US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
AOL is shutting down its dial-up internet service after 30 years, with the >discontinuation set for the end of September 2025. This marks the end of an era[end quoted "search assist"]
for many users who experienced the early days of the internet through AOL's >services. Yahoo The Guardian
AOL Shutting Down Dial-Up Internet Service
Overview
AOL, originally known as America Online, is discontinuing its dial-up internet >service after 30 years. This decision marks the end of an era for many users who
experienced the early days of the internet through AOL's distinctive dial-up >connections.
Key Details
Shutdown Date: The dial-up service will officially cease operations on
September 30, 2025.
Historical Significance: AOL was a pioneer in providing internet access to
millions of Americans, especially during the 1990s and early 2000s. At its
peak, it had over 30 million subscribers.
Decline of Dial-Up: The rise of broadband and wireless internet has led to a
significant decline in dial-up users. As of 2023, only about 163,401
households in the U.S. relied solely on dial-up, representing just over 0.13%
of all internet subscriptions.
Company Evolution
Founding: AOL was founded in 1985 as Quantum Computer Services and rebranded
in 1991. It became known for its iconic "You've got mail" notification.
Ownership Changes: AOL has undergone several ownership changes, including a
merger with Time Warner in 2000 and later acquisitions by Verizon and Apollo
Global Management.
Service Changes: In addition to shutting down dial-up, AOL has previously
discontinued its Instant Messenger service in 2017 and continues to offer
email and other online services.
This shutdown reflects the broader trend of moving away from older internet >technologies as faster and more reliable options become the norm.
Yahoo Wikipedia
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup >Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of
operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro
<ldo@nz.invalid> wrote
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup >>Internet service at the end of September ending 34 years of operation.
Does this mean the Eternal September will finally come to an end?
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September
There are other dial-up providers beside AOL. That kind of connection
is only good for email however and maybe Usenet. Impossible to surf
the modern web. I remember when webpages strove to keep an individual
page size below 30KB. Long ago.
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> writes:
On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:11:54 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
US-based ISP America On-Line (AOL) will finally turn off its dialup
Internet service at the end of September
There are other dial-up providers beside AOL. That kind of connection
is only good for email however and maybe Usenet. Impossible to surf
the modern web.
There's a work-around that can help a little for site you visit often, assuming that useful info will render w/o js, assuming you have a
resident web server on localhost and can write some perl code.
Put a link on your home page on localhost to a cgi-bin script. (You
*do* keep a home page on localhost, don't you? ;-) Cause that link to
send the real URL as data.
Create a cgi-bin perl script that reads the request from your bowser,
then uses wget or similar to fetch the target page.
The script reads in whatever is sent into a perl variable, then use
regexps to elide all IMG and SCRIPT tags/blocks, elides STYLE and SVG
blocks, elides and LINK tags the fetch or prefetch other data.
Re-writing and anchor tags that point back to the remote host so that
they point to the script instead (handing the script the real URL as
data) is also good but a little more trouble.
Script then sends the result of the editing process back to your
browser.
I've only been off dial-up for five years. This hack sped up several
sites. I still use some of the scripts to get rid of unwanted STYLE
and js.
Useless, of course, for all-js social media sites but I don't do those anyway.
I remember when webpages strove to keep an individual page size
below 30KB. Long ago.
Now some email has more than 30KB in headers, not to mention
unwarranted HTML with huge STYLE blocks.
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
| Location: | Appleton, WI |
| Users: | 1,104 |
| Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
| Uptime: | 492382:06:47 |
| Calls: | 14,149 |
| Files: | 186,281 |
| D/L today: |
434 files (163M bytes) |
| Messages: | 2,503,173 |