When you have dial up you quickly realize you need a download manager that can resume downloads
Maybe I was just unaware, but download managers only came a little down the pike. For a while it was just “Big file? Good luck!”. And there was something exciting about it.
Back in the 80s I ran my own homebrew BBS for a couple years. A second phone line then was only $9 more a month, so I got one for the computer so phone use wouldn’t be an issue. My roomies and I thought we were livin’ the life.
When I was really young, I was blown away the first time i met someone with their own phone line for internet lmao.
Anyone with dial up Internet trying to pirate knew the dreaded 4 words “UNEXPECTED END OF ARCHIVE”
my brother called this “the download fucked itself.”
Anyone remember zmodem with resume? Kermit??
Damn, I’m old.
Are people not downloading huge torrents anymore?? How is downloading some large thing overnight a rare occurrence of bygone eras???
My only guess is that kids these days don’t know about pirating and instead stream everything or download apps?
If you interrupt an internet connection on any normal torrent client from the last, like, 20 years, you can always resume when you’re back online. But back in the 90’s most software didn’t fail that gracefully. And the internet connections today just aren’t as flaky as a dialup connection was.
That’s why you queue the download before bed and logout in the morning.
Like and subscribe for more obsolete life skills.
One of the first things I ever programmed was a script that would turn the computer on around 1am, mute the audio, resume the download manager, and turn the computer off at 4am. This way I could download porn and cracked games without my parents knowing.
Only thing I can think of is Wake on LAN, but you would obviously need another PC/controller to control
