Posted on 08/11/2025 4:27:56 PM PDT by Angelino97
Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around. But AOL says it’s officially pulling the plug for its service on Sept. 30.
“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” AOL wrote in a brief update on its support site — noting that dial-up and associated software “optimized for older operating systems” will soon be unavailable on AOL plans.
AOL, formerly America Online, introduced many households to the world wide web for the first time when its dial-up service launched decades ago, rising to prominence particularly in the 90s and early 2000s. The creaky door to the internet was characterized by a once-ubiquitous series of beeps and buzzes heard over the phone used to connect your computer online — along with frustrations of being kicked off the web if anyone else at home needed the landline for another call, and an endless bombardment of CDs mailed out by AOL to advertise free trials.
Eventually, broadband and wireless offerings emerged and rose to dominance, doing away with dial-up’s quirks for most people accessing the internet today.
Still, a handful of consumers have continued to rely on internet services connected over telephone lines. In the U.S., according to Census Bureau data, an estimated 163,401 households were using dial-up alone to get online in 2023, representing just over 0.13% of all homes with internet subscriptions nationwide.
AOL was the largest dial-up internet provider for some time, but not the only one to emerge over the years. Some smaller internet providers continue to offer dial-up today. Regardless, the decline of dial-up has been a long time coming. And AOL shutting down its service arrives as other relics of the internet’s earlier days continue to disappear.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
AOL included them in many of Los Angeles's free newspapers, especially the L.A. Weekly. People tossed the CD-ROMs when taking the paper.
It was crazy.
We used them for coasters.
Ironic that soon we may have to go back to personal dial up servers again because the normal internet is dead and needs to be buried.
Remember it well.
One day, when I lived in North Idaho, my son called me and said, “There’s this great new thing called a computer, drive down to the nearest Staples and get their best one.”
Did. Micron laptop that played CDs. Son set it up for me while of couple of friends watched. First thing I did online was get a subscription to the London Times, probably first news source online.
AOL, of course. Son was first person to put color online. Then some young woman did animation. We watched Hamster Dance endlessly.
I’ve seen this story three times and each time I’ve read it as AOC...
I recall at least one Freeper saying they still had dial up.
I thought Dial-up went with the dinosaurs.
Wow.
This explains why no one’s buying my AOL CDs on Ebay... I thought $19.99 was a great price.
She’s living rent-free in your head.
Or maybe rent-controlled. She likes that.
As long as she never lives in the White House, I can live with that!
Netzero still has dial up. And Juno...
https://www.netzero.net/start/landing.do?page=/fd/landing/landing-new&refcd=FDFEB2018
I shingled our roof with AOL disks
Now selling for $6 up on Ebay
$19.99?
Better have an extended warranty!
No doubt with a 1200 baud modem! I was an early user of AOL in a pilot program. I started with 300 baud modem in the late 1970s, upgraded to a 1200 baud modem and later to 2400 and then 9600 baud. No fun watching text paint itself across the screen...
I've seen a video of someone building solar panels with CDs. Attach to plywood, scratch a small area, and interconnect CDs with wires. It works.
I’m surprised that there are computers that still have modems.
I remember Juno. It’s been decades since I heard or thought about Juno, but someone I knew in the 1990s had a Juno email.
I bought a U.S. Robotics 24 baud modem in 1987. My first.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.