• Dialup ISPs?

    From VHSFuture@21:1/137 to All on Sat Mar 21 15:23:52 2026
    Hey all! Does anyone have any recommendations for cheap, reliable dialup ISPs? I've tried dialup.world but the connection is not ideal since both my end and theirs are using VoIP ATAs.
    I've also tried MSN but most of their numbers seem to be out of service, and I'm currently trying SDF.org's dialup network but I'm running into issues with PPP authentication on most of
    their remaining numbers.


    Regards,
    VHSFuture
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  • From Geri Atricks@21:3/235 to VHSFuture on Sat Mar 21 22:43:32 2026
    ISPs? I've tried dialup.world but the connection is not ideal since both my end and theirs are using VoIP ATAs.

    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together. You're bes bet if you're wanting to use a regular modem to to just get a POTS line.

    -FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

    ... There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting!

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  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Geri Atricks on Sun Mar 22 08:47:30 2026
    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together. You're bes bet if you're wanting to use a regular modem to to just get a POTS line.

    Most if not all are being phased out... Do they even sell these anymore?

    ... The reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where the bad girls live

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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to NITER3 on Sun Mar 22 10:17:11 2026
    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together.
    You're bes bet if you're wanting to use a regular modem to to just get a POTS line.

    Most if not all are being phased out... Do they even sell these anymore?

    I think I would have a difficult time getting one here without paying
    business rates (if I can get one at all)... and I strongly suspect that it would ultimately still be routed through the provider's VOIP system, even
    if the lines leaving my house were copper.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Dumas Walker on Sun Mar 22 09:31:47 2026
    Dumas Walker wrote to NITER3 <=-

    I think I would have a difficult time getting one here without paying business rates (if I can get one at all)... and I strongly suspect that
    it would ultimately still be routed through the provider's VOIP system, even if the lines leaving my house were copper.

    My family has a cabin up in the mountains. DSL has sort of been
    available for a while. We still have a POTS line up there, was shocked
    to see that the bill is over $75/month!



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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Geri Atricks on Sun Mar 22 14:24:33 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: Geri Atricks to VHSFuture on Sat Mar 21 2026 10:43 pm

    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together. You're bes bet if you're wanting to use a regular modem to to just get a POTS line.

    Can you even get a regular POTS line anymore though? If you want POTS telephone service at home, I think they pretty much all go through VOIP these days.

    Nightfox
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to niter3 on Sun Mar 22 14:27:16 2026
    Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: niter3 to Geri Atricks on Sun Mar 22 2026 08:47 am

    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together.

    Most if not all are being phased out... Do they even sell these anymore?

    If you can't get a POTS line from a phone service anymore, there are VOIP services online that you can use to get a telephone line, such as voip.ms and others. With those services, you'd generally need to buy a device that connects to your network (usually via ethernet) and provides an outlet for a phone. You can configure such a device to connect to the VOIP service you sign up for.

    Nightfox

    Nightfox
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Dumas Walker on Sun Mar 22 14:28:04 2026
    Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: Dumas Walker to NITER3 on Sun Mar 22 2026 10:17 am

    I think I would have a difficult time getting one here without paying business rates (if I can get one at all)... and I strongly suspect that it would ultimately still be routed through the provider's VOIP system, even if the lines leaving my house were copper.

    I added a dialup line to my BBS a couple years ago, and I'm using VOIP service from voip.ms, and what they charge isn't business rates, as far as I can tell. I feel like their price is fairly reasonable.

    Nightfox
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  • From Gods69@21:3/220 to Nightfox on Mon Mar 23 08:54:35 2026
    I added a dialup line to my BBS a couple years ago, and I'm using VOIP service from voip.ms, and what they charge isn't business rates, as far
    as I can tell. I feel like their price is fairly reasonable.

    Also ATA box works better than others when using modems. I use CISCO ATA192-MPP (ATA192-3PW-K9) adapter for my VOIP line. They are very sensible to
    delay (ping) on the Ethernet side, so you must use direct RJ45 cable connection to the router. Don't use wifi or Powerline technologie.

    ... Chemistry professors never die, they just smell that way!

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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to NIGHTFOX on Mon Mar 23 08:46:21 2026
    I think I would have a difficult time getting one here without paying
    business rates (if I can get one at all)... and I strongly suspect that it >DW> would ultimately still be routed through the provider's VOIP system, even >DW> if the lines leaving my house were copper.

    I added a dialup line to my BBS a couple years ago, and I'm using VOIP service
    from voip.ms, and what they charge isn't business rates, as far as I can tell.
    I feel like their price is fairly reasonable.

    Because it is VOIP... I think they'd charge you a whole lot more for a real honest-to-goodness copper line that probably winds up having calls routed through VOIP somewhere in their office.

    Are users able to get decent connection rates and not get dropped often?

    I have some callers who seem to struggle but I don't know what equipment
    they are using on their end. Saturday, OTOH, I had a new caller that
    connected at 9600 and didn't seem to have any issues during the 15-20
    minutes they were connected.


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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Gods69 on Mon Mar 23 07:57:07 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: Gods69 to Nightfox on Mon Mar 23 2026 08:54 am

    Also ATA box works better than others when using modems. I use CISCO ATA192-MPP (ATA192-3PW-K9) adapter for my VOIP line. They are very sensible to delay (ping) on the Ethernet side, so you must use direct RJ45 cable connection to the router. Don't use wifi or Powerline technologie.

    Interesting - I also use a Cisco ATA192-MPP of the same model (ATA192-3PW-K9).

    Nightfox
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Dumas Walker on Mon Mar 23 07:58:29 2026
    Re: Dialup BBSing with VOIP
    By: Dumas Walker to NIGHTFOX on Mon Mar 23 2026 08:46 am

    I added a dialup line to my BBS a couple years ago, and I'm using VOIP
    service
    from voip.ms, and what they charge isn't business rates, as far as I can

    Are users able to get decent connection rates and not get dropped often?

    Honestly I haven't looked at the connection rates that closely, but I recall from when I noticed the connection rates aren't that bad (at least around 14.4k or so), and I don't think they get dropped often.

    Nightfox
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  • From Gods69@21:3/220 to Nightfox on Mon Mar 23 17:58:47 2026
    Interesting - I also use a Cisco ATA192-MPP of the same model (ATA192-3PW-K9).

    It was an upgrade for the older Cisco SPA122 that a have. I can't see to
    much differences between the two...

    ... Try hacking in the wee hours: you will have more room.

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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Mar 23 19:05:00 2026
    Hello pF!

    ** On Sunday 22.03.26 - 09:31, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Dumas Walker:

    My family has a cabin up in the mountains. DSL has sort of been
    available for a while. We still have a POTS line up there, was shocked
    to see that the bill is over $75/month!

    No cellular alternative available by now?


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  • From VHSFuture@21:1/137 to Geri Atricks on Mon Mar 23 16:38:33 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: Geri Atricks to VHSFuture on Sat Mar 21 2026 10:43 pm

    Modems and VoIP's have never had a good history of playing well together. You're bes bet if you're wanting to use a regular modem to to just get a POTS line.

    I'm aware of this, but this is being installed at a non-profit museum and that just isn't an option for us right now.
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  • From Geri Atricks@21:3/235 to VHSFuture on Mon Mar 23 20:52:58 2026
    I'm aware of this, but this is being installed at a non-profit museum
    and that just isn't an option for us right now.

    I also seriously doubt it would get much use. Most new machines don't even come with a modem anymore. Just like the no longer come with Floppy drives or Optical drives. :(
    Most people these days wouldn't know how to use a modem even if their machine DOES have one.

    -FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

    ... You can learn many things from children... like how much patience you have

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Dumas Walker on Tue Mar 24 07:47:42 2026
    Dumas Walker wrote to NIGHTFOX <=-

    I have some callers who seem to struggle but I don't know what
    equipment they are using on their end. Saturday, OTOH, I had a new
    caller that connected at 9600 and didn't seem to have any issues during the 15-20 minutes they were connected.

    If you can select your codec, you may have a better time of it. I always
    used G.722 at work, but there's a codec called Opus now that's supposed
    to be more flexible.



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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Geri Atricks on Tue Mar 24 07:47:42 2026
    Geri Atricks wrote to VHSFuture <=-

    I also seriously doubt it would get much use. Most new machines don't
    even come with a modem anymore. Just like the no longer come with
    Floppy drives or Optical drives. :( Most people these days wouldn't
    know how to use a modem even if their machine DOES have one.

    I got rid of my external modems, but still have a little PCI internal
    33.6 modem in my junk drawer. Some day...



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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Ogg on Tue Mar 24 07:47:42 2026
    Ogg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    My family has a cabin up in the mountains. DSL has sort of been
    available for a while. We still have a POTS line up there, was shocked
    to see that the bill is over $75/month!

    No cellular alternative available by now?

    No, we get cell service, curiously, for around 30 minutes a day in the
    morning. Just enough time to check text messages and call back on the
    land line.



    ... Adding on
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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to NIGHTFOX on Tue Mar 24 11:24:37 2026
    Are users able to get decent connection rates and not get dropped often?

    Honestly I haven't looked at the connection rates that closely, but I recall from when I noticed the connection rates aren't that bad (at least around 14.4
    or so), and I don't think they get dropped often.

    My brief testing seemed to show that 14.4k was about the upper limit.
    Because I cannot lock the port at 14.4, and because locking it at 19.2
    causes the modem to allow connections > 14.4, I have it limited to 9600 now.

    I am wondering if I might do better trying a different service than the
    local ISPs and getting my own ATA device might help a bit.


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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Mar 24 09:27:32 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Geri Atricks on Tue Mar 24 2026 07:47 am

    I got rid of my external modems, but still have a little PCI internal 33.6 modem in my junk drawer. Some day...

    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an external modem though. I do recall seeing something, at least for one brand/model of internal modem, where you could put a front panel on your PC (in a 3.5" drive bay, I think) with modem status lights on it. Also, toward the end of the 90s, it was increasingly possible that an internal modem would be a WinModem or similar software-based internal modem, and I always tried to avoid those.

    Nightfox
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  • From Geri Atricks@21:3/235 to Nightfox on Tue Mar 24 21:01:15 2026
    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an external modem though. I do recall seeing something, at least for one brand/model of internal modem, where you could put a front panel on your PC (in a 3.5" drive bay, I think) with modem status lights on it. Also, toward the end of the 90s, it was increasingly possible that an internal

    I remember using a small applet that set on my windows desktop that showed the status lights for my internal modem.

    -FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

    ... Everyone is entitled to my opinion!

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  • From Matthew Munson@21:4/108 to Nightfox on Tue Mar 24 20:34:00 2026
    Nightfox wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an external modem though. I do recall seeing something, at least for one brand/model of internal modem, where you could put a front panel on
    your PC (in a 3.5" drive bay, I think) with modem status lights on it. Also, toward the end of the 90s, it was increasingly possible that an internal modem would be a WinModem or similar software-based internal modem, and I always tried to avoid those.
    Win Modems angered me, I ended up using my high school graduation money to buy me a 33.6 modem that was not
    a winmodem.
    A nice US Robotics modem from that era. It was almost 150 bucks.

    My last modem was a creative labs 56k external modem that was not a winmodem.


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  • From Gods69@21:3/220 to Nightfox on Wed Mar 25 10:36:10 2026
    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an external modem though. I do recall seeing something, at least for one

    RS232 external modems are better. You can plug them into anything, PCs, Amiga, Atari, etc. Even an bare VT100 only terminal do the job.

    ... Don't keep doing what doesn't work.

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Wed Mar 25 06:58:08 2026
    Nightfox wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an external modem though.

    I remember whinging because an internal modem required a power-off to
    reset. Looking back, you could reboot a DOS box in, what, 30 seconds?

    I lived alone in a studio apartment in the early '90s, the BBS was in a
    walk-in closet not far from my bed. I'd go to sleep, wake up hearing
    faint modem connect tones, hear the drives chattering at ZMH, and it'd
    lull me back to sleep.



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  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Wed Mar 25 10:12:14 2026
    Dumas Walker wrote to NIGHTFOX <=-

    I have some callers who seem to struggle but I don't know what
    equipment they are using on their end. Saturday, OTOH, I had a new caller that connected at 9600 and didn't seem to have any issues during the 15-20 minutes they were connected.

    If you can select your codec, you may have a better time of it. I always
    used G.722 at work, but there's a codec called Opus now that's supposed
    to be more flexible.

    I cannot with the current setup (no user interface) but if I do upgrade in future... get my own ATA box... I will have some idea what to look for.

    Thanks!


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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Gods69 on Wed Mar 25 08:12:39 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: Gods69 to Nightfox on Wed Mar 25 2026 10:36 am

    Back in the 90s, there was a point where I started to prefer internal
    modems over external modems. I missed having the status lights of an
    external modem though. I do recall seeing something, at least for one

    RS232 external modems are better. You can plug them into anything, PCs, Amiga, Atari, etc. Even an bare VT100 only terminal do the job.

    I agree. At the time (in the 90s) though, I was only really concerned about the one PC I was going to use it with, so for me it wasn't a big deal.

    Nightfox
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Mar 25 08:14:04 2026
    Re: Re: Dialup ISPs?
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Wed Mar 25 2026 06:58 am

    I lived alone in a studio apartment in the early '90s, the BBS was in a walk-in closet not far from my bed. I'd go to sleep, wake up hearing faint modem connect tones, hear the drives chattering at ZMH, and it'd lull me back to sleep.

    :) I used MFM drives for a little while in my first PCs, and based on the sounds they were making, I was able to tell when someone had logged onto my BBS and what doors they were playing.

    Nightfox
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  • From Gods69@21:3/220 to Nightfox on Wed Mar 25 22:42:12 2026
    RS232 external modems are better. You can plug them into anything, PC Amiga, Atari, etc. Even an bare VT100 only terminal do the job.

    I agree. At the time (in the 90s) though, I was only really concerned about the one PC I was going to use it with, so for me it wasn't a big deal.

    In the 90s, i was using an Amiga500 computer so an external modem was mandatory.

    ... An idle mind is worth two in the bush.

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