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What was the first modem you ever had? How fast was it?

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  • I was late to the internet party, and got a pre-owned 33.6k. I don't remember the brand, but I still have it stashed somewhere, just for the nostalgia. Had it in my desk drawer to muffle the sound a bit. I figured out later I could turn that off. But I needed the sound to hear if I got a successful connection. Since my mother was sceptical about the phone line being blocked, I was not allowed to use a modem at home initially. So I used it in the night, to avoid detection. I had planned to just use it for essential surfing and patch downloads for games. But the addiction was too severe. After one month had passed, I figured out the phone bill would not go unnoticed, so I had to confess. So we agreed that I could use it after ten in the evening, and I would pay the usage part of the phone bill. I think it was close to $100 a month usually. And that was even if I had free fast internet where I studied... I never have paid so much for internet after that.

    It was probably rocket fuel for a really bad sleeping habit (or complete lack of sleep), but I would not trade those years of late night chatting, surfing, mud and usenet for anything.

    Later before I moved out, I got a 56k internal modem. But it was so unstable at max speed, I just ran it at 33.6k.

    • Diamond SupraExpress 56e pro. Many hours spent on irc. I remember using an auto dialer for the time limits imposed by ISP's back then, and only available after 6pm and weekends. There was such rediculous price gauging and rate limiting on domestic users. But sometimes I do miss the connecting sound! xD

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