RETRO TECH This was the sound of the internet, it’s hard to forget

Digital handling via žica

Every time you initiate a connection, your modem starts a process known as a “handshake”. Riverč “modem” is short for modulator-demodulator, a device whose job it was to convert digital data from your computer (a string of zeros and ones) into an analog audio signal that could travel over a standard copper telephone line. The sound we were listening to was literally a conversation between two machines, your modem and your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) modem.

The entire communication lasted between 30 and 60 seconds, and each part of it had a specific purpose. First, the free line tone would be heard, after which your modem would “dial” the ISP phone number using recognizable DTMF tones. When the modem on the other side answered, it would answer with a high, continuous tone, signaling: “I’m waiting for you, I’m ready to negotiate”.

Anatomy of a cyber-call

After establishing contact, the most exciting part would follow – negotiation. Modems would exchange a series of shrill sounds to test the quality of the phone line and agree on the maximum possible transmission speed, whether the word o 28.8k, 33.6k or then a dizzying 56k. One of the key steps was sending a special tone that turned off the echo suppression systems on the telephone network. Those systems, designed to facilitate human conversation, hindered the simultaneous transmission of data in both directions.

At the very end, just before silence would reign, a sound similar to a standing noise would be heard. That was the moment when the negotiations ended and the actual data transfer began. The speaker on the modem would then go off, and you were finally on the Internet.

More than noise

Although the sound could be turned off with a simple command, most people left it on for practical reasons. It served as a diagnostic tool. You could tell by the sound if the line was busy, if the number was wrong, or if the connection was broken for some reason. But over time, that sound became a cultural phenomenon. It represented a ritual of patience and reward. In an era when the Internet was a destination to which we were “going”, and not a state in which we constantly find ourselves, this digital symphony was the sound of the door opening to the global network, with the inevitable risk of someone in the next room picking up the phone and disconnecting.