The shrill squeal and static burst of a dial-up modem once filled millions of homes. That unique sound was the gateway to a new world. It promised email, chat rooms, and websites. America Online, or ...

Researchers have found how slow the human brain is: it process information at a rate of around 10 bits per second. In comparison, the average Wi-Fi download speed in the U.S. is 260 million bits per ...

Such was the sound of AOL's dial-up service, a marker of trying to connect to the internet in the 1990s. Now the company has announced it's getting rid of dial-up. "AOL routinely evaluates its ...

When we think about using the internet in the 1990s, there’s one specific sound that comes to mind. You can’t really describe it in writing but you can surely recreate it with your voice. In fact, I ...

It’s the end of an era. AOL announced this week that it has discontinued its dial-up internet service. For younger Gen-Xers and elder millennials, in particular, the beep-boops, whirrs, and crackly ...

If you’re using AOL dial-up internet to read this story, you might want to put down your can of Surge and turn off your episode of “ER.” We have some bad news. The landline-based service, a mainstay ...

On September 30, AOL's dial-up hold-outs will need to finally move on to another internet service. AOL announced this week that it will be discontinuing its dial-up service next month, which probably ...

The classic dial-up handshake sounds melodic, scratchy, and harsh, and is inexorably associated with connection. It’s also now silent. AOL’s decision this week to finally end dial-up service is not ...

Also BBSes, which were also huge time sinks. I ended up bringing in a second phone line to my parents' house, and then a third line when I wanted to run a BBS. But the house was only wired for two, so ...

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