Did anyone else's family have a dedicated 'computer room' with a phone line just for the modem?

Last week I was cleaning out my parents' basement and found the old desk we used for the family computer back in 1995. Remember how we had to have a whole separate phone line installed so nobody would pick up the phone and kick us off Prodigy? My dad spent like $40 a month for that extra line. And the room was always freezing because the computer generated so much heat. My mom put a little fan on the desk pointed at the monitor. Anyone else have a setup like that or were we just extra?

2 comments

2 Comments

grayt463d agoMost Upvoted

$40 a month for an extra line seems steep, my dad just ran a 50 foot phone cord from the kitchen through the living room and into the hallway closet. I wouldn't call that a dedicated room so much as a tripping hazard. Your mileage may vary but that fan on the monitor sounds like overkill unless you were running a CRT in a sauna.

lee.cole3d ago

You mentioned that fan on the monitor being overkill, but honestly I had a CRT that would get hot enough to fry an egg on top during summer. A little USB fan taped to the side dropped the temp by a good 15 degrees and the monitor lasted another three years. Tripping hazard or not, that phone cord setup meant nobody could even walk through the hallway at night without stubbing a toe, which is its own kind of problem.