12 Network Problems Kids Today Will Never Understand

A long, long time ago, 56K modems were king.

1. Let's just get this one out of the way, shall we? Hearing this any time you wanted to get online:

youtube.com

2. And not being able to silence it when everyone was sleeping and you just wanted one last AIM nightcap.

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"Is that such a crime, computer? Why must you betray me?!"

3. Having to sign off because someone else needed to use the phone...

Courtesy of Josh Fjelstad / Thinkstock / Shutterstock

4. ...assuming you weren't just kicked off in the first place.

BuzzFeed

*Computer not to scale (or model).

5. This. Just this:

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If you don't understand, you're lucky.

Which meant...

6. ...you had to wait for songs to download.

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Could take 12 minutes, could take 92.

7. And photos.

Thinkstock

8. And sometimes it was just easier to write one of these...

Via mymiddleschoolletters.tumblr.com

...than it was to log on, sign in, and write up one of these:

Thinkstock

9. This could make or break you:

frankieleon / (CC BY 2.0) / Via flic.kr

10. If you wanted to take a photo, you needed one of these, and you had better pray it was feeling compatible with your computer:

Shutterstock

11. When you told your crush you'd get online after school but you couldn't connect, and then after you finally, FINALLY logged on, you heard this:

youtube.com

12. And fearing this:

youtu.be / Via uncyclopedia.wikia.com gifbin.com

Still living in the past?

We change our phones every two to three years, but the average home has a Wi-Fi router that's three to four years old. Upgrade at Best Buy.