When did you first get online and what was it like?

[BuckyDuckman]

I remember install AOL ver 2.5 on my first laptop, huge long distance bills until AOL had a local number, and later, the thrill of a 28.8 modem. As best as I can remember, this would have been the summer 1995. I know I was still using Windows 3.1.

I can remember how long it took for my laptop to boot-up and load AOL. Poor ol' thing had a 640x480 16 bit monitor, a 40 MB (yes, megabyte!) hard drive and a 486 processor? Here's an idea of how long it would take to boot-up: I had AOL in my start-up folder. I would start my computer and go outside to smoke a cigarette. When I came back, I "might" be ready to go online. So, roughly 5 to 7 minutes?

Back then, chatrooms were populated with real people, not bots, and it was easy to find people to chat with. LOL, LMAO, and similar phrases were still being invented and, if used, someone would be more than happy to explain what the fuck they meant by it.

And cybersex? A HUGE deal! Finding porn online? Still tough, but there were pictures being shared and it was a big deal.

What about for you?

 

[islandman]

AO-hell....TCP/IP bindings....always a nightmare.

 

[Image]

2002ish? And I was extremely mouse challenged...

 

[pointless]

i think it was the summer of '97 when i first had internet where i lived. i got my roommate banned from aol chat within the first week. good times.

 

[JohnnySavage]

sometime in the early 80s when I was in grad school.


the phone handset fit into a coupling thing.

 

[JohnnySavage]

The first time at home was probably around 1988. 300 baud modem.. then a 1200... then a 2400... then a 9600 and the internet porn industry was born!

 

[pointless]

The first time at home was probably around 1988. 300 baud modem.. then a 1200... then a 2400... then a 9600 and the internet porn industry was born!

i almost remember when i first discovered the nifty archives and asstr. it makes me kinda sad to think that i used to think the shitty wank stories people posted there were good. i was so innocent.

and kinda stupid.

 

[Liar]

Around '95. Thru a modem pool at the local university.

Those were the days. Got slapped around a lot with a large trout.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

I was with Al Gore when he invented the internet.

 

[oggbashan]

I was using a Defence Dept intranet in 1963.

It was quicker to send a telegram or telex and get them to enter the data remotely.

 

[bronzeage]

I was using a Defence Dept intranet in 1963.

It was quicker to send a telegram or telex and get them to enter the data remotely.

We had to walk to the internet. It was 5 miles uphill, both ways.

 

[BossMan62]

We had to walk to the internet. It was 5 miles uphill, both ways.

*snickers* and in the snow too.

 

[califla77]

1985, CompuServe CB Simulator. I was 75016,512.

 

[1sickbastard]

What was it like... (wavey fade out into a sepa-toned picture, or if you must, a green display over a black background, on a 5x8 CRT monitor)

beep-deep--bip-bip-beep-bip-beep
shckckckckckckckckckckckckckckckckckck beet-doong beet-doong beet-doong

>login user

 

[Bellatrixie]

My first internet account was a unix shell and it cost $2 per minute.

I think I am really dating myself....oh and the bonus was that the whole internet was like lit in terms of the boy to girl ratio

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

1986, Compuserve on a Commodore64 with a blisteringly fast 300 baud modem.

 

[Disgustipated]

1986, Compuserve on a Commodore64 with a blisteringly fast 300 baud modem.

Ditto. Our shitty school thought they were all fancy.

 

[RobDownSouth]

I was a beta tester for the very first "internal" modem card, the Hayes 1200B smartmodem. It was hand-wired and ran very, very hot ( you had to use it with the case off of your computer).

My friends were amazed that I could connect to the online world (compuserve, I believe) without a physical modem box.

I remember overclocking an 8mhz 80286 processor, soldering a heat sink on top of the chip and runnin' a scorching 12 mhz!! We wuz giants in those days.

 

[Dream59]

1995. Dail up was a bitch and as slow as frozen honey, but it was great and in some ways better than it is now.

 

[semen4her]

Around '95. Thru a modem pool at the local university.

Those were the days. Got slapped around a lot with a large trout.

Ah yes, good old irc...

 

[JohnnySavage]

Perch?

 

[jomar]

Eh? What? Harumph! Back in the day we used punch cards. And real phones that we snugged into rubber things to talk to other university computers. Fuckin' whippersnappers.

 

[KRCummings]

Ah yes, good old irc...

IRC was really popular for quite a while. It was a the wild west of chat.

 

[StrayKat]

Somewhere around 1998.-9. It helped me get through particularly nasty divorce.
I think I am addicted every since.

 

[KRCummings]

I used it a lot in the Marines and when I first started college things were heating up with CompuServe, Prodigy, etc. Then the web came along. I've probably used ever speed modem that was made and yes, I even used the earmuffs like Johnny was talking about. It's been an interesting time. Hard to keep up at times and I've for the most part stopped trying.