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I'm waiting for a 64 KB file to transfer over a 300 baud modem

posted a month ago by MaximRecoil (4084)
12 replies | jump to latest

For reference, this picture of the device that I'm transferring the file to has a similar file size (60.5 KB):

https://i.imgur.com/r5VNRAT.jpeg

On a modern, say, 1 Gb/s internet connection, a 64 KB will transfer in 0.0004883 seconds. But at 300 baud I have to wait 29 minutes.

Edit: Great... after about a half hour of successfully transferring over 300 "blocks" of data, it terminated the connection with an unspecified error. Now it's trying again. I'm not optimistic about it at this point. In my experience, when something errors out once, it usually does it every time unless you specifically find the problem and fix it before trying again.

[–] TimeTunnel (4665) a month ago

I like people who use antiques. 🤎

[–] Chomsky89 (329) a month ago

When I'm nostalgic, I might watch some 90s-related stuff on YouTube

[–] mtxmind (3017) a month ago

How about some 80's stuff....on VHS tape.....or hell, Betamax......?😂

[–] WandererFromYs (1676) a month ago

Wouldn’t it be easier to transfer it to a disk?

Or hook it up to a faster modem if possible. With a 56k it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

[–] MaximRecoil (4084) a month ago

Neither of those things are possible in this case. I'm transferring the file (it's a firmware file) to a Protel 8000 payphone chassis (motherboard). It has no disk drive nor any provisions for one, nor does it have any data ports such as serial (I wish it did).

The only means of programming it is via its built-in 1200 baud modem. However, in order to use the 1200 baud speed you need a proprietary Protel 1200 baud modem connected to your PC, and I don't have one because they are rare. If using a non-Protel modem like I am, you have to do it at 300 baud. The modem I'm using is a 56K modem (US Robotics 5686; they actually still make them - https://www.usr.com/products/56k-dialup-modem/usr5686g/), but I have to force it to use the old Bell model 103 300-baud standard (by adding "&N1" to the end of the INIT string).

[–] parkerbot (5477) a month ago

Are a time traveler from the future using old tech to save the future?

If so, please go back 10 years and start from there.

[–] MaximRecoil (4084) a month ago

Like John Titor?

If I were a time traveler I'd just spend the rest of my days in the past (and much further in the past than ten years ago). I wouldn't care at all about saving the future if I didn't have to live in it.

[–] TimeTraveller (3) a month ago

Too late! 🕜 😿

[–] parkerbot (5477) a month ago

I knew John Connor and you sir, are no John Connor.

[–] RoboReCop (2730) a month ago

Nice way to keep your cover. Always deflect, deflect deflect.

[–] roger_dat (1088) a month ago

I like to watch these old things at a distance, pretty nostalgic to watch them go but, to actually use them is no fun.

There are a few channels on YouTube that venture into these realms, LGR and 8bit guy being two of the greatest.

PS: Love LGR''s "oddwear segments"

[–] MaximRecoil (4084) a month ago

I get in the mood to watch LGR's channel once or twice a year and catch up on all the videos I missed when I do. I watch 8-Bit Guy's channel from time to time too, though I like LGR's channel better. I have a 486 PC that's almost identical in specs to LGR's "woodgrain 486," though I'm not at all interested in sticking woodgrain shelf paper on it like he did.

COCOT payphones are different than most old computer technology though, because the way they function is timeless. Well, some of the really old ones (1980s when COCOTs first became legal) have crude voice synthesis that sounds very dated today, but mine, which was made in about 2000, has a natural sounding voice, which will never sound dated.

You have to use old computer technology to program it though, old even by 2000 standards (software that only runs on DOS and an external dial-up serial port hardware modem (softmodems tend not to work well, or at all). Furthermore, you need either two real POTS lines or a device that can simulate POTS lines (I use a Panasonic 616 PBX to simulate two lines), because modems can't communicate properly over VoIP lines.