Retro Fun: Make Your Own Dial-up ISP with an Old Mac & Raspberry Pi
Remember the good old days of dial-up internet access? Where you’d connect your Mac (or PC) to a modem, then the phone line, and your computer would then dial into a number to connect to the outside world? Maybe you’d be dialing into AOL, CompuServe, eWorld, Netcom, or any of those now defunct ISP’s, and that’s how, once upon a time, we all got online. Those days may be gone thanks to the conveniences of broadband, wi-fi, and high speed cellular like LTE and 5G, but if you long for the glory days of dialup, you’ll find this project from Jeff Geerling to be up your alley; with a Raspberry Pi and the right tools, you can make your own dial-up ISP!
If you want to dive into such a project yourself, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi, Pi-ISP, an old Mac, and a few other tools, plus some tech savvy and patience, and away you go.
Even if you’re just impressed at the audacity of such a project, or you’re intrigued at the mere idea with no intention on going all-in with a DIY like this, this is a fun and retro project to review and watch the YouTube video (embedded below) for much more.
Speaking of dialup internet, don’t miss this wild fully functional AOL resurrection called Dialtone, it runs in your browser and lets you relive the early 1990’s AOL experience on any modern computer.
