Say bye-bye to the beeps and boops of AOL’s dial-up internet service

['Ayana Archie', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Vertical-Align Middle .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar Is .Alignleft .Alignright'] TPR: The Public's Radio 2025-08-12 09:00:00

(Mark Lennihan | AP)Beep, bop, boop, boooopp, scrsssshh…Such was the sound of AOL’s dial-up service, a marker of trying to connect to the internet in the 1990s. “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” its website says. Users have to plug their computers into a phone jack and install software that allows the computer and dial-up service to communicate. The company was known for handing out discs and CDs that gave users several hours of internet access for free. They were so embedded in 1990s American culture that one of those discs now sits in the Smithsonian’s collection.