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Posted on: August 18, 2011
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I remember 1999 like it was yesterday. Britney Spears released “…Baby One More Time” and “Smooth” by Santana and Rob Thomas was constantly on my favorite FM radio station’s playlist. The year also brought some great movies like American Beauty and The Sixth Sense, and some terrible ones like Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The one movie from 1999 that really sticks out to me is The Matrix. Remember how cutting edge it seemed at the time? Remember when you needed a phone line to get on the Internet? In that movie, they needed a phone line to get in and out of “The Matrix” itself!
Around the same time The Matrix came out, I was getting this new thing called a “Cable Modem” installed. It was amazing! It didn’t require a phone line and you could get speeds reaching 3 Mbps down, 50 times faster than dial-up. Less than 5% of households in the world had Broadband connections, and I could now listen to Internet radio stations that didn’t play the same song over and over again! I dominated online auctions and sent full resolution pictures in emails! It was a dream come true. Friends who still had dial up would come to my house to see how fast I could do things. I was the most popular guy in town!
Fast forward eleven years. Bright House Networks was beginning to test Road Runner Lightning with employees, and I chained myself to my desk in order to be first on the list! In terms of full disclosure I unlocked myself for lunch and breaks, but was dedicated to being one of the first people to experience the lightning speeds!
My commitment proved me worthy to be a tester for Road Runner Lightning’s 40 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload speeds, and I have been a proud customer ever since.
Last September, I had 14 people at my house for my Fantasy Football online draft, with all of us participating via wireless connections. (Did I mention that Home Networking is included with Road Runner Lightning?) I expected us to push the limits of the technology, but Lightning handled the traffic with ease. Oh, and in case you are wondering, Michael Turner’s injury issues ended up being a huge problem for my team.
It’s amazing what 11 years has brought us in speed increases. Upgrading to Road Runner Lightning reminds me of when I went from dialup to High Speed Internet. Once you experience the difference, you will never look back.
Imagine if we were all still on dialup, what would you miss the most from the Internet today?
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Erin Oakes
I would miss my super fast downloads,I camt even imagine going back. Although, I do sort of miss
the buzzing and gurgling of dial up.
Brian Weber
Really? You could probably download an MP3 of it or something to play while loading up your browser window.
Rance
Well there would no opportunity for flash mob riots via twitter or WoW….wait a second….advantage dial up.
Brian Weber
LOL… check one for dial-up.
Lauren M
Has it really been 12 years? Amazing what we have now that we could never dream of living without. Great reminder of
Bright House’s technical progress.
Brian Weber
Yeah! It is good stuff.
Joane
I would miss seeing my grandchildren grow. I enjoy seeing up to the minute pictures, since I live across country it is very important to be able to watch them online.
Brian Weber
Have you tried video conferencing on Skype or use FaceTime? It works well, especially with a fast connection.
Jim
I first experienced high-speed internet at the UCF computer lab. It made the world a degree of magnitude smaller–like I could get anywhere in an instant. If we went back to dial-up speeds again, I’d definitely miss streaming video the most. I’ve unplugged my television and I now get all of my news and entertainment online….something that just wasn’t possible under dial-up.
Brian Weber
The faster the speed, the better the experience for that for sure. ESPN3.com is one of my favorite sites!
Craig
Great article and brings back a lot of nostalgia, especially for the people like me who remember the beginning of the World Wide Web. When I received my first broad band modem, it was like a new freedom. Now with wideband technology, there’s just nothing close. Thank you.
Brian Weber
Hard to believe that nostalgia is now a term used to describe the early days of the internet. I can picture a Norman Rockwell painting of kids standing around a CRT monitor.
Ian
Great article.
If we were all still on dialup I would definitely miss the ease of quick Google searches. I’d miss the rich content of today’s websites, multitasking between nine or ten pages, and sharing photos and videos with friends.
Brian Weber
9 or 10 pages at once… that definitely wouldn’t be possible with dial-up. I remember at times clicking on the wrong page and then having to wait until it loaded all the way up before going back.
Thom
sounds like a first world problem just waiting….
geri
This really takes me back…i have to say I don’t miss that dail up noise at all and i do enjoy super fast internet action. I am feeling the retro vibe just thinking about it.
Brian Weber
Rumor has it the iPad will have an app called Dial-up-amatic, which simulates having to dial-up, for irony.
Maggie
Dial up was awesome at it’s time but I cannot imagine going backward. I would really dowloading music if I were still on dial up. I know I wouldn’t have the patience to wait!!
Brian Weber
Yeah, it used to take about the same amount of length of a song to download it. Now I can download movies in like the same amount of time. It’s crazy
Debbie
I don’t know, I would get a lot more reading done if we went back to dialup. I used to have a book by the computer for especially slow downloads.
Brian Weber
LOL… That is slow, that you had time to read! I didn’t even think about it, we probably wouldn’t have Kindles either without high speed internet.