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An enterprising antique hardware collector known only as “Phreakmonkey” on You Tube has recorded and posted a video showcasing what the internet would have looked like in 1964. After detailing his lovingly preserved Livemore Data Systems “Model A” Acousitc Coupler 300 Baud Modem, he then proceeds to demonstrate how he uses it to establish a connection to the net.
Oddly enough, my 10 Mbps cable modem choked on the streaming video a bit, but my faith in my ISP was quickly restored when I compared it to the 300 characters per second this speed demon maxed out at.
This modem is about as (un)maximum as it gets around here, but it certainly is an interesting watch for nostalgic types who enjoy taking a look back at the history of digital communication.
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Pball1224
June 01, 2009 at 7:10am
I think I joined the internet age with a 1200 Baud modem. To own a piece of hardware that was part of the dawn of the internet must be damn cool. Great video. Thanks for linking to it Max PC.
The Relic
May 31, 2009 at 7:04pm
Oh boy...I remember my 1200 baud modem for my Commodore 64. I had just gotten this particular one in late 1994 (obviously well past it's prime) and had tried to use the software to connect (and was informed that the provider had been taken over by AOL). Cut to May of 1995, and I discovered The Greater Columbus Freenet, and Telix 3.21...FINALLY was on-line (for an hour at a time; you could log in as many times as you wanted, but only in 1 hour increments), and, well I could get e-mail, but sometimes the speed (or lack therof) would cause the e-mail to bottleneck and I'd get half readable and half hash.
And I ain't even gonna go into doing a WAIS search...Ah, those were the days...no, no they weren't ^_^.
Cabal468
May 31, 2009 at 3:43pm
I had a 300 baud modem for my Commodore 128 back in the early 80's...I remember calling into the few BBS's that I could find and chatting with the SysOp's or, if I was lucky, finding a board that would allow you to chat with 2 or 3 people at the same time. These interwebs are alot easier on my phone bill than those days(well, I guess it was my parents phone bill then...)! :-D
AndyYankee17
May 31, 2009 at 3:37pm
I still say punch cards via carrier pidgeon is better, you may have a bad ping but throughput speed is potentially faster
D.E.
May 31, 2009 at 2:22pm
I hit the jump! I did it! I utilized my mouse to arrange the cursor onto the link and then I depressed the left click button on my mouse in order to JUMP to this page! Isn't that fantastic!
