Re: Dial-up modems (Re: FREE GAME: Spirit of the Mouse)

On Sat, 12 Oct 2024 02:14:31 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>
I never had good and fast dial-up modem connections due to crappy copper
phone lines and far away to central offices (COs). I couldn't even get
DSL. Not even IDSL.

Like I said, I was fairly lucky in that regard. Although conditions
started seriously degrading by the 2010s. I was still on DSL, and due
to rotting copper, when my normally solid connection dropped down to
almost dial-up speeds.

I never had dial-up for my Apple //c. I got an internal Zoom (Hayes
compatible) 2400 modem for my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. It was
Prodigy (still remember my TGSV85B ID) and BBSes. :)

I recall trawling computer magazines looking for adverts featuring
Bulletin Boards in my area. Or ringing up the telephone operator to
confirm that a certain exchange would count as a 'local' telephone
call and not incur extra charges.

(although I suspect most of those memories are from my PC days. I know
I used the modem with the Apple ][ - including bulletin boards- but
mostly it was connecting directly to friends' PCs)

The modem didn't really gain importance to me until I discovered the
Internet (which at first I _didn't_ use a modem to connect to). But
after I did, my addiction to Usenet made that modem incredibly useful
;-)