Remember dialing up the internet?

G

GP44

Member
Anybody remember those sounds that you heard over the telephone when you dialed up the internet for the old pedestal computer?
I wasn’t sure if the phone was going to explode or if the devil was going to appear!
LOL!!
You can hear those sounds agin by searching for “ Dial up internet sounds.”
 

A dial-up modem’s sound was a jumble of tones and static that almost felt alive, like two machines struggling to understand each other.

It would begin with a click and a hiss, as if a phone line had just woken up. Then came a long, steady carrier tone ... a flat, high beep that held steady for a second or two. Quickly, that tone would be broken up by bursts of sharp chirps, squeals, and warbling trills, rising and falling in pitch like an electronic birdcall. Some parts had a grinding, metallic quality, almost like electronic gears slipping against each other.

As the sequence went on, the sounds would shift back and forth between high-pitched screeches and lower, buzzing growls, with bursts of static layered over it, until finally the cacophony would settle into a faint, steady hiss ... the line’s way of saying the connection was established.

It was chaotic, shrill, and strangely rhythmic. A sound anyone who lived through it can recognize instantly, even decades later.

Click… hissss…
Bweeeeeeeeee—
Krrrrrr-krrrrrrrk!
Chee-chee-chee-eeeeeeeee!
Shhhhhhht-kreeeeeee-oooooo-ink!
Bwee-bwoo-bwoo-bwoo-eeeeeeeee!
Kkshhhhhh-tkshhhhhh…
…hisssssss… (connection achieved).

EDIT: Trying to remember ... think I used dial-up from 1996 (first personal computer) until about 2006 ... 10yrs maybe ... I think.
 

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GP44 said:
Anybody remember those sounds that you heard over the telephone when you dialed up the internet for the old pedestal computer?
I wasn’t sure if the phone was going to explode or if the devil was going to appear!
LOL!!
You can hear those sounds agin by searching for “ Dial up internet sounds.”
Click to expand...
I remember using a GE Tymeshare with a teleprinter and programs I generated on punched paper tape.
 
Yep,
Naturally said:
A dial-up modem’s sound was a jumble of tones and static that almost felt alive, like two machines struggling to understand each other.

It would begin with a click and a hiss, as if a phone line had just woken up. Then came a long, steady carrier tone ... a flat, high beep that held steady for a second or two. Quickly, that tone would be broken up by bursts of sharp chirps, squeals, and warbling trills, rising and falling in pitch like an electronic birdcall. Some parts had a grinding, metallic quality, almost like electronic gears slipping against each other.

As the sequence went on, the sounds would shift back and forth between high-pitched screeches and lower, buzzing growls, with bursts of static layered over it, until finally the cacophony would settle into a faint, steady hiss ... the line’s way of saying the connection was established.

It was chaotic, shrill, and strangely rhythmic. A sound anyone who lived through it can recognize instantly, even decades later.

Click… hissss…
Bweeeeeeeeee—
Krrrrrr-krrrrrrrk!
Chee-chee-chee-eeeeeeeee!
Shhhhhhht-kreeeeeee-oooooo-ink!
Bwee-bwoo-bwoo-bwoo-eeeeeeeee!
Kkshhhhhh-tkshhhhhh…
…hisssssss… (connection achieved).

EDIT: Trying to remember ... think I used dial-up from 1996 (first personal computer) until about 2006 ... 10yrs maybe ... I think.
Click to expand...
I was just learning at that stage , we had dial up ….the computer sounded like it was in agony :ROFLMAO: @Naturally

My hubs had been using computers for a while , but I’d just bought my first computerised / embroidery sewing machine ( that was 1997) I had to operate programs on the computer to put designs on a reader / writer card like thing and insert it in the machine , to sew the designs ~ so with hubs heap I wrote all the instructions down on Index cards.
 
Appeal for a cheering up? : r/CasualUK
 
Naturally said:
A dial-up modem’s sound was a jumble of tones and static that almost felt alive, like two machines struggling to understand each other.

It would begin with a click and a hiss, as if a phone line had just woken up. Then came a long, steady carrier tone ... a flat, high beep that held steady for a second or two. Quickly, that tone would be broken up by bursts of sharp chirps, squeals, and warbling trills, rising and falling in pitch like an electronic birdcall. Some parts had a grinding, metallic quality, almost like electronic gears slipping against each other.

As the sequence went on, the sounds would shift back and forth between high-pitched screeches and lower, buzzing growls, with bursts of static layered over it, until finally the cacophony would settle into a faint, steady hiss ... the line’s way of saying the connection was established.

It was chaotic, shrill, and strangely rhythmic. A sound anyone who lived through it can recognize instantly, even decades later.

Click… hissss…
Bweeeeeeeeee—
Krrrrrr-krrrrrrrk!
Chee-chee-chee-eeeeeeeee!
Shhhhhhht-kreeeeeee-oooooo-ink!
Bwee-bwoo-bwoo-bwoo-eeeeeeeee!
Kkshhhhhh-tkshhhhhh…
…hisssssss… (connection achieved).

EDIT: Trying to remember ... think I used dial-up from 1996 (first personal computer) until about 2006 ... 10yrs maybe ... I think.
Click to expand...
MAKE IT STOP!!
 
It kind of sounded like a fire engine scraping the side railling of a bridge before plunging to the depths below with a few other unworldly sounds mixed in.
I swear there were actually bells and whistles mixed in or was that my imagination.
There was the screaming sound from hell right after you heard the phone dialing tones.
Can you still remember how it felt the first time you listened to that?
 
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Naturally said:
A dial-up modem’s sound was a jumble of tones and static that almost felt alive, like two machines struggling to understand each other.

It would begin with a click and a hiss, as if a phone line had just woken up. Then came a long, steady carrier tone ... a flat, high beep that held steady for a second or two. Quickly, that tone would be broken up by bursts of sharp chirps, squeals, and warbling trills, rising and falling in pitch like an electronic birdcall. Some parts had a grinding, metallic quality, almost like electronic gears slipping against each other.

As the sequence went on, the sounds would shift back and forth between high-pitched screeches and lower, buzzing growls, with bursts of static layered over it, until finally the cacophony would settle into a faint, steady hiss ... the line’s way of saying the connection was established.

It was chaotic, shrill, and strangely rhythmic. A sound anyone who lived through it can recognize instantly, even decades later.

Click… hissss…
Bweeeeeeeeee—
Krrrrrr-krrrrrrrk!
Chee-chee-chee-eeeeeeeee!
Shhhhhhht-kreeeeeee-oooooo-ink!
Bwee-bwoo-bwoo-bwoo-eeeeeeeee!
Kkshhhhhh-tkshhhhhh…
…hisssssss… (connection achieved).

EDIT: Trying to remember ... think I used dial-up from 1996 (first personal computer) until about 2006 ... 10yrs maybe ... I think.
Click to expand...
That's a great description, @Naturally! 😁

I also remember listening to the computer connect and having someone pick up the phone and me shouting "Noooo—Get off the phone! I'm trying to connect to the Internet!"

Fond memories. :)
 
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We had Pagoo when we had dial-up, $5. a month, no more missed calls.

Pagoo was
an internet phone service provider founded in the late 1990s that offered services like phone-to-PC and PC-to-phone communication, voicemail, and caller ID, built on a Cisco IP Telephony architecture called Trident.

The company secured significant funding from investors including Cisco Systems and provided its technology to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like AT&T WorldNet and Tiscali. The company's service was distinguished by its integration with the web, real-time online account management, and a system that allowed users to make and receive calls from anywhere globally.

Phone-to-PC Functionality: Received calls from any phone worldwide directly to a user's PC
 
Rarely used early dial up Internet at my workplaces. And when I did was just Usenet stuff like downloading files. By the early 1990s commercial DSL and Cable modems had already replaced dial up Internet here in Silicon Valley. In 1996 I began working in engineering support for the 800 pound gorilla of Internet hardware where I also had high bandwidth.
 
GP44 said:
Anybody remember those sounds that you heard over the telephone when you dialed up the internet for the old pedestal computer?
I wasn’t sure if the phone was going to explode or if the devil was going to appear!
LOL!!
You can hear those sounds agin by searching for “ Dial up internet sounds.”
Click to expand...
I did the search and my son had no idea what the sounds were.
 
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