Pretty much the question. I heard about Usenet a while back but never managed to wrap my head around it.

  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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    9 months ago

    Bravo! Outstanding explanation. I got lost on like the second sentence though. If you have the time, can you also ELI5

    dial into with a modem

    It’s a common enough expression but what does it even mean?

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      Wow, this caught me off guard. I read an article about kids being given old tech and they knew people waved Polaroids (even though it doesn’t enhance development) from pop culture. Are young people really unaware that we used to dial with a modem to connect to the net?

      • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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        9 months ago

        No I meant do analog modems use tones to transmit information, or how does it work?

        Like what is the process of “dial with a modem to connect to the net”.

        • cynar@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Modem is short for modulator/demodulator. It took a data stream and encoded it onto tones, multiple (audible) frequencies were used to increase data rates. You had to dial in to either a server, another computer, or an ISP. If you picked up the phone you would hear what sounded like white noise.

          I lost many a download, or ‘online’ game to my mother picking up the phone to make a phone call.

          • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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            9 months ago

            That’s very clear, thanks. I remember reading about the original phreakers, one guy had perfect pitch so he could just sing the tone to open a long distance line and then dial away. I think he got sued by one of the American phone companies for stealing.

            • cynar@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              There are some amazing stories about the cat and mouse games regarding phone phreaking. The “captain crunch whistle” is great. All their attempts at security, beaten by a bit of audible brute force, via a cereal box toy.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Watch Wargames. The main character uses the Ethernet somewhat realistically compared to more modern “depictions” of “hackers,” and has to use an absolutely ancient modem to connect to the network.

    • Tiger Jerusalem@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      That I can help. Back in the day, to access someone’s else computer you literally hooked up yours to a phone line. Your desktop would then dial to some number you got that had another computer listening to answer, and they would start a “conversation”. Your computer sent what to us would sound like noise, the receiving computer would listen to that noise and answer back. Voilá, you’re connected to a network!

      This is how it sounded like

      And here’s an explanation about what’s happening.

      • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
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        9 months ago

        It’s binary with low tones representing 0 and high tones representing 1. Thanks for the link, that’s just what I wanted to know!