The sound of the dialup, pictured

If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember that it made a peculiar sound. But despite becoming so familiar, it remained a mystery for most of us. What do these sounds mean?

(The audio was recorded by William Termini on his iMac G3.)

As many already know, what you're hearing is often called a handshake, the start of a telephone conversation between two modems. The modems are trying to find a common language and determine the weaknesses of the telephone channel originally meant for human speech.

Below is a spectrogram of the handshake audio. I've labeled some signals according to which party transmitted them, and also put a concise explanation below.

[Image: A large infographic detailing the phases of the dialup handshake, centered on a time-frequency-power representation (spectrogram).]

(You can order this poster as a high-res print via Redbubble!)

Hello, is this a modem?

The first thing we hear in this example is a dial tone, the same tone you would hear when picking up your landline phone. The modem now knows it's connected to a phone line and can dial a number. The number is signaled to the network using Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency signaling, or DTMF, the same sounds a telephone makes when dialing a number.

The remote modem answers with a distinct tone that our calling modem can recognize. They then exchange short bursts of binary data to assess what kind of protocol is appropriate. This is called a V.8 bis transaction.[2]

Suppressing echoes

Now the modems must address the problem of echo suppression. When humans talk, only one of them is usually talking while the other one listens. The telephone network exploits this fact and temporarily silences the return channel to suppress any confusing echoes of the talker's own voice.

Modems don't like this at all, as they can very well talk at the same time (it's called full-duplex). The answering modem now puts on a special answer tone that will disable any echo suppression circuits on the line. The tone also has periodic "snaps" (180° phase transitions) that aim to disable yet another type of circuit called echo canceller.[1]

Finding a suitable modulation

Now the modems will list their supported modulation modes and try to find one that both know.[1] They also probe the line with test tones to see how it responds to tones of different frequencies, and how much it attenuates the signal. They exchange their test results and decide a speed that is suitable for the line.[4]

Enough small talk!

After this, the modems will go to scrambled data. They add pseudorandom numbers to the data[3] before transmission to make its power distribution more even and to make sure there are no patterns that are suboptimal for transfer[5]. They listen to each other sending a series of binary 1's and adjust their equalizers to optimally shape the incoming signal.

Soon after this, the modem speaker will go silent and data can be put through the connection.

But why?

Why was it audible? Why not, one could ask. But my speculation is as follows. Back in the days, telephone lines were used for audio. The first modems even used the telephone receiver like humans do, by talking into the mouthpiece, until newer modems were developed that could directly connect into the phone line. Even then, the idea of not hearing what's happening on a phone line you're calling on was quite new, and modems would default to exposing the user to the handshake audio. And in case you accidentally called a human, you would still have time to pick up the telephone and explain the situation.

All you had to do to silence the handshake was to send the command ATM0 down the serial line before dialing.[6]

Poster

Update 02/2013: Due to numerous requests, I made this into a 42-megapixel poster that Redbubble is selling. A few dollars per poster is directed to the nerd who made this.

References

  1. RFC 4734: Definition of Events for Modem, Fax, and Text Telephony Signals (2006), section 2.3: V.8 events.
  2. ITU-T Recommendation V.8 bis (1996).
  3. ITU-T Recommendation V.33 (1988). Annex A: Scrambling.
  4. ITU-T Recommendation V.34 (1996). Chapter 10: Start-up signals and sequences.
  5. Advantages of Scrambling (2012). RF Wireless World.
  6. Turner, Glen (2003): Remote Serial Console HOWTO.

106 comments:

  1. Thank you for illuminating one of the mysteries of my past. Very interesting stuff.

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome! Thanks for reading!

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    2. Thank you for this amazing amount of effort to explain that handshake sequence! I can't say it's been keeping me up at night, but the detailed diagram showing each part of the handshake sequence is beautiful!

      Delete
    3. It's so odd... I used to hate this sound when I got my first PC. I used to try and find ways to either turn it down or turn it off altogether... of course, you couldn't. Not really. But as time went on, I got used to it. Kind of like when you sign on to your computer and the OS greets you with a noise or a song. It was like the Pavlov's Dogs, and I got used to listening for those sounds. You could actually tell if your connection was going to be good or bad (ie, none at all) by the way the sound was modulating.
      That sound, to me, is like the sound of an old school typewriter. It's primitive, it's annoying, but I do so miss that kind of feed-back in the here and now! Classic stuff.

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    4. Its quite fun, because the mother of our now (and one not longer a teenager) could hear from the handshake tones who was dialing in. It was a serious distinct handshake. And since I used a USR Courier v.everything and most dialers used Supra and other modems, it was quite easy to hear who connected. The (in the last days of dial up) USR Sportster 14400 could easily be upgraded to 28800bps. But it took the black Sportster to cope to "56k". (v.fast and k56flex).

      Also the USR Courier V.everything had a set of unpublished commands to measure the line quality. Found them when doing a backup. ATYnn is undocumented. Spectral analysis of line quality.

      Delete
    5. Jason George,
      I understand what you mean. Personally, I never found it grating from the start, rather mysterious and transcendent. Like the language of the gods. But I do certainly know the feeling of anticipation in hearing it.

      A little sad that will never know that sound (or a typewriter or even a desktop keyboard) anymore. Makes me a good bit wistful.

      Delete
    6. I was waiting for the busy signal!

      Delete
  2. You make modems sound so polite. Please this, please that. ;)

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  3. I'm going to have to start hard coding please and thank you into my software from now on...

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  4. A walk down tech memory lane... this time with a guide :)

    Thanks for this smile.

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  5. So, would you like to sell a poster of that? Because I'd like to buy it.

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  6. So interesting! Thanks for the insight into this forgotten part of the Internet!

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  7. Beautiful. Absolutely, fantastically, nostalgically beautiful!

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  8. Thanks for this article, I really enjoyed it and the accompanying image!

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  9. What program did you use to generate the spectrogram?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Baudline by SigBlips. Also Gimp and other image postprocessing.

      Delete
    2. I thought I recognized that particular shade of baudline-green. (:

      What an awesome signal analysis job you have done. You broke it down, demodulated parts, decoded bits, and understood a crazy handshake protocol. It must of been a lot of work. I am beyond impressed. Wow!

      Delete
    3. Thank you! It was a fascinating journey indeed.

      Delete
  10. Thanks for making this. I really enjoyed being able to match the "names to faces," so to speak. I made a simple jsbin version of the spectrograph with a "playhead" overlaid so you can see what is being played when, and click around as well. http://jsbin.com/amunug/17

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    Replies
    1. Very cool mashup, just what I was hoping for! Thanks for sharing!

      Delete
  11. Modem A: hey babe, you dtmf?
    Modem B: u know it
    Modem A: what u up 4 2nite? wanna v.8?
    Modem B: i wanna ack u like my daddy net2phone use 2 ack me
    Modem A: um ok... v.8 then
    Modem B: lol jk, u comin?
    Modem A: brt just gotta turn off echo suppressors n cancellers
    Modem B: ok i wait
    Modem B: my pcm is so modulated
    Modem A: lol rly? u think u can handle V.90/V.92?
    Modem B: D/A?
    Modem A: ...D?
    Modem B: wtf no, im not into that
    Modem A: lol jk we can do V.42 LAPM if u want im down 4 nething
    Modem A: up to 3429 o/c
    Modem A: u know i give as good as i get, ne way u want it, loud or soft, high or low, fast or slow, i got all the time in the world 4 u babe, my clock source is internal
    Modem B: of course no 3429. and same 4 me. except i might lose track of time, lol
    Modem B: and honey if u with me we gon be makin sum NOISE
    Modem B: 6db at LEAST u know how i like it
    Modem A: lol i hear ya, 3200 all nite long, the way u get me goin maybe we even go 2 4800 lol
    Modem A: set ur pre-emphasis filter params n put on that 1920 hz carrier frequency i got u
    Modem A: im here baby
    [SCRAMBLED]
    -ultimat142
    http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/17jwoi/dialup_handshake_explained/c86evsf

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  12. Very cool! I'm wondering, did you just look up the conversation data or did you use something to sniff the data off of the modem line?

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    1. I wrote a few Perl scripts to demodulate the FSK and DPSK, then manually decoded the bits based on the relevant ITU-T standards.

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    2. Great work! Can I trade my brain for yours? ( It's only very slightly used )

      Delete
  13. Very nice work! Takes me back to the 90s when I first started using dialup :-)

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    1. Takes me back to the mid-80s when I could distinguish connect speed by ear (at least 1200, 2400, and 9600). Ahh, the days of listening to Telemate auto-redial the busy BBS number. ;-)

      Thank goodness we no longer need to worry about line noi230t9uc!%!f3333

      NO CARRIER

      Delete
  14. Awesome. I remember working phone support in the 90's for dialup internet users. I would sometimes have people hold their phone up to the modem so I could listen to the handshake, but I never knew exactly what the various parts were for. Thanks!

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  15. Hi,
    great! Thanks for sharing this. What about doing something similar for DSL line handshaking:

    "The ITU-T has recently standardized a handshake and activation method for xDSL modems. This method is
    contained in the ITU-T Recommendation G.944.1 (formerly known as G.hs). Several of the features of
    G.994.1 came from the voiceband handshake Recommendations V.8 and V.8bis,"

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  16. Thank you Oona from a mother of an Ouma - that was fun to read

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  17. This sounds like US signaling. We had totally different in Europe and former USSR.

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  18. Thanks for making me feel old...

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  19. Thanks for such a nostalgic read! I think I just played the sound clip about 20 times. I would love to print a large format poster of the spectrogram with all your notes and put it up in my office. Would you mind sending me a high-res version that would print really clear? A vector version if you have it is best?

    Thanks in advance!
    Tony

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  20. Dear Oona Räisänen
    your lastname must sound a bit like the krrrBliipkrraaa sounds of my good old modem of mine carefully chucked in a box in the cellar.

    But what an interesting and great article !

    thank you !
    Edualc

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  21. Thank you, Oona. This brought back fond memories.

    My first modem use was in 1979 with 300 Bps and then in 1981 with 1200 Bps. In the late 1980s I used a 2400 Bps modem for the first time and loved it. The move to actual Kbps speeds and then digital modems, and then routers were all just normal parts of an evolving network. But I realized I missed the modems' sounds and control/handshake sequences, which allowed an engineer to more closely follow and understand the data transmission process.

    We've coma a long way, and we should capture this kind of thing to remind us of the journey.

    Again, immense thanks.

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  22. I remember when I got my first 2400 baud modem @ an amiga show in NY, it was between that or a digiview video digitizer. Best purchase I ever made. I also remember when my friend bought a 14.4 baud modem, those days it was crazy fast! ah the memories BBSing late into the night, of board games and war games dialers.. those were the days..

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, 33.6 was a superhighway compared to 2.4. I couldn't have imagined text flowing so fast.

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    2. I started with 300 baud in 1982. A couple years later my rich friend could afford the new 2400 baud modems. He said they went so fast it made him dizzy.
      Now, I have to laugh at the idea of 2400 baud speed causing illness. The illness it *really* caused was being charged $6/hour.
      I wonder what things will look like in 40 more years.

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  23. Terrific! The infographic is great - those conversation 'balloons' really help to understand what's happening. Thank you!

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  24. I have created a moving-pictures version of the above here:
    http://youtu.be/qEPIoyYB8hc
    Thanks for the inspiration.

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  25. Found this from a post on imgur. I actually use this same sound clip as my morning alarm haha. I alaways wanted to know what it all meant. Thanks formaking this. :)

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  26. Just read about this on HAD, really interesting stuff. I actually have this as my ringtone. Leads to a few strange looks but also gets some smiles from the people old enough to remember dialup internet. :) . I really wish there were a lot more girl geeks out there. Thank-you for a really enjoyable read. :) Jon W

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for reading! I also had it as a ringtone for some time, gave me some true old-skool street cred.

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  27. This is a really good read for me. I just found your website a few days ago and I have been reading through it regularly. Thanks a lot for enjoying this beauty blog with me

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  28. Thank you for a great post! I remember the moment that my boyfriend and I learned that acoustically coupled 300 baud modems can't parse the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It did try! Screen after screen of garbage!

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  29. I think there's a few issues with the labelling (as far as which is sent by the calling modem and which by the answering modem). In the V.8bis transaction CL is sent from the answering modem, NOT the calling modem (so the MS and ACK(1) packets are sent by the other modem as well). Also, it seems as if the phase 2 labelling was referenced from the V.34 standard (which V.90/92 is based on). However, in V.90, these "roles" are often reversed (based on which modem is analog and which is digital) - this can be verified as to which wide-spectrum probing signal is "sharper" (because it's the one being sent by the calling modem).

    Don't get me wrong, I love this post - it's inspired me to learn all the different V-series standards and try to build my own dialup modem!

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    Replies
    1. Cool, thanks for actually taking the time and reviewing this! :) I've been wondering why no-one has pointed out any mistakes. Maybe I should make a bugfix version in the future.

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    2. No problem :)

      (also, I noticed that the very last chunk of noise is actually an Sd to Sd-bar to TRN1d since the digital modem doesn't use QAM, but that's probably a minor point anyway, considering it's all visually uninteresting noise :P)

      Delete
  30. Hi Oona,
    You are awsome !
    Thanks a lot for enlighting us!
    Kind Regards from Barcelona, Spain.

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  31. I have to say that this has got to be the most detailed discretion of modem handshaking that I've ever seen. Thank you for making this pic, so cool!!

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  32. You have an awesome blog! This post really gave me the fuzzies - I remembered the days of dialing into BBS's with my brand new 14k bps modem. Never realized that what sounded to me like random beeps and fizzes was actually my modem having a civilized conversation! Thanks!

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  33. I still hear this sound in my dreams. I remember I could tell the connection speed after hearing the handshake. Travelled all over the world from home, (BBB=Bergen-by-Byte, anyone?), and it ended up as my iPhone ringtone at some point. Thank you for the remembrance!

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  34. I remember calling my friend's house to play some Doom. His mother would always pick up the phone and I'd listen to them argue over the sound of a lonely handshake attempt. Thanks for the memories and great info.

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  35. Wow! In 30 years of using computers, I've never seen an article on modems as beautifully written as this! Many thanks for educating us.

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  36. Thanks Oona Räisänen! Beautifull & inspiring work

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  37. Oonaa: Can you believe that in Cuba, we still use Modem to acces Internet (at best), Intranet, and local e-mail servers !! This sound you described and explained brilliantly it is still (2015) a sound that millions of people in Cuba long to hear @ home. Cuba have one of the lowers internet penetration index (http://www.internetworldstats.com/carib.htm#cu). The mean download velocity is 1,28 Mbps. Unfortunately, this sound is not part of our latest technological history :(

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  38. OK, I just had a flashback. Wasn't there a version of the handshake that did a 'bong' twice? Was that a USRobotics version?

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    Replies
    1. That 2x 'bong' is the DIL signal of V.90, which is a more-or-less modem-specific signal. But yes, I believe it's the USRobotics version.

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  39. These are amazing memories from very good old times. Very interesting article about the handshake modem sound. Thanks for sharing!!! ^_^

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  40. This is a long time coming: thank you for the scientific and artistic work you put into this. I bought a copy of the poster about a year ago and just recently completed the project I imagined when I first saw this post.

    I cut a larger poster frame to size and mounted the poster. Then, using a greeting card sound module (happy mistake choosing that! More on this in a moment) recorded the sound directly from the link in the article above. When I first listened to the sound clip, something sounded off. After recording it on the sound module and listening to it via the cheap speaker, I realized that the sound quality from my computer speakers gave that familiar old sound an unnatural quality. The sound module more or less recreated the quality of sound that came from the modem speaker.

    Sound module source: http://bigdawgspromo.com/push-button-prerecorded.html

    Here's a link to a video of my final result. My phone kept focusing on the reflection of my kids' artwork on the next wall! https://goo.gl/photos/gbxAb9gsmCbGkTzf9

    With either a bigger budget or greater artistic talent, I'm sure a more impressive result could be found but this is what I ended up with and I'm happy to have it on my wall. Thank you, Oona, for your contribution and sparking the thought of doing this!

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  41. From reddit, Fantastic analysis of this! I've heard of people hating this sound, but it's always been beautiful to me. I grew up with simple 300 baud initially, just simple FSK. To hear things progress, and as better/more efficient modulations came out as time went on, this was literally music to my ears.

    I always had my modem audio on for the handshake. The better modems even had a volume slider. For the WHY portion, you're probably not going far enough in what you said. Since many times, when calling BBSs and services (like Compuserve, Delphi, or Prodigy), you were often calling blindly. You got the number somewhere, but mistakes were common, BBS numbers were mixed with fax numbers, and voice numbers. I used to hear voices or fax tones (which are easily distinguishable from straight-modems) and you'd know something went wrong. Otherwise, you're just waiting about 30-45 seconds for a "Connect 1200" or other similar message to appear. It's boring, so why not listen to the handshake in case something cropped up.

    Also, you learned to "troubleshoot" the modem connection. Sometimes, due to poor quality phone lines, you could hear it "refuse" the faster connection rates, and the extra long training phase you knew it was going to be slow. That's useful information!

    Great job, again.

    From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
    keith at techtravels.org

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  42. Found your vid on youtube while trying to teach a youngster about what DUN is. Came across this website in the comments and very happy! Definite bookmarking and sharing material!

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  43. My super-eggheady friend once knew someone who could complete a handshake via whistling.

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    Replies
    1. Back in 1978 I worked with an old timer named Tex Thomas at a startup. We were evaluating all high end modems in existence for use on telephone lines to make video conferencing a reality (no, back then you couldn’t just install Zoom on your smartphone) 🤣. Tex could whistle into the modem to make a connection. Prior to the startup, he worked at Rockwell, where they pioneered the dial-up modem, so he knew exactly what each DTMF tone did what.

      Delete
  44. Great stuff!
    Question, V.32-modems or for instance V.34-modems were using carrier frequencies like 1800 Hz or so for sending the data. Why is it we're not seeing and hearing this carrier frequency when the modems are sending and receiving data after closure of the handshake-procedure, but just a lot of noise in every frequency band between 0 - 4 kHz?

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    Replies
    1. In a way, you are hearing just the carrier, but its amplitude and phase are varying so much so fast that it creates other frequencies around the carrier. This is due to mathematical properties of sines. The appearance of noise is just our inability to track the modulation at such a high speed.

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  45. Thank you so much for share the picture and your explanation about the language of the modems I used once before. I always wanted to know about it. Thank you.

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  46. Why do they include quality information about 3429, if neither supports it? Or am I misunderstanding anything?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, if I remember correctly the list of symbol rates is always the same length, independent of what the parties claim to support, for the sake of simplicity in the protocol. No additional logic is needed to determine how many bits should be read from that field.

      Delete
  47. What is the allowable delay time from connection to the initial V.8 bis transaction? I see it is almost instantaneous in your example. What if the delay is 11 seconds or more before the answering modem starts the V.8? Can this be configured?

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  48. This is fascinating, thank you for sharing!

    How does this compare with DSL signalling, do those modems have a similar handshake?

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  49. I recall later modems producing a "boing boing" sound but it's not present in this recording. Do you know what that was? One Reddit post says it was part of the probing signal.

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    Replies
    1. If I understand what you're referring to, it's called Digital Impairment Learning, and is used by digital v.9x modems to check for things like robbed-bit signalling that could corrupt PCM samples (see https://goughlui.com/2016/05/03/project-the-definitive-collection-of-v-90v-92-modem-sounds/).

      Delete
    2. Yeah, it's a DIL, and actually I wanted to mention something about this. The audio is definitely a V.90 connection because of V.8bis handshake and the audio from the answering modem in the end, which I believe is a scrambled data in PCM. I mean, it's completely different from a TCM noise so it's definitely not a V.34 handshake.

      Regarding that, I would mention that the first wave sent by a client modem in Phase 3 is not just a scrambled data, but some other useful signals and most importantly - the DIL descriptor, called Ja in a V.90 protocol. The digital modem receives it, sends some other data (including some scrambled), and then, as soon as it receives a signal from client modem, it starts to play DIL sequence. Yeah, the trick is - this "bong bong" sound is not played by YOUR modem, but instead it's played by your ISP modem which is interesting. Also different modems have different DIL sequences which means different sounds.

      Delete
  50. Am I the only one who looked up the code to make the modem dial faster? (Was it S11?) Anyway, thanks for the memory trip!

    AL

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  51. Many thanks for this post, I always wondered what the tones meant!

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  52. I suggest setting the explanation as lyrics to a song. The ballad of the lonely modem. 28k unrequited.

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  53. Ah, sweet memories of teenage years spent in a university library studying the V-series recommendations volume of the CCITT Blue Book (before they were renamed into ITU-T).

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  54. I've actually followed your blog since this post, time flies!

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  55. "All you had to do to silence the handshake was to send the command ATM0 down the serial line before dialing."

    i learned this 25 years too late...

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  56. Couldn’t remember what brought me here. But it certainly brings back a lot of good memories. Thank you very very much

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  57. Three hours down the rabbit hole of reading about what 10-year-old-me considered magic. Life Is fantastic

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  58. It was really cool to have someone explain this. I always wondered what the sounds really meant. OP thank you for taking the time to explain it the way you did and to make graphics to go with it. Really awesome.

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  59. Thank you for a great diagram. I reexamined it with the sound played many times.

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  60. It would be really awesome if I could click on the waveform image and just hear what that portion sounds like.

    But it's still awesome! Thanks a bunch!

    300 baud? FAX handshake maybe in the future?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Some kind of interactivity has been often requested and I've been thinking of how to realize that, maybe in the form of a video :)

      Delete
  61. Ah, takes me back to Compuserve—those were the days! I had my first email account in 1993 ;-)

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  62. An interesting article about telephone modems. I was surprised that there was no obvious definition of the word ‘modem’ in the article. Modem is derived from combining the first parts of the words ‘modulator’ and ‘demodulator’. Maybe I missed this, but it should have been somewhere very early in the article!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try and include it for sure!

      Delete
  63. Used a lot of dial up, back in the 1970's. Sometimes I got an operator who didn't have any idea what was going on.

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  64. You may wish to peek a bit further back in time...Radio Teletypewriters (RATT) also used a MODEM to establish comm links back in the days when they were used as the primary long-haul communication systems for the military. The first time I heard the MODEM link-up for PC, I recognized it (even after being 10 years removed from that environment). The handshake was slower, but still unmistakable. Modern Text-speak also originated there through a system of pro-works and Z signals (U.S .Army) and Q signals (U.S. Air Force).

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  65. One reason the handshake (and, indeed, the data exchange as well) was audible, was - it had to be.

    Starting in the late-1930s, telephone lines were deliberately bandpass-filtered in the human vocal audio range, to reduce noise and cross-talk on the lines.

    Signals outside the "band' of frequencies used by humans were deliberately suppressed. This reduced heterodyne on the lines.

    Later (around 1950), signaling information was encoded in alternate frequencies outside the range of human hearing, and the bandpass filters were removed on trunk and long-distance lines.

    In the 1980s, as modem use became mainstream, the filters were removed on all lines. By this time, of course, most long-distance and trunk circuits were digitized - rendering any such filtering unnecessary.

    (My grandfather was regional manager for the Northeastern US networks, for Western Electric. He taught me all about the phone systems by the time I was 10.)

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  66. Awesome stuff, this. On a tangent; encountered some ripoffs on redbubble; https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/The-Sound-of-the-Dialup-Explained-by-mattamstron/132728039.E40HW and https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/The-Sound-of-the-Dialup-Explained-by-travisbarke/132515261.E40HW

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, I never knew people did that. I guess I released it as CC-BY-SA at some point so it could technically be legal, too.

      Delete
  67. ...and so was established a great friendship. Modem talk is moving.

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