For anyone who lived through the dial-up era, those screeches and beeps are unforgettable — but each sound actually meant something very specific.

The classic dial-up handshake sounds melodic, scratchy, and harsh, and is inexorably associated with connection. It’s also now silent. AOL’s decision this week to finally end dial-up service is not ...

For millions, the first time they went online sounded like this: a click, a dial tone, a burst of static, a high-pitched screech, and then — if the internet gods smiled — silence, followed by a cheery ...

Many of today's internet users remember browsing the web for the first time via AOL dial-up. But as subscribers dwindle, the service will be sunsetting on September 30 ...

If you used the internet at home a couple of decades or more ago, you’ll know the characteristic sound of a modem connecting to its dial-up server. That noise is a thing of the past, as we long ago ...

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound—the chaotic screeching, static bursts, and electronic beeps that meant you were about to step out onto the World Wide Web. That unmistakable dial-up handshake ...

Such was the sound of AOL's dial-up service, a marker of trying to connect to the internet in the 1990s. Now the company has announced it's getting rid of dial-up. "AOL routinely evaluates its ...

Like TV screen static, a VHS tape rewinding, or a butter churn, the grating sound of AOL dial-up Internet will also soon be a thing of the past. As the company simply states on its support website, ...