This article is brought to you in association with LG Optimus 2X
It seems ridiculous now, but there was a time when you watched the clock when you were online. The early days of the internet seem archaic now ? a single Acorn Archimedes computer at my school was able to go online ? but in that age before Google we just didn't know any different. Using the internet actually seemed a special, rare privilege. And you went on for a purpose.
Usually it was for research, but the age of mass information was a fledgling idea and the internet was pretty sparse. The BBC website, for example, started in 1997, but you could only find out very basic information. And the idea of the web as a place for news was hardly existent.
As it's TechRadar's Speed Week, the powers that be decided I should spend a day using a modem and document how I got on. The main question I wanted to answer was whether today's internet would work on it.
When I told my father that I'd be spending a whole day going back to using a modem, he said it would be "painful." That's coming from someone who hardly uses a computer. Of course he was right.
I looked on a couple of forums, including one on Money Saving Expert, to see if people in general were still using dial-up. The responses? Actually surprising. This was typical: "Quite a few people around here (Mid Wales) have to use dial-up. Broadband from the local exchanges is rationed to a fixed number of connections and phone/dongle coverage is very patchy."
So although such people are in the distinct minority, it was worth bearing in mind that my experience would be akin to how some people in the UK have to use the internet.
Some of the other, flippant recollections of dial-up from the forums are also worth mentioning:
- "My ex husband is still on dial-up. Yet more proof he's neanderthal man (not that I needed any mind, it's obvious he's from the dark ages as soon as he opens his mouth)."
- "I spent many a night trying to muffle the modem when connecting late at night when my parents were in bed."
- "I remember trying to look at porn on dial-up and it taking ages for the picture to load."
- "I might just as well be on dial-up in the evenings, my Virgin broadband is that slow!"
So with those wonderful recollections in mind, I had to decide how I was going to get online. I do own laptops old enough to have modem sockets in, but they are pretty creaky, so I decided I'd procure a new USB modem and use it with my Windows 7 laptop.
I contacted US Robotics who duly sent me a USR5637 56K USB Fax Modem. That's right, you can also use it to send a fax ? does anybody send faxes anymore?
Oh, and in case you're wondering (you probably weren't) you can use this modem on Mac OS X and Linux as well as Windows. I duly installed the drivers and connected up my modem, but then I didn't really know what to do next.
Then I was a bit stuck. I'd completely forgotten how to create a new internet connection in Windows. This hasn't changed a lot since Windows 95 or 98 and in Windows 7 you get to it via the Set up a new connection or network link in the Network and Sharing Center.
NOT WIRELESS?: Choosing how to connect to the net
I selected dial-up with a heavy heart, after which I set about entering my ISP details. There are still shedloads of numbers available, and a quick Google on my phone showed me a bundle of cheap dial-up details. All you need is the number, username and password. I clicked Connect.
READY: This box has hardly changed since Windows 95
All was quiet, there was none of the kerrrrchsssss noise that you used to get with older serial modems. It seemed like it wasn't working and then, suddenly it was there. First a message appeared from my Livedrive backup software to say the connection to their servers had been restored ? my uploads were quickly paused so my PC didn't try and squeeze a batch of MP3s down the phone line.
DIALING: The iconic dial-up noise has gone
Then Dropbox kicked in and tried to upload the screengrabs and text I had already written for this feature. It's slow enough when you try and do that on mobile broadband, but this was excruciating. It was apparently happening at 686kbps, but Dropbox was obviously lying to me. I was actually achieving speeds of around 25-30kbps using my modem.
Skype logged in without issues, though it didn't connect a video call when I tried it ? somewhat understandably ? and you'd struggle to even make a Skype voice call on dial-up. Windows Live Messenger didn't even bother to log in automatically.
So I went through the usual services I check every morning. First Twitter ? I started TweetDeck. The columns looked to be refreshing for absolutely ages and took over a minute to appear. At the same time (more fool me) I tried to load Facebook ? which didn't load at all. TweetDeck then loaded a solitary tweet while still attempting to refresh the other two columns.
FREEZE: TweetDeck was more like a lame duck on dial-up
Giving up, I decided to look at Twitter on the web. Unfortunately the website didn't even work properly. Loading Twitter.com was staggeringly slow and it didn't even to bother log me in automatically as it does usually. Either this is some security thing as I'm using a different connection on this PC, or I'm pretty second class as a dial-up user.
WHO: Twitter refused to remember me on my second-class connection
I left Twitter open and decided to do some work. I often use Google Docs but this time decided to work offline. When I tried to access an ? admittedly large ? spreadsheet in Google Docs, loading was very slow. But I wasn't surprised ? if there's a web app dial-up wasn't designed for, it's Google Docs.
However, it's not all doom and gloom; Gmail wasn't too bad and loaded fine on the simple HTML view for slow connections.
One of the main problems I had with dial-up while trying to do work is that I use Google all the time to look up various stats and other information. I was surprised that Google searches took an age to appear ? Google Instant didn't work, while non-text search results like the images and videos didn't really appear! I was surprised that Google doesn't seem to adapt for slower connections as I thought it might ? aside from the lack of Google Instant the page looked identical.
The most painful thing was that at various points it seemed like I was slowing to a total crawl, so I had to disconnect and reconnect.
After hours, I looked at Facebook. The service works OK on dial-up ? but only if you're patient. It loads pretty sluggishly and the Top News column expands constantly as you start to browse it, because new elements are still loading.
The norm for some
It's no wonder we all used to rely so much on magazine cover CDs for programs to install; downloads are obviously super slow on dial-up and can take many, many hours. Something as bloated as Apple's iTunes takes around 8-10 hours to drip through your connection.
But there are some sites that work extremely well on dial-up ? the BBC text-only or mobile sites have all the same great information and the plethora of sites specially adapted for the iPad, such as http://touch.facebook.com, are great examples of sites that are great on a dial-up connection.
So, by the end of my day, I'd actually got rather used to being on a slow connection. That's not to say I really enjoyed it of course ? at times it was extremely difficult. It's just that I was able to adjust what I was doing. Instead of listening to stuff on Spotify or Last.fm I just used iTunes. Instead of looking at Facebook several times a day I just looked at it once. And downloading files? I didn't bother doing that at all.
But, of course, this was a single day for me. A lot of people have no choice. The Government's 2009 Digital Britain report said that "Up to 10 per cent of homes are still in not-spots, not-a-lot spots or not-at-all good spots" for broadband. A sobering thought for those of us so used to fast access.
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