# Dial up really sucks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741 "2003-01-20T04:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/1 "2003-01-20T04:37:07Z")
I am on dial up right now, my DSL is out and possibly out until tomorrow morning. The tech said it was out at the Qwest end not Touch America, C Springs through Denver too. Who here is a slave to dial-up? I feel your pain, I really do. Holy crap dial up is a drag. I want my DSL back. I feel so, so, turned back in time. šŸ˜› Oh and to top that off, thereā€™s nothing on TV tonight. (boy arenā€™t we broadband people spoiled or what?) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/2 "2003-01-20T04:58:14Z")
I used to be on dial-up (up until about 1.5 years agoā€¦odd that its been even that long!) I really hated it. My parents finally got cable this summer, and it was so great to be able to check email/read the boards without people nagging to use the phone. My sister can talk to her SO for HOURS, and if he canā€™t get through when he calls, he leaves a message _each and every try_. So you get off the net an hour later, and there are 16 messages from D. because he tried calling 16 timesā€¦and then 2 minutes laterā€¦phone rings!! Okā€¦sorry for that rambling. Apparently Iā€™m traumatised. I donā€™t think my SO and I could manage on dial-up. I pretty much literally spent all day today on the boards, which I could never do before! Then again, Iā€™d probably get more homework done if internet wasnā€™t unlimited! ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/3 "2003-01-20T04:59:45Z")
Iā€™m on a 26.4K connectionā€¦ I canā€™t wait for college. ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/4 "2003-01-20T05:09:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by clayton\_e \* > Iā€™m on a 26.4K connectionā€¦ I canā€™t wait for college. Yeah, thatā€™s what I am on and it sucks. I average about 500 kps on my DSL, this is just icky. Slower than molassas in the Yukon. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/5 "2003-01-20T06:20:47Z")
Our dial-up usually connects at 46.6ā€¦It once connected at 50, never gets lower than 40. Iā€™m happy enough with it. ---
**Author:** ![crinklebat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@crinklebat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crinklebat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/6 "2003-01-20T06:22:19Z")
24.0K right here, kids. Itā€™s horrible. I spent last summer in a program at MIT with wireless T1 access and I still havenā€™t gotten used to the waits on this. ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/7 "2003-01-20T08:36:11Z")
\ Dialup here. ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![Mole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/8 "2003-01-20T09:11:03Z")
46.6 here, too. Thatā€™s been the worst thing about getting laid off; no more T1 ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/9 "2003-01-20T10:09:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by techchick68 \* > \*\*Yeah, thatā€™s what I am on and it sucks. > > I average about 500 kps on my DSL, this is just icky. Slower than molassas in the Yukon. \*\* Why donā€™t you get Adelphia instead? I get on avg 2-2.5 Mbps down and 128kbps up and have had almost no outages in the year I have had it. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/10 "2003-01-20T11:46:50Z")
I used to be on cable, then I moved cities, and figured ā€œSydney - biggest city in Australia, cable will be everywhere! Woohoo!ā€ But I was wrong. There appears to be less saturation of cable here than anywhere else in the country. I got nothinā€™. Stupid dial-up sucks, and worse, it has ridiculous download limits. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/11 "2003-01-20T12:10:29Z")
56k modem here, at least from home. When I connect from school, itā€™s on the T1 connection and now that the semesterā€™s started, I spend more time there than home most weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Macka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Macka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macka)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/12 "2003-01-20T12:38:57Z")
Just got cable a few months ago, and I can feel your pain. (I was on dialup for years) Havenā€™t been able to rip the modem out of my PC yet, just in case I need a backup (like you) Hope your DSL is restored soon! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/13 "2003-01-20T12:57:36Z")
I could o never go back to dial up full time I tried for a month when my acess was down and it didnā€™t work Especially if more than one computer needed net access and you had to have the phone free ā€¦ But Iā€™ve used other friends modems when I needed to check e-mail and well It annoyed me to no end ā€¦ The constant cutoffs the slowness and running games like everquest and such forget it ā€¦ Iā€™d basically leave the net if i was back on dialup for more than a month ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/14 "2003-01-20T15:03:06Z")
[old guy]You think you young-ins have it tough with dialup, eh? Well, back in _my_ day we didnā€™t even _have_ dialup! You had to contact the _operator_ and tell her the number of the BBS system you wanted to use. We didnā€™t have none of them fancy graphics, neither, it was all just plain text. Why, you was lucky if you could even get color! And boy, you donā€™t know what slow is until youā€™ve used a 2400 baud connection! Iā€™d have given my two front teeth for a 56K connection back then! Dang whippersnappers have it so easy these days! (grumble, grumble)[/old guy] (just kidding about the contacting the operator part) Seriously, though, I hope you get your DSL back. Once DSL finally came to my area I ordered it. I still feel spoiled having it since I know people who are still in the dark ages of dialup. One time a few years ago I was at my uncleā€™s house using his dialup and I just couldnā€™t tolerate the slow speed. Iā€™m with **nightshadea** and Iā€™d almost rather do without the Internet if I were forced to go back to dialup. Almost, that is. I surely wouldnā€™t use it as much as I use it now. ---
**Author:** ![TruePisces](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/truepisces/32/13628_2.png) [@TruePisces](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruePisces)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/15 "2003-01-20T15:12:43Z")
Iā€™m an old time broadbander whose been relegated to the land of dial-up. We tried for three months to get the cable modem. The cable company couldnā€™t seem to get their acts together enough to actually make it WORK. (Weā€™re in an old building, and the line that runs from the basement to our apartment has been somehow damaged. They were supposed to get someone out here to fix it, but they kept giving us the run around.) So weā€™re still stuck on dial-up until I get a job and we can afford to look into DSL or the T-1 line in the building. ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/16 "2003-01-20T15:40:39Z")
56Ker here \. Waiting for DSL to really get going in these parts. Theyā€™re still kind of newfangled around here. Dial-up works for me OK except for downloading large files which I simply wonā€™t do over a dial-up. 6 hours, are you kidding!? ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/17 "2003-01-20T16:28:54Z")
2400 baud? Why Iā€™d given my left-nut for 2400 baud! My first modem was the 300 baud Mighty Max. But at least it plugged in and didnā€™t use an acoustic coupling. Yeah, I have dail up and I hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Kwyjibo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/18 "2003-01-20T17:45:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by techchick68 \* > **I am on dial up right nowā€¦** ā€“ points and snickers!!! šŸ˜ƒ _pinch_ ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/19 "2003-01-20T18:09:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stinkpalm \* > Why donā€™t you get Adelphia instead? I get on avg 2-2.5 Mbps down and 128kbps up and have had almost no outages in the year I have had it. I hate Adelphia. I have never had good luck with their customer service for my dadā€™s cable connection. Theyā€™ve had it about a year as well and have had all kinds of problems. I have had really good luck with Qwest. I have had some minor outages but rarely very long. This one was apparently caused by a traffic accident. Donā€™t know how true that is but oh well. Back up and running today. Oh and I do have a static IP address block. I plan on setting up a Linux box to host images for various stuff. ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741/20 "2003-01-20T18:11:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kwyjibo \* > ā€“ points and snickers!!! šŸ˜ƒ > _pinch_ Youā€™re such a booger. šŸ˜› [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dial-up-really-sucks/149741.md?page=2)