Dial up Internet and the Advances of Web Surfing Technology

Remember that sound in the 90s that you would get while connecting to the internet? That was the start of a new generation that would have a personal computer to surf the World Wide Web. Even though the first services used a phone line it was still at the time the greatest achievement we saw in the current times. Speeds were very limited when you went to sites and would sometimes take up to five minutes of loading time while hoping someone doesn’t have to use the phone. The last search engine that was a dial up connection that I remember is Juno. Back then it had a plan that ran somewhere between $30 and $40 a month which wasn’t bad for what you got. I remember seeing the graphics of a webpage fade in like you were painting a picture on a computer screen and then of course hearing the famous phrase of the 90s “You’ve Got Mail” when the email inbox had new messages that you could read.

These messages would be long or short depending on what the main subject of the email is. You had an inbox that was smaller space then today’s cloud based storage that sometimes allows unlimited space. Back in the days of dialup we were on the internet for mostly checking this and connecting with loved ones in a chat room when they would go a long distance. You always had to steer clear of being online if someone else needed to use the phone to make a call. If someone was using the connection to the web it would leave a dial tone that would not allow the user on the other end to use the phone so it had to be either use the phone or the internet and not both. AOL and Juno were popular service choices for the common consumer looking to find a place to get on the internet when they are wanting to have a service that is low cost and not heavy on the wallet.

In the mid 2000s we began to see the growth of popularity in broadband services that gave you faster speeds and less waiting time. People began signing up for the new providers that usually came with a cable television bundle so customers basically had the best of both worlds when surfing the web while never having to mess with the phone line and slow speeds again. The decline in popularity of dialup made fewer companies offer this even though the concept can still be done on today’s landline phone. I haven’t had a home landline in a long time so if I took my laptop and used a phone cord there would be no service. Today consumers use wireless cell phones more than a home phone which might put what is left of dial-up ISPs to the test. Both Juno and AOL began to see challenges in the new age world of the debut of fiber optic internet which would eventually lead to wrapping up the generation of this service and using Wi-Fi in the modern day future.

That is how we got to where we are in the internet world. We will probably see more advanced things in the years to come.

-Tristan