The Sound of the Internet: Dial-Up Days

Welcome to the World Wide Web

Kids today will never understand. The internet wasn't always... there. In the 90s, getting online was a PROCESS. An event. An experience.

The Sound

You know it. You can hear it right now:

SCREEEEEECH BONG BONG KSHHHHHHH EEEE-URRRRR Static noises CONNECTED

That dial-up handshake was the sound of possibility.

The AOL Era

America Online dominated:

• "You've Got Mail!" - The most exciting three words
• AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) - Where we really lived
• Buddy Lists - Knowing who was online
• Away Messages - Song lyrics and passive-aggressive statements
• Chat Rooms - A/S/L?
• Screen Names - xXDarkAngelXx420

The Ritual of Getting Online

1. Make sure no one needs the phone

2. Double-click the AOL icon

3. Listen to the dial-up sounds

4. Wait... wait... wait...

5. Hope you don't get a busy signal

6. Finally connected!

7. "GET OFF THE INTERNET, I NEED TO MAKE A CALL!"

Connection Speeds

Let's talk about how slow it was:

• 14.4 kbps - Early days, basically text only
• 28.8 kbps - A small image might load
• 33.6 kbps - Getting somewhere
• 56 kbps - BLAZING FAST (still took 30 mins for one song)

Downloading a Song

Napster changed everything, but downloading was an ordeal:

• Find the song (hope it's real, not a fake)
• Start download
• See "47 minutes remaining"
• Hope no one picks up the phone
• Phone rings, connection dies
• Start over

GeoCities and Personal Websites

Everyone had a website:

• Hosted on GeoCities neighborhoods
• Under construction GIFs everywhere
• Visitor counters
• Guestbooks
• MIDI music that auto-played
• Spinning email icons
• Tiled backgrounds
• "Best viewed in Netscape Navigator"

Search Engines Before Google

How did we find anything?

• AltaVista - The OG search engine
• Yahoo! - A directory of the internet
• Lycos - The dog that fetched
• Ask Jeeves - Ask a butler
• Excite - Tried to do everything
• Webcrawler - One of the first

The Websites We Visited

• Hampster Dance - Still stuck in your head
• YTMND - You're the man now, dog
• Newgrounds - Flash games and animations
• Neopets - Virtual pets online
• Homestar Runner - Strong Bad emails
• eBaum's World - Memes before memes

AIM Away Messages

A whole subculture:

• Song lyrics (always Blink-182)
• Cryptic messages about crushes
• "brb, shower"
• ~~~~~~decorative symbols~*~~~~~
• Passive-aggressive drama

The Chat Room Wild West

Chat rooms were unregulated chaos:

• A/S/L? (Age/Sex/Location)
• Role-playing rooms
• Music genre rooms
• Teen chat (definitely not all teens)
• Nobody knew you were a dog

Email Was Special

Getting an email was exciting:

• "You've Got Mail!" announcement
• Checking multiple times a day
• Forwarding chain letters (or else!)
• Email was for IMPORTANT things

What We Lost (and Gained)

Lost:

• The excitement of connecting
• The patience we developed
• The novelty of it all
• That specific dial-up sound

Gained:

• Instant connectivity
• Streaming everything
• Always-on communication
• Actually usable speeds

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