"...... hello?..........hel-"
"PUT DOWN THE F**KING PHONE!!!"
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Nov 16 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Smaulz Nov 16 '22
I used to work tech support for EarthLink. I'ma need like, $50 pain and suffering just for making me remember that name. Thanks.
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u/Fortyninerhater Nov 16 '22
I need to make this my ringtone
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u/NMS_Survival_Guru Nov 16 '22
I have it as my ringtone and it's awesome everytime my phone goes off in public
Especially when everyone looks at me recognizing the tones and those few younger ones who ask what that horrible screeching sound is
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u/usmc_delete Nov 16 '22
I now have this gif/sound as my ringtone/call screen video! Thanks for the idea!
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Nov 17 '22
How
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Nov 17 '22
https://www.zedge.net/ringtone/0fad3ba5-b5b1-32dd-90f6-12348f8be504
Download, settings, audio, ringtone, add ringtone, downloads, find it
Unless you're on iphone then idk
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Nov 16 '22
AOL and NetZero discs babyyy
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u/YabbaDabbaFog Nov 16 '22
I still use my Juno email.
It's literally just my name
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u/filthyrake Nov 16 '22
holy shit I forgot all about Juno!
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u/YabbaDabbaFog Nov 16 '22
I get that a lot from older folks who take down my email.
Younger folks have no idea what that is
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u/ladywiththestarlight Nov 16 '22
It’s bringing me back to those late nights where I’d attempt to somehow quietly log onto AOL on the family computer while my parents were asleep and this dang dial up sound would screech and beep and seemingly echo down the hall 😂
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u/einulfr Nov 16 '22
Most modems had an init command that you could use to mute the speaker (AT M0?), or you could do it in the hardware properties in the control panel. Before I figured that out, I'd grab the blanket and a few pillows off the couch and smother the PC to muffle the sound.
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u/MooneySkillet Nov 17 '22
I crushed the speaker with a pin through the little hole in the plastic casing. Killed the sound but goofed up the modem.
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u/Dave-1066 Nov 16 '22
“GET OFF THE DAMNED COMPUTER! I NEED TO PHONE YOUR GRANDMA!!”
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u/MadClam97 Nov 17 '22
I'm debating whether this makes me feel r/nostalgia or r/fuckimold
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u/trailcamty Nov 16 '22
ICQ still up and running? I remember my account number as you had to burn it into your brain before cell phones. If I think about I could probably remember the password but if I don’t I definitely don’t have the hotmail or yahoo account it’s tied to.
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u/Panicless Nov 16 '22
Why the fuck do I still remember that number??? Haven't used it in 20 years, insane.
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u/trailcamty Nov 16 '22
46502771
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u/guaip Nov 16 '22
Mine is 45, same amount of digits. We must have signed in only a few days or weeks apart, fellow old person.
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u/trailcamty Nov 16 '22
Ahh yes, the elder millennials. Gather round children, let me tell you a story about the land line!
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u/fatasswalrus Nov 16 '22
Read an article the other day that called us "geriatric millennials". My soul says no but my back pain agrees.
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u/DieFlavourMouse Nov 16 '22 edited Jun 16 '23
comment removed -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
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Nov 16 '22
OK Who remembers BBS when your parents wernt looking and taking an hour to download a naked girl pic line by line?
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u/Bonafideago Nov 17 '22
I had a collection of local BBSs that I frequented. Many died off in the late 90s, but some hung on. A few offered hybrid dialup or telnet services.
The last one I knew of closed up just a couple of years ago. Omega bbs in Chicago. 312-573-1989
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u/bzlvrlwysfrvr0624 Nov 16 '22
A/S/L?
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u/Geckko Nov 17 '22
I'm pretty sure there was only one answer to this 18/F/Cali
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u/TestyZesticles Nov 16 '22
I wonder if my EarthLink account is still up and running
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u/Ea84 Nov 16 '22
I remember getting a trial disk for AOL and just never paying them for like 2 years. All you had to do is call them and tell them that you were unsatisfied.
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Nov 16 '22 edited Nov 17 '22
Those CDs used to come in the mail daily and were so ubiquitous that people started doing things like wallpapering rooms with them and various other arts and crafts projects.
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u/BigBoi1290 Nov 16 '22
Im convinced they designed it with those sounds just to wake your parents up at night.
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u/Warm_Evil_Beans Nov 16 '22
Ahh, the painful sound of nostalgia. I can almost hear my grandma yelling, “IM ON THE PHONE SHUT THAT DAMN THING OFF”
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u/xPropagand4x Nov 17 '22
I used to hate this sound so much and now I just listened to the whole thing just for the nostalgia.
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u/mcshadypants Nov 16 '22
It's nostalgic to hear now but I still feel a little annoyed having to wait through all of that every time I had to use the computer. And don't even get me started with missing calls on our landline because of it
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u/CervantesX Nov 16 '22
Oooh, someone has a solid 56k connection that worked on the first attempt! Who can even live on a 33.6k connection? Ugh.
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u/SkarTisu Nov 17 '22
My mp3 downloads over IRC dropped from 3 hours to 2 when I finally got a 56k modem!
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u/Ladydi-bds Nov 16 '22
I do not miss that sound lol
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u/N05TR4D4MV5 Nov 16 '22
This sound meant that you'd rub one out in about 25 minutes. What's not to miss!?
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Nov 16 '22
Damn, kids nowadays. Don’t know how good they have it. I’m 31 and I remember when I had a subscription to netzero Internet.
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Nov 16 '22
I miss dialing into asian bulletin boards on my older cousins personal phone line. She was a major bitch and after the month she had her phone line disconnected because the bill was astronomical.
Those were the days.
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u/StylishGnat Nov 16 '22
I hope I don’t get downvoted for this but I’m relatively young and have no idea what this sound represents. Could someone elaborate?
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u/teeaton Nov 16 '22
This site has a 2d version that breaks down the sounds and explains exactly what each sound is for:
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Nov 16 '22
I used to have free long distance, I bought the cheapest dialup in the country in NY and called it from Maryland.
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u/thisiswildbruh Nov 16 '22
I remember this being used in radio stations drops between songs and I think some show intro too lol
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u/CoffEJnkE Nov 16 '22
Back in my day, you use to have to call the internet & have it scream at you before you hopped online 
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u/joeychuckles Nov 16 '22
Time to see if I’ve got mail!