From: huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com   
      
   Theo  wrote in   
   news:ptp*p1SjA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk:   
      
   > Scott Dorsey  wrote:   
   >> AOL wasn't really an ISP, they were a proprietary messaging service   
   which   
   >> at some point got an Internet gateway.  The vast majority of AOL   
   services   
   >> were not reachable from the internet and could not reach the internet.   
   >>   
   >> AOL did own for a while an actual ISP, and I can't remember what it was   
   >> called, but it did offer normal PPP service.   
   >>   
   >> But the normal AOL service was no more the internet than was Compuserve   
   >> or Prodigy.   
   >   
   > Someone with more US knowledge please correct me, but I think AOL dialup   
   was   
   > a service that ran over the top of your phone service, which you got from   
   > your local phone company.  That meant you could dial in from anywhere   
   with a   
   > phone connection.   
   >   
   > To move into broadband they couldn't have had a national service like   
   they   
   > did with dialup, they needed the phone company to install DSL modems or   
   > fiber in your particular area.  That means it was (and remains) a very   
   > piecemeal picture based on who offers service in your area.  AOL wouldn't   
   > be bringing anything to the table for that beyond a brand name and access   
   to   
   > a small amount of non-internet content, and it wasn't worth doing that   
   > piecemeal.   
   >   
   > By contrast, in the UK the incumbent phone company offered national   
   > wholesale access to DSL and AOL did become a DSL ISP using that for a   
   while.   
   >   
   > Theo   
      
   The phone call just connected our modems to the modems at the ISP.  At   
   least for those of us using the Internet.  You could call the ISP from   
   whereever you traveled.   
      
   A few hospitals had dedicated data lines to their computer centers, usually   
   in pairs before that.  I worked at such a data center near the end of its   
   "telecom connections only era" back in high school.   
      
   Speeds have improved, various delivery services used, but not much   
   improvement IMHO on the product.  The real improvement IMHO is that   
   everyone around the world became connected and exposed to ideas of people   
   they did not know.   
      
   I remember seeing you along the way too.   
      
   David   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)