HELLO & WELCOME

[John Donovan]

I remember being in a rural area and using mobile phone to tether a 3G connection from a cousin's phone so I can access the Internet. Now, it's crucial that I mention that this was back in about 2006, when the Internet was sort of a new thing in Romania, and we were slowly catching on with the trends. The speeds were truly abysmal. I believe I was lucky if I could load a Google search result page in less than one minute. Nowadays, with the 4G speeds, I have no problem tethering Internet through my phone.

What was the slowest Internet connection you ever had to deal with?

[BestGear]

Well... the world of IT moves fast... !

I started on the internet before the web...and it was dialup with 1200, then 2400 or if you were lucky and rich, 9600 modems...

Things were simple then.... but now its not cash, its distance from exchange or cabinet that matters....

Its amazing how some houses (certainly around here) are less desirable as their connectivity prospects are poor!

I think we forget too that as connectivity speeds have increased, so has the quality and quantity of content, and the code that its all hung off - which adds considerable bulk to the data payload to load a page.

I sound like an old moaning git here....

[ericnail]

I would have to say 56k. However the internet was not as we know it today back then.

With the modern internet I would say satellite internet, where at it's fastest was a whopping 720kbps and slowest at around 200kbps. Watching Netflix or Hulu required a good 10 minute wait for the content to load ahead and if the movie was long then you'd have to stop again about half way through. Not to mention the ping was absolutely ridiculous!

Thankful slow internet is a thing of the past! My phone now downloads a good 3x-4x the speed of my cable internet at home. Got to love LTE. Can't imagine the speeds coming with LTE-A in the future!

[pwarbi]

Thankfully the days of dial-up internet is a thing of the past, well, for most people anyway although I believe some people still use it, but God knows how they can cope in this day and age. I'm sure websites won't be optimised for that kind of internet speed anymore, so trying to do anything on a dial-up connection now would be almost impossible I'd imagine.

[John Donovan]

I would have to say 56k. However the internet was not as we know it today back then.

With the modern internet I would say satellite internet, where at it's fastest was a whopping 720kbps and slowest at around 200kbps. Watching Netflix or Hulu required a good 10 minute wait for the content to load ahead and if the movie was long then you'd have to stop again about half way through. Not to mention the ping was absolutely ridiculous!

Thankful slow internet is a thing of the past! My phone now downloads a good 3x-4x the speed of my cable internet at home. Got to love LTE. Can't imagine the speeds coming with LTE-A in the future!

Hmm, I've never had the "pleasure" of dealing with 56k Internet, but I guess it must've been a true blast. I've heard all about it though, the sound it made when you connected, the fact that it couldn't run at the same time as the phone. Fantastic how far we've come.

[pwarbi]

I'd forgotten that you couldn't use the internet and the phone at the same time! That was an issue, especially when you have an house full. We used to have to have set times when people could use the internet, and it used to cause world war 3 sometimes, thank god them days are over!

[nytegeek]

I was once connected to a shell account with my ISP via dial-up at 300 bps. Not 2400, 14.4K, 28.8K, 33.6K, or 56K. It was 300 bps. That was the slowest internet connection I I had ever used and is probably the slowest anyone has ever used. This why I laugh when people refer to 3G as slow.

[pwarbi]

I have to admit that I'm one of them people that moan when I can only get a 3G signal. Obviously compared to the bad old days 3G is lightening quick, but the main issue I moan about is the fact I'm paying for a 4G contract so I expect to get a 4G service.

[nytegeek]

I have to admit that I'm one of them people that moan when I can only get a 3G signal. Obviously compared to the bad old days 3G is lightening quick, but the main issue I moan about is the fact I'm paying for a 4G contract so I expect to get a 4G service.

Sounds like a good reason to complain at any speed. It is never good to be getting less than what you are paying for. I would be frustrated as well.

[pwarbi]

Well that is true I guess, and most if not all of the mobile network operators here in the UK offer a 4G service now, although they do also state that the 4G service still isn't available in all areas.

I guess this would be how they get around the complaints, and its their disclaimer. Basically saying we'll gladly take your money for a 4G service, but if it doesn't always work then it's not our fault...

[bluegreen]

God... This vacations I went to a Hotel that provided the WORST Wi-fi internet posible. I doubt that there is worse internet that that one... You have to believe me when I tell that for loading google I took around 1 minute and a few seconds. And this was when there were few people conected to the wi-fi, I asked in the reception when was the best time to access the internet and they told me it was in the morning and 1minute and few seconds for google was the best they had to me :D

At night it was imposible to access the internet, pages wouldn't even load :D my salvation was the public library they had in the city because I needed to do some stuff in the internet. But I left a complaint in the complaints book. It was imposible that internet.

[adssolsn]

Hi @bluegreen, you just reminded me of a modem I bought from one of our local telecommunication companies that claimed to offer 3G internet speeds. I fixed the modem to my laptop and for sure it was faster however, my internet bundles were swept away even faster. I took it back and settled for a wi-fi instead.

[nytegeek]

@adssolsn 3G woes still don't compare to the low end of dial up. I'm starting to realize that people outside of the US may not have had significant experience with lower dial up speeds though and this is probably why I don't see it referenced very often internationally.

[Sunflogun]

Lately I haven't got any issues with speeds, but I recall a couple of years ago when I was struggling with bps speeds and how annoying was that...!

[lokiebunny]

I have experienced of using 32 Kbps speed of internet on my mobile phone that was the worst speeds ever I had. I still remember that how difficult was to open google search engine at time, but as we all know that how technologies have changed the way to use them in today's using internet with high end speed through mobile or computer that's not a big deal now. We had dial up connection now we have broadband and WiFi or 4G technologies.