Remember when....

[kellys_eye]

....your internet browsing started with a 'warble, burble, squeaking and hissing'???

Ahh the old days of 2400baud modems (I started t'internet when a 1200baud device was 'top notch'. ISTR I went to 56k before ISDN took over).

Anyhoo - there's some talk of potential internet 'issues' (see your local tin foil hat purveyor for full details) but I was wondering if anyone still had an old style modem and the hardware to use it on?

If (big if) the internet 'went down' could we (would we) be able to communicate via bulletin (i.e. dial up) boards like we used to?

In the same way people talk of the 'satellites falling out of the sky' I have the skills and hardware to communicate in morse code across the globe but if t'internet went wonky do you think it will be possible to use the old stuff again?

Just a 'what if' and 'how' threads to ponder - comments welcome (but try to avoid the tin foil hat side of things - keep it practical please!).

[Rorschach]

Sure it's possible, but the only people available to talk to will be other tin foil hat wearing old farts with out of date tech ;)

That's a fate worse than death! lol

[big-all]

never did dial up
my brother was on dial up and let me use his account if wasnt on it lol
any way as it took about 10 mins to load a page didnt bother using it i went strait for modem around 16 years ago denoted by my passwords all being big all 50 at the time so would put it as 2004 ish as i was 50 then

[kellys_eye]

Sure it's possible, but the only people available to talk to will be other tin foil hat wearing old farts with out of date tech ;)

That's a fate worse than death! lol

You miss the point. Just because it seems out of date today doesn't mean it's not a viable means of communicating. People still use the POTS (plain old telephone system) even with mobile phones being available and there'll be places the POTS goes that mobile phones will never reach.

In the lack of an alternative means of data communication what else could be used?

....and don't forget, we got here ONLY because of where we came from (and what we used).

[Rorschach]

Sure it's possible, but the only people available to talk to will be other tin foil hat wearing old farts with out of date tech ;)

That's a fate worse than death! lol

You miss the point. Just because it seems out of date today doesn't mean it's not a viable means of communicating. People still use the POTS (plain old telephone system) even with <a href="http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile- ... all-phones" class="skimwords-link" target="_blank" data-skimwords-id="1948007" data-skimwords-word="mobile%20phones" data-group-id="0" data-skim-creative="300003" title="Shopping Link Added by SkimWords" occurrence="1" data-skim-node-id="283:Youmissthepoint.Just_1" style="">mobile phones</a><span style="position: absolute;"></span><span style="position: absolute;"></span> being available and there'll be places the POTS goes that <span class="skimwords-potential">mobile phones</span><span style="position: absolute;"></span><span style="position: absolute;"></span> will never reach.

In the lack of an alternative means of data communication what else could be used?

....and don't forget, we got here ONLY because of where we came from (and what we used).

I was winding you up mate.

[Bob225]

The Net is so large with so many computers and servers it would take a worldwide EMP, what will plunge us back into the dark ages well pre 1940 lol

not everything is satellite based, we still have fibre optic cables under the sea and some old copper

[Dave54]

I've still got an internal modem, and a motherboard it'd plug into.
I did use it around 10 years ago when the broadband was having problems. They "gave" me a dial up account to use. Which at least gave me email and so on.
Mind you I've used my mobile a couple of times as a modem to get email.
Very slow, but plug and play via USB.

[etaf]

with the design of webpages now, they would take longer to load, in the old days , I was on 300baud for a while , with a terminal connected into our main frame computer and web design was all about page load timings
Still have a modem on a few older PCs but not sure if there are any ISP that support modems these days - sure there maybe

[kellys_eye]

I was winding you up mate.

Oh noes!!!!!

[kellys_eye]

Even today's web pages can be downloaded without the graphics (very data intensive) but the 'exercise' isn't about 'doing today's internet using yesterdays technology' it's about whether or not the old stuff will actually work! Of course, peer-to-peer you can make an arrangement to bulletin board and swap data which, in a situation where otherwise digital communications weren't possible (normal internet down) would be invaluable to isolated communities (like mine).

Do we even know if FAX systems work?? They probably do and they are, basically, identical to the old warble/squeak modems we did the internet over!

@Dave54 - I'm surprised it worked even 10 years ago! I would have thought the whole system had been abandoned! There's a lot to be said about 'backwards compatibility' and I'd hope that providers could still offer such a service - we have no idea what the future will bring but hedging your bets isn't a bad option.

[Rorschach]

I was winding you up mate.

Oh noes!!!!!

Slightly off topic but I really must say that I appreciate the good humour that yourself and most other members of this forum have. You and I agree on several subjects and disagree on others but unlike other forums I frequent you don't act like and arsehole about it, same goes for most members here.

[Dave54]

Even today's web pages can be downloaded without the graphics (very data intensive) but the 'exercise' isn't about 'doing today's internet using yesterdays technology' it's about whether or not the old stuff will actually work! Of course, peer-to-peer you can make an arrangement to bulletin board and swap data which, in a situation where otherwise digital communications weren't possible (normal internet down) would be invaluable to isolated communities (like mine).

Do we even know if FAX systems work?? They probably do and they are, basically, identical to the old warble/squeak modems we did the internet over!

@Dave54 - I'm surprised it worked even 10 years ago! I would have thought the whole system had been abandoned! There's a lot to be said about 'backwards compatibility' and I'd hope that providers could still offer such a service - we have no idea what the future will bring but hedging your bets isn't a bad option.

Ten years ago was a guess, but it must be about that.
I was surprised they could still offer it TBH.
I finally got broadband in 2005, and this was ages after that. I had to dig into my box of computer boards to find the modem, and I remember the sound of the dial up seeming sort of ancient!
But who knows what they have tucked away?

[Someone-Else]

For those that do not know what a dial up modem sounded like..............

[kellys_eye]

Well, 10 hours of dial-up modem has got to be better than 2 minutes reading S-E's posts.......

Slightly off topic but I really must say that I appreciate the good humour that yourself and most other members of this forum have.

It's testament to (I think) the mindset of DIY-ers and Pro's in the industry I reckon. Down-to-earth kind of people who can tell a spade from an earth-inverting-agricultural-instrument.

[Rorschach]

Well, 10 hours of dial-up modem has got to be better than 2 minutes reading S-E's posts.......

Slightly off topic but I really must say that I appreciate the good humour that yourself and most other members of this forum have.

It's testament to (I think) the mindset of DIY-ers and Pro's in the industry I reckon. Down-to-earth kind of people who can tell a spade from an earth-inverting-agricultural-instrument.

Not all of them, a lot of the chaps on UKworkshop forum are mostly arrogant, uptight arseholes who cannot countenance the possibility of someone holding a view different to their own.