Every single time a friend says “dial-up” I hear it. Not a vague recollection — the full handshake: the 300 baud warble, the carrier squeal, the negotiation chirps, then silence into data. My brain has it in FLAC quality.
The AT command set is still in there too. ATDT plus the number. NO CARRIER as an emotional state rather than a modem error. These things wired themselves in during the formative internet years and apparently they’re staying.
The sounds were the protocol made audible. The modem was narrating its own handshake out loud: I am speaking. Can you hear me? What rate? Agreed. Broadband did everything faster and quieter and worse.