[Coco] Is it hopeless...

[pfitchjr at bellsouth.net]

I have a very clear memory of using my first 300-Baud modem and chatting with someone. You could actually see the other person typing. Think WARGAMES. It was that slow.  1200-BAUD modems existed, but cost "house payment" type of money to get one.  And the information services charged you  based partly on the modem speed.  My first phone bill after using that modem for a couple of weeks had me NOT USING IT for the next two months.

Stan Blazejewski wrote:
> I shudder to think how long some of these messages would have taken to 
> download at 300 baud :-)

>>Is 300 baud the same as 300 bps (bits per second)? In essence 30 bytes second?  (8 bit data bytes 2 control bits)

>>Was 300 baud the de-facto speed back when TTY meant some mechanical typing machine? Is that why it's so slow? Surely even the very first phone lines could carry a signal much faster that 300 bps?

-James