The sound of the dialup, pictured (2012) | Hacker News Reader

The sound of the dialup, pictured (2012)

windytan.com

99 pointssusam21 comments

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Here is a really cool collection of modem sounds:

https://goughlui.com/2016/05/03/project-the-definitive-colle...

https://archive.goughlui.com/legacy/soundofmodems/index.htm

https://archive.goughlui.com/legacy/modemlab/index.htm

Posted and discussed a few times in the past:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26626437 - March 30, 2021 (44 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15635144 - Nov 6, 2017 (108 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9171514 - March 9, 2015 (35 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5140135 - Jan 30, 2013 (46 comments)

I wish I could go back in time in the 90s and re-live those early internet moments from childhood.

Thanks to dial-up, the 90s internet also couldn't handle all the junk, spam, and tracking garbage we have online today. And video ads or autoplay? Just funny to even think about.

play hypnospace outlaw, i guess. an interesting interactive story type game, taking place on the early internet.

Back when, as a young kid, I had access to a dumb terminal with a modem, and trying all the local-call BBSes from a list that circulated, it was very easy to tell some things by the sounds on the speaker: at what baud you synced, whether the BBS had a Telebit that did PEP tones, whether it was busy, offline, or some other problems.

I feel a little bit of nostalgia for the sounds (especially if it's for a successful connection). It was also a somewhat more decent time in computers, much like the early Internet. Every now and then, I have to stop myself from shopping on eBay for a vintage dumb terminal. But my wirelessly networked laptop and pocket computers with access to global hypertext of the world's knowledge and people are pretty neat, too.

Strange what I read is more interesting than the topic said. The blackbird talking is particularly inviting for further investigation.

One major “found” is about harmony and circle. Do you think our music is in another dimension because it is imaginary number (as rotation …). Wonder.

I have tinnitus. I always describe my particular case as sounding like a dialup modem that's being "muffled" because it's in the next room over, behind closed doors. With this I can now pinpoint the specific section (ANSam, 0:09–0:10).

One thing I never quite understood about dialup is how they managed to handle duplex communication. That is, when one side is talking, how did the other side not talk over it, or how did they take turns, or how did they discern who said what.. like when one side was broadcasting, didn't it muddle up the audio on the other side?

Presumably uplink and downlink use different frequencies, similar to how duplex radio works

No need to presume; the ITU-T standards are surprisingly readable!

https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-V.22-198811-I

For this older standard (1200 bps using FSK modulation) it does indeed use separate bands (from section 6.1):

On the general switched telephone network, the modem at the calling data station shall transmit in the low channel and receive in the high channel (call mode). The modem at the answering data station shall receive in the low channel and transmit in the high channel (answer mode).

The newer modem standards are far more sophisticated and I don't know anything about them. I picked this one because I had been working with V.22 in the past year.

Found my new ring-tone!

I remember with the 56k modems I would occasionally hear a "bong" sound a couple of times.

Link to the sound: https://oona.windytan.com/blogfiles/dialup.mp3

So. Many. Memories.

The pure dopamine hit from this sound clip: unrivalled.

Just can't make myself throw out my US Robotics 56k external modem, huge RS-232 cable and all.

How far we've come.

"HST-only. 0 day warez"

Same here, I can't bear to part with the Darth Vader of modems.

HST training sequence was the best sounding. Would love to hear that again, and see a breakdown of what was going on there. Probably not as easy as maybe it's a trade secret vs. published standard. Also the stealth fighter of modems if you remember the print ads for it.

I was still using mine for the answerphone capability (it was a "voice" modem variant) until the end of last year; but now I have no analogue phone service, only VOIP...

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