If you were born after wifi, the dial-up modem noise is what electronics used to sound like: dated, from the era of the fax machine and the non-customizable ringtone. To me, it’s more than that ...

A DSL or dial-up modem connected to your multi-line phone system allows for fast and easy Internet access.

AYANA ARCHIE, BYLINE: That sound is what most people used to hear when connecting to the internet. Unlike broadband, dial-up uses a modem and telephone lines to establish an internet connection.

For those of us who lived it, that modem noise wasn’t just some obnoxious background chaos. It was the sound of possibility. Of connection. Of the world opening up, one painfully slow kilobyte at a ...

After you connect and turn on your modem, you can set up your router by connecting an Ethernet cord to your modem and into the router. It should make a click sound when the cables connect.

Back in the days of dial-up, your computer performed a symphony just to get online. Here’s what every bleep, screech, and ding actually did.

The sound of a modem connecting wasn’t just noise—it was the sound of the future arriving. Now, that sound is gone for good. After 34 years, AOL is hanging up. The age of patient internet is over.