Dial-up Connections

Dial-up Internet access

Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telephone line. The user's computer or router uses an attached modem to encode and decode information into and from audio frequency signals, respectively.

In 1979, Tom Truscott and Steve Bellovin, graduate students for Duke University, created an early predecessor to dial-up Internet access called the USENET. The USENET was a UNIX based system that used a dial-up connection to transfer data through telephone modems. [1] Dial-up Internet has been around since the 1980s via public providers such as NSFNET-linked universities and was first offered commercially in July 1992 by Sprint. [2] Despite losing ground to broadband since the mid-2000s, dial-up may still be used where other forms are not available or the cost is too high, such as in some rural or remote areas.

Availability

Dial-up connections to the Internet require no infrastructure other than the telephone network and the modems and servers needed to make and answer the calls. Where telephone access is widely available, dial-up remains useful and it is often the only choice available for rural or remote areas, where broadband installations are not prevalent due to low population density and high infrastructure cost. Dial-up access may also be an alternative for users on limited budgets, as it is offered free by some ISPs, though broadband is increasingly available at lower prices in many countries due to market competition.

Dial-up requires time to establish a telephone connection (up to several seconds, depending on the location) and perform configuration for protocol synchronization before data transfers can take place. In locales with telephone connection charges, each connection incurs an incremental cost. If calls are time-metered, the duration of the connection incurs costs.

Dial-up access is a transient connection, because either the user, ISP or phone company terminates the connection. Internet service providers will often set a limit on connection duration to allow sharing of resources, and will disconnect the user—requiring re-connection and the costs and delays associated with it. Technically inclined users often find a way to disable the auto-disconnect program such that they can remain connected for more days than one. [citation needed]

A 2008 Pew Research Center study stated that only 10 percent of US adults still used dial-up Internet access. The study found that the most common reason for retaining dial-up access was high broadband prices. Users cited lack of infrastructure as a reason less often than stating that they would never upgrade to broadband. [3] According to the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 6% used dial-up in 2010. [4] By 2013, that number had fallen to 3%.

Modern dial-up modems typically have a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 56 Kbit/s (using the V.90 or V.92 protocol), although in most cases, 40–50 Kbit/s is the norm. Factors such as phone line noise as well as the quality of the modem itself play a large part in determining connection speeds.

Some connections may be as low as 20 Kbit/s in extremely noisy environments, such as in a hotel room where the phone line is shared with many extensions, or in a rural area, many miles from the phone exchange. Other factors such as long loops, loading coils, pair gain, electric fences (usually in rural locations), and digital loop carriers can also slow connections to 20 Kbit/s or lower.

Analog telephone lines are digitally switched and transported inside a Digital Signal 0 once reaching the telephone company's equipment. Digital Signal 0 is 64 Kbit/s and reserves 8 Kbit/s for signaling information; therefore, a 56 Kbit/s connection is the highest that will ever be possible with analog phone lines.

Dial-up connections usually have latency as high as 150 MS or even more; this is longer than for many forms of broadband, such as cable or DSL, but typically less than satellite connections. Longer latency can make video conferencing and online gaming difficult, if not impossible. An increasing amount of Internet content such as streaming media will not work at dial-up speeds.

Older games released from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s such as Ever Quest, Red Faction, Warcraft 3, Final Fantasy XI, Phantasy Star Online, Guild Wars, Unreal Tournament, Halo: Combat Evolved, Audition, Quake 3: Arena, and Ragnar Online, are capable of running on 56k dial-up. The first consoles to provide Internet connectivity, the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, supported dial-up as well as broadband. The GameCube had an ability touse dial-up and broadband connections, but this was used in very few games and required a separate adapter. The original Xbox exclusively required a broadband connection. Many computer and video games released since the mid-2000s do not even include the option to use dial-up. However, there are exceptions to this, such as Vendetta Online, which can still run on a dial-up modem.

What is a Dial-up Internet Service?

Dial-up internet service is a service that allows connectivity to the internet through a standard telephone line. By connecting the telephone line to the modem in your computer and inserting the other end into the phone jack, and configuring the computer to dial a specific number provided by your internet  service provider (ISP) you are able to access the internet on your computer.

Dial up internet service is provided through several ISP. The majority of internet service providers give you a set of telephone numbers either national or local that allows you to dial into a network that feeds into the internet. This allows you to receive and send email, search the World Wide Web, participate in chat rooms and plenty of other features the web has to offer.

In order to get a dial up internet service a person must definitely have a computer and even more important a modem. There are different types of modems, and most of them are inexpensive to purchase. You can have an internal modem installed in a free slot of your computer, or you can have an external modem that's hooked up to the computer through cables. A telephone line is linked to the modem.

The modem whether external or internal is controlled by software on the computer. With Microsoft Windows operating system that software is the Network Connection utility which allows you to connect to the internet. How? In the Network Connection utility, you have to set up ISP profile so that the modem knows what phone number to dial so that you can connect to the internet.

Once you have found an internet service provider and joined you must choose a password and username. Why? When the modem dials the phone number you are given by your ISP, a connection is made, and then information is swap between the modem and the remote server. A remote server is the computer and related software that is established to handle users who want to access a network remotely. The username and password you choose for the modem allows access to the dial up gateway to the internet. The gateway to the internet is a network that allows entry into another network.

If you are looking for an inexpensive internet service dial up is the way to go. Not only is it the cheapest but also the slowest type of access you can get. Since the bandwidth is limited it will take some time for the modem to send and receive information. It will be slow loading web pages, listening to music and watching videos online. There are all kinds of software available that can help speed up your dial up internet.

With dial up internet you cannot use the phone and search the web at the same time. How come? Remember while one end of the telephone is linked to the modem the other end is in the phone outlet. There are internet services available that allows you to use the phone at the same time and be online.

So as you can see dial up internet has its pros and its cons. If you are looking for an inexpensive internet service and don't mind not being able to talk on the phone and use the web at the same time, then dial up is definitely for you!