What Dial-Up Modems’ Screeching Handshake Tones Did

For anyone who remembers waiting through a modem’s shrill sequence of beeps before getting online, the sounds were more than noise: they helped the two devices establish a connection. A video from the YouTube channel Mixed Signals explains what the tones did and why they mattered.

Corp and Tech·November 5, 2026·reads: 378

What Dial-Up Modems’ Screeching Handshake Tones Did

The explainer breaks down the sounds exchanged during a dial-up modem’s handshake, the process that connected a user to the internet. The sequence was familiar to anyone who went online in the dial-up era, even if its individual tones were not easy to make out.

Those sounds helped the modems communicate as they set up the connection that made services such as MSN Messenger accessible.