A tech YouTube channel that sought to stream videos from the platform over dial-up internet may have broken download speed records for 20-year-old hardware.

The Serial Port used multilink point-to-point protocol (PPP) to bond 12 dial-up modems, which ultimately achieved download speeds of 668.8 Kb/s, a potential record for hardware of this age.

A Cisco VoIP unit was used to generate the analogue phone lines for a dozen 56K modems to connect to. The number of connections could be a potential record for multilink.

First conceived in 1994, multilink PPP creates the ability to bond multiple connections to combine respective bandwidths into one logical unit – allowing users to connect multiple modems to boost connection speeds.

The YouTubers contended that multilink standards “don’t mention any type of limit” and that they found no real limit to the amount they could interconnect – meaning their tests may just have broken a rather old, but nevertheless cool world record.

The behemoth modems were used to provide more than 600 Kb/s download speeds to an IBM Think Center PC from 2004 running Windows XP, with no buffering observed, bar a slight blip likely caused by the hardware’s limited processing powers.

Earlier attempts using a vintage IBM desktop running Windows ME sought two 56K modems working in tandem, but any attempt to scale caused repeated driver clashes.

Following the tests, the Serial Port said they “haven’t yet reached a limit of how this could go” – meaning we could see even more modems added to this outdated system in the future.