On 8/20/2025 6:08 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 09:37:24 -0400, InterLinked wrote:
There is a lot of stuff in the field that uses 300 baud modems for
telemetry.
I have a customer who does a lot of that, up and down the country.
They use wireless connections (formerly 3G, now 4G) for that.
Everything I deal with is on POTS lines.
Low-speed modem protocols without error correction also tend to be
a decent quality test for voice connections.
A more accurate test would surely involve actual voices.
It can be hard to test things like latency and compression purely
from just voice.
Bad or just-okay connections tend to be forgiving for voice but less
so for data.
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:44:40 -0400, InterLinked wrote:
On 8/20/2025 6:08 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 09:37:24 -0400, InterLinked wrote:
There is a lot of stuff in the field that uses 300 baud modems for
telemetry.
I have a customer who does a lot of that, up and down the country.
They use wireless connections (formerly 3G, now 4G) for that.
Everything I deal with is on POTS lines.
Seems like an expensive and unwieldy way to do it. The remote sensors
might need to go months between inspections. They need to, not only
withstand the elements, but have an adequate power supply. A wireless
data connection means they can make a connection, exchange data, and disconnect again, all within a fraction of the time (and power
consumption) it takes to do a modem handshake.
Low-speed modem protocols without error correction also tend to be
a decent quality test for voice connections.
A more accurate test would surely involve actual voices.
It can be hard to test things like latency and compression purely
from just voice.
Sure it is. All you need is the right instrumentation and testing
standards to measure that voice. You *do* have standards, don’t you?
Bad or just-okay connections tend to be forgiving for voice but less
so for data.
Another reason not to use them.
Here <https://www.sierrawireless.com/> is the sort of comms modules
that customer is using.
I was referring to different tests that could be done to evaluate the suitability of a long-distance provider for voice usage.
On Thu, 21 Aug 2025 18:34:28 -0400, InterLinked wrote:
I was referring to different tests that could be done to evaluate the
suitability of a long-distance provider for voice usage.
I thought you were talking about data usage, not voice usage, which you
said tended to be more “forgiving”.
On 8/22/2025 12:12 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Thu, 21 Aug 2025 18:34:28 -0400, InterLinked wrote:
I was referring to different tests that could be done to evaluate the
suitability of a long-distance provider for voice usage.
I thought you were talking about data usage, not voice usage, which you
said tended to be more “forgiving”.
I'm talking about using data calls as a general test, whether using for
data or voice.
Because voice is more forgiving, it's lousy as a test
mechanism ...
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
AOL is shutting down its dial-up internet service after 30 years, with the >discontinuation set for the end of September 2025. This marks the end of an era[end quoted "search assist"]
for many users who experienced the early days of the internet through AOL's >services. Yahoo The Guardian
AOL Shutting Down Dial-Up Internet Service
Overview
AOL, originally known as America Online, is discontinuing its dial-up internet >service after 30 years. This decision marks the end of an era for many users who
experienced the early days of the internet through AOL's distinctive dial-up >connections.
Key Details
Shutdown Date: The dial-up service will officially cease operations on
September 30, 2025.
Historical Significance: AOL was a pioneer in providing internet access to
millions of Americans, especially during the 1990s and early 2000s. At its
peak, it had over 30 million subscribers.
Decline of Dial-Up: The rise of broadband and wireless internet has led to a
significant decline in dial-up users. As of 2023, only about 163,401
households in the U.S. relied solely on dial-up, representing just over 0.13%
of all internet subscriptions.
Company Evolution
Founding: AOL was founded in 1985 as Quantum Computer Services and rebranded
in 1991. It became known for its iconic "You've got mail" notification.
Ownership Changes: AOL has undergone several ownership changes, including a
merger with Time Warner in 2000 and later acquisitions by Verizon and Apollo
Global Management.
Service Changes: In addition to shutting down dial-up, AOL has previously
discontinued its Instant Messenger service in 2017 and continues to offer
email and other online services.
This shutdown reflects the broader trend of moving away from older internet >technologies as faster and more reliable options become the norm.
Yahoo Wikipedia
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[email protected]d> wrote
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup >Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of
operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro
<[email protected]d> wrote
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup >>Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[email protected]d> wrote:
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September
There are other dial-up providers beside AOL. That kind of connection
is only good for email however and maybe Usenet. Impossible to surf
the modern web. I remember when webpages strove to keep an individual
page size below 30KB. Long ago.
Retrograde <[email protected]d> writes:
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[email protected]d> wrote:
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September
There are other dial-up providers beside AOL. That kind of connection
is only good for email however and maybe Usenet. Impossible to surf
the modern web.
There's a work-around that can help a little for site you visit often, assuming that useful info will render w/o js, assuming you have a
resident web server on localhost and can write some perl code.
Put a link on your home page on localhost to a cgi-bin script. (You
*do* keep a home page on localhost, don't you? ;-) Cause that link to
send the real URL as data.
Create a cgi-bin perl script that reads the request from your bowser,
then uses wget or similar to fetch the target page.
The script reads in whatever is sent into a perl variable, then use
regexps to elide all IMG and SCRIPT tags/blocks, elides STYLE and SVG
blocks, elides and LINK tags the fetch or prefetch other data.
Re-writing and anchor tags that point back to the remote host so that
they point to the script instead (handing the script the real URL as
data) is also good but a little more trouble.
Script then sends the result of the editing process back to your
browser.
I've only been off dial-up for five years. This hack sped up several
sites. I still use some of the scripts to get rid of unwanted STYLE
and js.
Useless, of course, for all-js social media sites but I don't do those anyway.
I remember when webpages strove to keep an individual page size
below 30KB. Long ago.
Now some email has more than 30KB in headers, not to mention
unwarranted HTML with huge STYLE blocks.
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 1,099 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 492375:44:57 |
| Calls: | 14,106 |
| Calls today: | 2 |
| Files: | 187,124 |
| D/L today: |
1,832 files (814M bytes) |
| Messages: | 2,496,087 |