Two days ago I’ve shut down the longest running electronics device I ever owned.
The device was my an Alcatel Speedtouch Home ADSL modem which I got circa 2001 when I was lucky enough to get an ADSL line at home.
It was only turned off when there was a power failure or when I moved an apartment.
It survived 6 PC, 5 Laptops, 4 routers, 6 apartments spanning 4 cities and about 10 different cell phones.
It was hacked to use PPPoE instead of its default PPTP. Was hacked again to function as a router, and back to being just a modem.
When I started using it I had a 1.5Mbit ADSL line. It grew to 2.5Mbit and finally 5Mbps – its maximum supported speed (taking into account the infrastructure state, my distance from the switchboard, etc).
When the New Generation Network (NGN) of my landline provider Bezeq was deployed, the modem couldn’t keep up with its 5Mbit speed because the uplink speed changed and it couldn’t sync. I downgraded to 2.5Mbps until I could get a replacement modem.
Once I got the newer modem, I shutdown the old one for good. It was now obsolete, old and unable to support faster speeds. No one would want it. No one would need it. No one would use it.
I will always remember it as the device that saved me from my happy dial-up days and brought me into the broadband age. It never failed, never stopped working and handled whatever bits were thrown at it.
It is now time for you to rest in modems heaven, where the line is always synced and the bits flow freely.
May all my current and future modems will serve me as well as you did.
Goodbye old friend. We had good times.