AOL discontinued its dialup service. Now I can’t connect whenever I want to. Also, there’s nobody to tell me when I’ve got mail. I’ll try Net Zero but I don’t want to call long distance to get online. Does Net Zero let you know when there’s mail? I may need a new browser too.
-
Hello MLAers! We've re-enabled auto-approval for accounts. If you are still waiting on account approval, please check this thread for more information.
AOL Dialup is gone!
- Thread starter mikes-macs
- Start date
They're not gone yet... service ends in September.
I did think it was awesome that after all these years, you could still stick an original AOL floppy in a Mac Plus connected with a landline modem, and with a simple phone number change, it'd go online. After September, that will no longer be the case.
I did think it was awesome that after all these years, you could still stick an original AOL floppy in a Mac Plus connected with a landline modem, and with a simple phone number change, it'd go online. After September, that will no longer be the case.
I used to collect these darn AOL disks. I had like 100 of them in a drawer at one point, back when floppies were a big thing. Like Blockbuster, this is the end of an old era. I look back fondly on the sound of an analog handshake and the world that opened up to me in the mid 90's.
I am.
Me too, not decades but I would have thought they stopped dialup when modems were discontinued in computers.
I had a bunch of AOL CDs too, used them as coasters.
I know AOL phased out older versions of the client over time. As recently as 2001-2002 you could still use 2.7, the oldest version that supported the 68000 processor. I used to use it on a Mac Plus just for proof of concept.
I just recycled all my old modems last week even before this announcement. It's been over 20 years since I last used dial up and figure if I'm ever in an area where it's necessary, I do have an iBook.
I just recycled all my old modems last week even before this announcement. It's been over 20 years since I last used dial up and figure if I'm ever in an area where it's necessary, I do have an iBook.
AOL still exists?
They do. They actually provide email service for Verizon customers who use an @verizon.net address. Both of my parents use this monstrosity of a service and complain constantly about it. I keep begging them to switch to something more modern like Proton Mail, but they are too set in their ways on this. (They adopt other things just fine, from CarPlay to streaming services to smart watches, but for some reason they're hung up on AOL mail).
I read about this on ArsTechnica. There's something like 127K people in the US still using America On-Line (soon to be America Off-Line for them). I imagine that keeping such an old service going is still not going to be loss-making, because you hardly need to update the hardware and the bandwidth is very low, compared with the money you'd get from it.
I understand most of these places are in rural areas where broadband wasn't rolled out.
This article explains why it hasn't happened. Basically, the 2021-2025 US administration promised a Broadband "New Deal" programme, but the equitable-access funding rules were stymied by Telecoms companies lobbying state legislators for implementations that didn't comply. I think we can understand why these companies would do that - because satellite internet is more profitable (the article quote $100/month).
Broadband access is not likely to be accelerated under the new administration ("Repeal of EO 14036 drops federal push on net neutrality, broadband price transparency, and merger oversight."):
broadbandbreakfast.com
It makes it harder, for example, for smaller ISPs to compete. I presume this means that if you wanted to set up a Cooperative to maintain dial-up access (e.g. dial-up to broadband nodes) you could find yourself locked out by a number of mechanisms such as internet throttling and excessive prices for your coop.
This is an interesting article on the subject:
www.freepress.net
I'll end it here, because it's starting to veer off into politics. To try and de-politicise it, I will note that Broadband roll-out for rural areas in the UK has had cross-party support for the past 16 years. For example, 2Mbit Broadband roll-out for rural households was begun under the New Labour government prior to 2010, and continued with minor changes under the Conservative Cameron government between 2010 and 2015, upgrading objectives to 10Mbit/s. Later, Fibre broadband under. "Project Gigabit" was started under the Conservative Government in 2022, and is being continued under the Labour government. Gosh, that all reminds me of when we first had 0.5Mbps broadband installed at our Manchester flat in late summer 2002. My housemate set up an ADSL box and because it didn't provide Wifi, he then added an 802.11b Ethernet to Wifi hub. He then stuck a picture of the network info on a piece of paper above the ADSL unit. It took him a week to sort all of that out while I was on holiday. I came back; looked up the IP address and Wifi password, then connected my Tangerine iBook/300 to it in 2 minutes
! It was one of those glorious moments when I just loved how easy Macs made things. 500kbps just seemed stunning!
Dear rest-of-Europe members, how does this compare with other broadband initiatives across the rest of Europe?
Also: Suggestion, rather than discussing who might be at fault with Rural internet access in the US, if we can discuss what the better policies might be in a non-partisan way, drawing from initiatives around the world that have helped, that would prevent this topic getting shut down - thanks in advance.
I understand most of these places are in rural areas where broadband wasn't rolled out.
This article explains why it hasn't happened. Basically, the 2021-2025 US administration promised a Broadband "New Deal" programme, but the equitable-access funding rules were stymied by Telecoms companies lobbying state legislators for implementations that didn't comply. I think we can understand why these companies would do that - because satellite internet is more profitable (the article quote $100/month).
Broadband access is not likely to be accelerated under the new administration ("Repeal of EO 14036 drops federal push on net neutrality, broadband price transparency, and merger oversight."):
Trump Reverses Biden’s Big Tech and Broadband Oversight Order
Repeal of EO 14036 drops federal push on net neutrality, broadband price transparency, and merger oversight.
broadbandbreakfast.com
It makes it harder, for example, for smaller ISPs to compete. I presume this means that if you wanted to set up a Cooperative to maintain dial-up access (e.g. dial-up to broadband nodes) you could find yourself locked out by a number of mechanisms such as internet throttling and excessive prices for your coop.
This is an interesting article on the subject:
Trump's Corrupt Plan to Steal Rural America's Broadband Future
A program designed to bring broadband to rural communities had a lot of promise — until the Trump administration got its hands on it. Now Musk stands to benefit.
www.freepress.net
I'll end it here, because it's starting to veer off into politics. To try and de-politicise it, I will note that Broadband roll-out for rural areas in the UK has had cross-party support for the past 16 years. For example, 2Mbit Broadband roll-out for rural households was begun under the New Labour government prior to 2010, and continued with minor changes under the Conservative Cameron government between 2010 and 2015, upgrading objectives to 10Mbit/s. Later, Fibre broadband under. "Project Gigabit" was started under the Conservative Government in 2022, and is being continued under the Labour government. Gosh, that all reminds me of when we first had 0.5Mbps broadband installed at our Manchester flat in late summer 2002. My housemate set up an ADSL box and because it didn't provide Wifi, he then added an 802.11b Ethernet to Wifi hub. He then stuck a picture of the network info on a piece of paper above the ADSL unit. It took him a week to sort all of that out while I was on holiday. I came back; looked up the IP address and Wifi password, then connected my Tangerine iBook/300 to it in 2 minutes
! It was one of those glorious moments when I just loved how easy Macs made things. 500kbps just seemed stunning!Dear rest-of-Europe members, how does this compare with other broadband initiatives across the rest of Europe?
Also: Suggestion, rather than discussing who might be at fault with Rural internet access in the US, if we can discuss what the better policies might be in a non-partisan way, drawing from initiatives around the world that have helped, that would prevent this topic getting shut down - thanks in advance.
article finally went dead..last year..not surprisingly but anyhow archive thankfully had a good copy of it tho
web.archive.org
almost 30k people right within new york for one thing, it just shows you that even in 2017 its not "dead" as snial was basically saying
Is Dial-Up Dead Yet? Not in These 12 Metro Areas
The Stockton, CA, metro area sits at the northern tip of the San Joaquin Valley, the world’s most plentiful agricultural […]
web.archive.org
almost 30k people right within new york for one thing, it just shows you that even in 2017 its not "dead" as snial was basically saying
Wow. My family used AOL from 2004-2010 when they had a partnership with Chrysler (then DaimlerChrysler) and my Dad was able to get a corporate discount. I may still have an AOL CD with a DaimlerChrysler sticker somewhere sealed - I’ll have to look.
We eventually transitioned to Rogers and wireless Internet in 2010 and have been there ever since.
With AOL calling it quits, Net Zero will probably gain more customers and they may need to add more phone numbers so users don’t get a busy signal.
I haven’t used dialup in years but I’m sure plenty still do. I don’t even have a telephone
line. Someone hell bent on getting online thru dialup just to use AOL email is paying a premium if paying for a land line and service fees.There are ways to use AOL services while not connecting via dialup. They used to call it bring your own service. So, some may connect using broadband service or something else.
just talking specifically about myself but here if you want to run dry dsl you have to pay at least $6 .. or alternatively pay $15 to get basic phone service instead .. and the latter has the bonus of being a good emergency contact (aside to also for re using certain not-a-plain-phone devices that don't always like to cooperative well with ata/voip too)
and mikes..yeah aol had always offered aol browser (or shall I actually say 'garden') without a bundled connection plan for quite some time
and mikes..yeah aol had always offered aol browser (or shall I actually say 'garden') without a bundled connection plan for quite some time
Indeed, it demonstrates low-bandwidth is a terrible problem for all concerned.
viva Net Zero
!
Yes!Indeed, it demonstrates low-bandwidth is a terrible problem for all concerned.
viva Net Zero
They'll have to update their free tier with more hours (currently it's 10 hrs/month) and/or offer an unlimited paid tier (I thought they used to offer a plan for $10/month, but saw no mention of it on their current site).
Of course, anyone in this day and age would have to be very determined (and borderline masochistic) to try loading any modern site on dial up.
Of course, BBSes are still a thing (albeit primarily as a niche hobbyist thing), so that would give someone with dial up something appropriate to access.
I agree. *sigh*
c
I still have Kodak film for my camera.
I lucked out. AT&T ran fiber last year along the utility poles near the place I rent. So I'm in bliss with mah gigabit fiber. Only downside is that I'm hamstrung by AT&T's TOS and equipment. Even though I'm on an unshared gigabit fiber connection, they still won't let me have any servers unless I pay 10x as much for their "business" line ... which is exactly the same as their normal one, but more expensive.
Still better than the Comcast I had. That stupid thing went down every time a squirrel farted.
Still better than the Comcast I had. That stupid thing went down every time a squirrel farted.
