Fancy some unorthodox, techy ASMR? Try the soothing sound of 12 dial-up modems all trying to connect to the internet at once

Pushing Dial-up Modems Further Than We EVER Thought Possible - YouTube

What would you say is the definitive soundtrack to your youth? Is it a favourite album? Or perhaps the ambient sounds of summer, like bicycle wheels rolling over or a chorus of cicadas? For me, it is undoubtedly the nostalgic scream of a dial-up modem.

Strap 12 of those bad boys together, and you've really got something special—as YouTube channel The Serial Port has recently demonstrated (via Hackaday). The self-described 'virtual museum' showcases tech from yesteryear, this time exploring Multilink Point to Point Protocol. Dating back to 1994, this far from widely used tech allowed users with too many modems on their hands to combine multiple connections into one, potentially doubling their internet speed.

So, why did The Serial port then strap 12 dial up modems together, specifically? To utilise Multilink PPP and attempt to stream YouTube over multiple 56 Kbps internet connections. After a little bit of maths, the creators worked out that they'd need at least a 182,286 bits per second connection to watch one of their own recent uploads at 240p resolution (YouTube's lowest video quality on desktop) without buffering.

Now, I know what you're thinking: 'But even if you round that up to 200 Kbps, you'd only need four 56 Kbps modems to watch that video. So, why did they add another eight on top?' The simple answer is 'why not?' But the fact the 12 multilinked modems reach a connection speed of 668.8 Kbps probably also offered some incentive.

This Multilink PPP experiment required a fair amount of ye olde infrastructure heavy lifting (namely a Cisco IAD to generate the necessary phone lines) plus plenty of period appropriate hardware. Initial tests began on an IBM NetVista A21i from 2001 and, though this machine's Windows ME OS does support two Multilinked modems, it dials them one at a time rather than simultaneously.

A number of black 56 Kbps dial-up modems stacked on top of eachother, red lights blinking. — (Image credit: The Serial Port YouTube Channel)

The experiment ran into further practical concerns when the channel hosts attempted to install serial ports to test additional modems. Struggling to locate the appropriate Windows ME driver for the Equinox multiport expansion card, the experiment eventually moved on to a slightly more recent client PC—the IBM ThinkCenter A50 from 2004. According to Pew research, around 25% of adults in the US would've had access to a broadband connection at home by that point, but this Windows XP machine is still two decades old, so I'll let them have this one.

Still, this era is more recent than you think, with AOL discontinuing its dial-up internet service only as recently as this year. Researchers are offering intriguing glimpses into the future too, achieving fibre optic speeds 3.5 million times faster than the average US home's broadband connection. It's maybe just as well as, in this here year of our gourd 2025, 12 dial-up modems strapped together is a woefully impractical setup. But listen to them, these creatures of a bygone era—what music they make!

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Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.

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