Tedium Highlight in Modems: The rise of the ad-sponsored dial-up ISP offers some useful lessons on promising too much in the age of MoviePass. Good luck getting rid of that ad. 

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Tag results: Modems

What Was ISDN?

For decades, the telephone industry supported a new technology designed to make copper lines more useful to the average consumer. It’s great—if you’re a voice actor.

The Modem Tax

How a real-life attempt to charge online services for using the phone line became an infamous internet legend. The “modem tax” was a chain-mail boogeyman.

The Squeal of Data

The through line between the telegraph and the computer is more direct than you might realize. Its influence can be seen in common technologies, like the modem.

The Hayes Code

The obscure command set that gradually helped us move past acoustic couplers and brought dial-up modems into the mainstream. For a while, at least.

Free As In Internet

In the '80s, a defining online phenomenon—being able to use the internet for free—came from (of all places) Cleveland. Here’s the story of the Free-Net.

The Original Internet Bottleneck

Many early ISPs—particularly AOL—weren’t ready to offer unlimited internet access in the mid-’90s. That is, until a surprising disruptor appeared: AT&T.

The Wires Barely Reach

It took a while for the internet to turn into a major global force, but it wasn't for lack of trying. (Peter Gabriel deserves at least some of the credit.)

Nothing But Net (And Ads)

The rise of the ad-sponsored dial-up ISP offers some useful lessons on promising too much in the age of MoviePass. Good luck getting rid of that ad.

Modem Madness

Who said they just had to make games? From answering machines to lottery prototypes, Sega and Nintendo tried weird things with modems in the early ’90s.

Going Soft

Remembering that time the computer industry bought into soft modems, which shoved the work of managing a dial-up modem onto overworked CPUs.
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