I downloaded 23MB on dial-up

Before hopping on the computer, I went to see my mother with a well rehearsed speech. She was in the living room, talking on the wall phone balancing it on a shoulder while watching TV. I sat down beside her, rehearsing my speech in my head while waiting for her call to end. She noticed me fidgeting.

"What's wrong?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing. Just waiting," I said, trying not to sound too desperate.

Eventually, she hung up, and I seized my moment.

"Mom, I need to use the internet for a little while," I began cautiously.

"For how long?" she asked, already sounding skeptical.

"Two hours and thirty minutes," I replied, wincing slightly.

"Two and a half hours?" she repeated, eyes widening. "What could you possibly need that long for?"

I leaned in, hands clasped together like I was pleading a case in court. "I have to download a program for a project I'm working on. It’s really important. And after this, I promise I’ll never need the internet again."

Somehow, I believed it when I said it. I wanted to download this program so bad that I would sacrifice ever using the Internet again. My mother said yes.

I sprinted to the computer, double-clicked the little icon of two computers and a phone, and listened as the familiar dial-up sound crackled to life. I then opened Download Accelerator Pro and waited to be connected to the Internet.

I was 13 years old, and I was just discovering 3D software. I wanted to make a movie. I wanted to make a video game. I wanted to post 3d art on CGSociety.org. Strata, a 3D software company, was offering a free version of their application without any artificial limitations: Strata 3D Base. The file was a whooping 23MB. On dial up, it would take me around 2 hours to download. Downloading anything this long would mean I'd have to hold up the phone line for the whole time I was downloading it.

While doing so, you'd have to make sure nobody picked up the phone anywhere in the house, or it would interrupt your Internet connection. Some clever developers thought of this issue and developed the software Download Accelerator. Just like downloading more RAM into your computer, it is not possible to make your download accelerate any faster than the speed of your network. So Download Accelerator Pro, or DAP, wouldn't accelerate your download, but it allowed you to pause and resume a download. Meaning, I could download a file in several sessions without worrying about an interrupted connection.

DAP was my go to software for downloading anything online. I'd go to any website with my trusted 2 to 3Kb/s dial up connection and copy the URL of the file I wanted to download, then paste it in DAP. I could then download it in several sessions without hogging the phone line.

For the youngsters: with dial-up internet, you needed a phone line to connect to the internet. The line is plugged to a Modem attached to your computer. To connect, the computer would pick up the phone, dial your internet service provider's phone number, and communicate through analog signals.

My DAP interface was full of files that I had started to download at some point, but never got to complete. These were like my GitHub account, filled with stuff I thought were interesting at some point in time, but I would probably never get back to.

Unfortunately, not all servers supported the ability to resume a download. Some services, especially those behind a walled garden, forced you to redownload the entire file in one go. And Strata was one such service. Several times I would attempt to download it only to be interrupted. Whenever my mother needed to make a call, she would pick up the phone and hear the screeching dialup sound then yell my name to get off the internet. So I made sure to ask her permission before I started this session.

I clicked "start" on the EXE file I was trying to download. Once it started, I would then patrol the house, ensuring no one touched the phone. My father had this clever idea of putting a phone in every single room. Convenient when you want to make a call, but extremely annoying when you want to remain connected to the Internet. I had to yell at my siblings several times anytime I saw them getting close to a phone. I’d come back to the computer, nervously watch the progress bar crawl. Then it was back to patrol.

After close to 3 hours, I was successful. The Strata 3D install file was highlighted in green, and was marked completed. And I never used the Internet again ever since... Well, at least for that day. I spent all my waking hours on Strata 3D. I wish I had some of that art to share with you. I wasn't good enough to share it on cgsociety (now defunct) but I did on stratacafe.com (now defunct).

Downloading a 23 MB file merely takes seconds on my home internet today. It is seamless, it is a forgettable experience. All browsers support resuming an interrupted download. But perhaps we’ve lost something in the process. Those hours spent anxiously watching progress bars taught patience, determination, and the joy of small victories. Download Accelerator Pro may be a relic of the past, but for me, it’s a reminder of the lengths we went to explore the possibilities of a connected world.

DAP was a symbol of an era where the internet was something fragile, precious, and worth fighting for. Every byte downloaded was a triumph, and every completed file was a badge of honor.

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