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  • Who still uses dial-up modems these days?

    From Ant@21:1/5 to All on Sat Apr 20 01:15:58 2019
    Just curious. I haven't used it since the summer of 2014 before I was
    evicted to move. :( I didn't bother to get copper landline in the new
    nest location.
    --
    TGIGF! :)
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  • From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 22 00:26:04 2019
    It's all I got.

    I was converted to Fiber two years ago but I got only local calling and they brought it into my old copper line. So inside the hosue, it's still the same.


    - = -
    Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus
    blog: panix.com/~vjp2/ruminatn.htm - = - web: panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
    facebook.com/vasjpan2 - linkedin.com/in/vasjpan02 - biostrategist.com
    ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

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  • From Moe Trin@21:1/5 to Ant on Mon Apr 22 17:50:57 2019
    On Sat, 20 Apr 2019, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.modems, in article <[email protected]>, Ant wrote:

    Just curious. I haven't used it since the summer of 2014

    cron-jobs - dials in every 4 hours, uses netcat or nmap

    [sofia ~]$ whatis netcat nmap
    netcat (1) - TCP/IP swiss army knife
    nmap (1) - Network exploration tool and security / port scanner
    [sofia ~]$

    to test a number of port on the broadband router, then bails. As
    we're retired. we can no longer do so from work, and most public
    hot-spots would freak out if I tried it using their bandwidth.
    Many consumer grade routers/cable-modems have back-doors, some
    of which can't be disabled. I merely have those ports forwarded to a
    server that runs a reject-daemon.

    I didn't bother to get copper landline in the new nest location.

    Depends on what you're used to - we have dumb cell phones and
    sometimes even turn them on. They're basically for outbound
    calls ONLY. Actually, the last two facilities I worked in
    prohibited any form of personal/portable phone for security.

    Old guy

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  • From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Tue Apr 23 20:01:30 2019
    My ISP uses windsteam popsite


    - = -
    Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus
    blog: panix.com/~vjp2/ruminatn.htm - = - web: panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
    facebook.com/vasjpan2 - linkedin.com/in/vasjpan02 - biostrategist.com
    ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

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  • From Mike Spencer@21:1/5 to Ant on Thu Nov 7 02:57:48 2019
    Just dropping in. Modem is working fine.

    [email protected] (Ant) writes:

    Just curious. I haven't used it since the summer of 2014 before I was
    evicted to move. :( I didn't bother to get copper landline in the new
    nest location.

    Still doing dialup here with USR external modems. Experimenting with
    a Oxygen-3 "wireless gateway device" + SIM card on a data-only
    account. It may soon replace much or all of the dialup. May have to
    buy a new router before it all works as intended.

    Hey, Old Guy (Moe Trin), thanks again for getting me on-line a few
    years ago via dialup when the USB-to-serial adapter on my new laptop
    failed correctly to handle the bits sent by the connection script that
    works on a real serial port. Good to see you're still hanging out
    here, helping out we'uns young fellers. (I'm only a bit over 2
    kilofortnights old. :-)

    --
    Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

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  • From Moe Trin@21:1/5 to Mike Spencer on Sat Nov 9 00:39:40 2019
    On 07 Nov 2019 02:57:48 -0400, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.modems, in article <[email protected]e>, Mike Spencer wrote:

    Just dropping in. Modem is working fine.

    Good to hear it

    Hey, Old Guy (Moe Trin), thanks again for getting me on-line a few
    years ago

    My recollection suggest 2015, Glad I was able to help.

    helping out we'uns young fellers. (I'm only a bit over 2
    kilofortnights old. :-)

    Hey, I'm only in my early 50s... if you count in hex (or a bit
    past 2.5 gigasecs). ;-} A bigger problem is that I've lost
    a lot of my sight (macular degeneration), so I no longer drive,
    and reading (a joy since age 5 or so) is difficult.

    Old guy

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  • From Mike Spencer@21:1/5 to Moe Trin on Sat Nov 9 03:10:53 2019
    Moe Trin <[email protected]d> writes:

    Hey, I'm only in my early 50s... if you count in hex (or a bit
    past 2.5 gigasecs). ;-} A bigger problem is that I've lost
    a lot of my sight (macular degeneration), so I no longer drive,
    and reading (a joy since age 5 or so) is difficult.


    That's hard. Guessing that there are tricks with a computer screen
    that may help, at least a bit, that conventional dead-tree print
    doesn't offer.

    Well, my mother died not too long before she reached her
    25th birthday. [1] We can hope you'll do as well.

    - Mike

    [1] Born Feb 29, 1904 :-)


    --
    Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

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  • From Moe Trin@21:1/5 to Mike Spencer on Sun Nov 10 22:40:24 2019
    On 09 Nov 2019 03:10:53 -0400, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.modems, in article <[email protected]e>, Mike Spencer wrote:

    Moe Trin <[email protected]d> writes:

    A bigger problem is that I've lost a lot of my sight (macular
    degeneration),

    That's hard.

    Yup. Basically, I can see _letters_ but not words. Pixel loss.

    ]] and reading (a joy since age 5 or so) is difficult.

    Guessing that there are tricks with a computer screen that may
    help, at least a bit,

    [kepler ~]$ whatis xmag
    xmag (1) - magnify parts of the screen
    [kepler ~]$

    But I use 'tab completion' (in the shell) a lot. Using 'evince'
    as a .pdf reader also allows me to set print size.

    that conventional dead-tree print doesn't offer.

    A 2 by 4 inch 4x magnifying glass helps

    Well, my mother died not too long before she reached her
    25th birthday. [1]

    Till I read the footnote, I'm thinking... what base? 36?? (0-9a-z)

    We can hope you'll do as well.

    Family history does matter - my mother made it to 92, and my older
    sister is still ticking. My father didn't reach mid-50s (like
    his parents and brothers) due to un-diagnosed high blood pressure
    (easily controlled today).

    Old guy

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  • From Lain@21:1/5 to Ant on Thu Feb 27 07:13:57 2020
    On Sat, 20 Apr 2019 01:15:58 -0500
    [email protected] (Ant) wrote:

    Just curious. I haven't used it since the summer of 2014 before I was
    evicted to move. :( I didn't bother to get copper landline in the new
    nest location.
    --
    TGIGF! :)
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org /
    / /\ /\ \ http://antfarm.ma.cx. Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    I used a US Robotics 56k serial modem that I found in a recycling bin up until around 2018 as there were few other viable options for Internet access in the place I was living. I think I'd heard the modem in question refered to as the US Robotics
    Sportster online. I also briefly used a PCI softmodem before finding the USR one but the PCI modem turned out to be useless to me as I became interested in GNU/Linux and the BSD's.
    It was sort of frustrating as a teenager seeing most of my friends who lived in town and had super-fast cable and DSL connections but I got along quite well regardless and I believe that being limited in this regard was beneficial to my learning about
    technology and computers. I remember installing and configuring Debian on an old beige-box PC that I found for free and I was elated that I could simultaneously chat on IRC, listen to (very compressed) Internet radio streams and browse websites using
    Lynx over crusty copper telephone lines which limited the modem handshake to around something like 28k on a good day (sometimes it was 26 or even 14 depending on the access number I used). If needed I could download large files and such at school and
    copy them over to my computer at home anyway.
    At the end of the day using the 'net over a modem is still very feasible for technical users, ascetics and/or those who are not simply not interested in consuming large amounts of media. I'd like to go back but nowadays a simple coax cable connection
    costs less than a copper POTS line here. There are also a lot of complexities due to the proprietary nature of cable modems that concern me, in contrast to the robustness and simplicity of a serial modem.

    Anyways, apologies for going on a sort of story-telling tangent but I hope you all have a good day. Cheers.
    --
    Lain <[email protected]>

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