It's not only a matter of not being fast enough, it's more a matter of not being able to support a modern browser. The internet is radically different today than it was at the beginning and an old computer that does not support the use of modern browsers is not going to be pleasant to use. If I had a v.90 or v.92 modem I'd keep one of those around, but anything older than that would go.

I tried using my old Pentium 133 to surf the web in 2006 and it was too slow to be usable. And it's probably worse now. Of course you have these gimmicky videos on Youtube like "IBM XT BROWSES INTERNET" with a DOS browser like Arachne or something, but you can't do anything useful with it since only basic HTML is supported and many websites now are made of entirely Javascript.

ncmark wrote:

Just curious... does anyone use dial-up modems anymore? I ran across some old ISA modems in my parts box and finally tossed them, I figure, any computer old enough to have ISA slots is not going to be fast enough to get on the internet anymore.........

I never use dial-up modems, if you have cable or ADSL, then modems seem to be pretty much useless alas.

I have an ISDN adapter with internal analog phone routing. This way I can plug two modems there and call each other locally without connecting them to the regular phone network.
I saved an older 14.4k baud and a Creatix 33.6k modem. On one of my DOS systems I have installed a NCB-Mail BBS, which can be called then.

I have a box full of 56ks , every box of 90's PCs I brought home had one of these, so...

For sometime now I've been thinking about connecting to the internet with the Diamond SupraExpress or SupraMax that caught my eye, just for the sake of it, and listening to the modem sound one more time , 🤣

elianda wrote:

I have an ISDN adapter with internal analog phone routing. This way I can plug two modems there and call each other locally without connecting them to the regular phone network.
I saved an older 14.4k baud and a Creatix 33.6k modem. On one of my DOS systems I have installed a NCB-Mail BBS, which can be called then.

I usually just use a null modem cable for that. Connect the two serial ports with the cable, set a terminal program on one end to upload and the other to download at the same time and you have a primitive form of file sharing.

I run into people on dial-up internet occasionally. They are just behind the times on the options available and the prices.

They're still handy for sending and receiving faxes, right?

I would love to have a decent voice modem for recording phone messages, but alas, there seems to be no decent, inexpensive hardware/software combination, even now.

sliderider wrote:

elianda wrote:

I have an ISDN adapter with internal analog phone routing. This way I can plug two modems there and call each other locally without connecting them to the regular phone network.
I saved an older 14.4k baud and a Creatix 33.6k modem. On one of my DOS systems I have installed a NCB-Mail BBS, which can be called then.

I usually just use a null modem cable for that. Connect the two serial ports with the cable, set a terminal program on one end to upload and the other to download at the same time and you have a primitive form of file sharing.

Of course, but that is not the intention of this setup. It should really look like dialing a BBS system.

Jorpho wrote:

They're still handy for sending and receiving faxes, right?

I would love to have a decent voice modem for recording phone messages, but alas, there seems to be no decent, inexpensive hardware/software combination, even now.

I have a dialogic 4 line pci card that will do all that. Its been sitting in an old box with a pci 56k modem because at one time I needed a "fax machine" but I cant remember the last time I used it. Its been sitting forlorn in the corner for I know 2 years now. 😜

Looks like this: https://www.dialogic.com/en/products/media/jct/d41jct.aspx

the prices on ebay are reasonable.

I use a set of three USR 56k external serial modems as a backup to regular data networks.

I've got a bunch of equipment located in remote sites around rural SW Ontario with less than rock-solid network infrastructure. The nature of the equipment requires that it's located in rural areas and often the only network available is wireless* (some sites even have to rely on 3G modems).

Needless to say, this is not ideal. But since PTSN is pretty damned reliable and goes everywhere, we just stuck modems at each major site. While we can't move much data through them, they're enough to get basic plain-text results if all else fails. Also, the network equipment is on switched PDUs that we can control from the computers, so we can just dial in to power cycle if needed.

* Strangely enough, one of the sites basically in the middle of nowhere has a fibre-to-the-basement link. Dunno how that happened, but not complaining.

luckybob wrote:

I have a dialogic 4 line pci card that will do all that. Its been sitting in an old box with a pci 56k modem because at one tim […]
Show full quote

Jorpho wrote:

They're still handy for sending and receiving faxes, right?

I would love to have a decent voice modem for recording phone messages, but alas, there seems to be no decent, inexpensive hardware/software combination, even now.

I have a dialogic 4 line pci card that will do all that. Its been sitting in an old box with a pci 56k modem because at one time I needed a "fax machine" but I cant remember the last time I used it. Its been sitting forlorn in the corner for I know 2 years now. 😜

Looks like this: https://www.dialogic.com/en/products/media/jct/d41jct.aspx

the prices on ebay are reasonable.

Really? What software does it use? And is it actually bi-directional? And does it have Win7 x64 drivers?

I used a dialup modem last year for a few days when our local broadband was down. I had been thinking of throwing it away only shortly before.

I got a big box full of USR sportster 28.8s I got from an ISP I worked for... they all work, but there's no case for them... they came in handy a few times, but they're so cumbersome without the case... besides, I got an internal courier 56k in my retrobox...

say, anyone got an external courier 56k they want to sell? 😉

I still keep a PCI modem installed...never know when the internet will be down 😜 (and, surprisingly, some people still want me to fax them 😖).

Broadband access is not available to some people who live in rural areas. Dial up modems are still useful to them. A couple of users on the Vintage Computing Forums still use dial up, but not generally out of choice.

3G often feels like dial up compared to Cable or DSL.

My ISP has a free dial-up for emergency situations 😀 Never used it though.

Memories. Had a US Robotics modem back in the day.

I cycled a good three or four miles to a seller on eBay to pick up a US Robotics 56k external modem a couple of years ago. Why? So I could hook my Dreamcast up to it and play Quake 3 online of course 🤣 😁

Here in Scandinavia they are closing down the whole dialup telephone system in two-three years time. From then on it will only be mobile, broadband and IP telephone. Rural and old people who only have regular fixed phone will get a replacement that is either IP or mobilephone based (with adapters to those that want to continue using their old phones). If this goes smooth I guess all the big countries will learn and follow very soon.

Soon it will be impossible to even test these modems.