Your first internet steps?

[KMatle]

My first provider was CompuServe in the early 90ies. Maybe someone remembers it? I had a 56K modem which was "faaaast". Something like this:


There was a rate for 9.95 (2h included, every additional hour 1.95 US$). Quite expensive but it was a milestone. Chatting with someone in the US or UK was incredible.

Later on it was buyed by AOL and in every magazine there was a cd with a code to start with 5 or 10h for free. All of my friends and me used a lot of those codes to get free internet time

 

[wonder]

Wetware:
- Teenage male aged 14

Hardware:
- i486 DX2 66Mhz 8Mb Ram
- 14.4kpbs Modem (internal)

First web search:
- "Nude spice girls" on Altavista.com

First downloads:
- Nintendo Games (roms) and Emulators

First social contact:
- Microsoft Comic Chat
- IRC (one year later)

Monthly magazine:
- Cyber.Net (Portuguese Version of the ".Net" UK edition)

Good times...

 

[rboeck]

My first modem was an 1200 bps type. It was illegal to use an direct line connection, everyone should use acoustic copplers; but noone did.
I was customer of compuserve, and on one day, all compuserve accounts got an email adress. Then i remember, it was christmas 1994 ?!, when a friend of mine, who was studying for one year in the usa, telled me about hyperlinks, html and the world wide web...
The 56k us robotics was my fourth modem (1200, 9600, 32 k)

 

[sorex]

First online experiences were BBSs (C64 & PC).

Later we could sign up for these lame fidonet mail accounts.

In 92 or 93 I got ahold of some hacked university dial-up accounts which allowed me to browse in textmode in the shell with Lynx.
As most usefull stuff was on FTPs anyway this textmode methods were fine even the mailing via Pine.
It was also my access to real time chat with contacts from the C64/PC scene via channels like #C64 & #Coders.

The first graphical web experience (Netscape) was nice but slow as hell as it required too much resources from my 386DX40 with 4Mb RAM
Opera was a real gift as that one was lightweight and really fast. (e)Mailing was then with Pegasus Mail.

This was all over a 14K4 modem back then.

In 94/95 internet for households got popular so I got that aswell as dial-up costs were cheaper in my local (mini) zone then dialing to the zone of the university.

ADSL arrived later but I don't remember since when I had it, I guess '99 altho it was available earlier around the cities but not in my street.

 

[Beja]

Prodigy was my first ISP in 1989.. Citi Bank sent me a CD to do online banking. The Internet was Sears, City Bank and a few more companies.
I believe I was among the first ever to have online banking. It was just to view and monitor your account and buy from Sears or JC Penny. My
email was with @erols.com.. 386-Windows 3, 40M HDD, 56k modem, Netscape browser, no hackers at that good old time.

 

[sorex]

according to mighty Wiki Prodigy only offered "real" internet services from '94 on. It didn't support many regular protocols before that in some cases you had to use their own software to get access to some things.

I guess online banking only started around 2006 or so in Belgium.

 

[sorex]

interesting, Beja...

Online services started in New York in 1981 when four of the city's major banks (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover) offered home banking services.[1][2][3] using the videotex system. Because of the commercial failure of videotex these banking services never became popular except in France where the use of videotex (Minitel) was subsidised by the telecom provider and the UK, where the Prestel system was used. For more information about the latter see Online banking in the U.K..

I was aware of these french minitel computers but I didn't know it could be used for banking puposes aswell.

 

[Beja]

@sorex
I first received Prodigy advertising CD with it's browser, that they sent to homes by mail.. so I signed up for them. I am not sure when I started using Netscape, but it was in the same period and
I now can't tell which one I used first.. but I remember my Citi Bank online account with advertising to shop with Sears and pay online from my Citi Bank account.

 

[Stulish]

I used a 9k modem on my 386 DX40, connecting to BBS to download a really poor image of a klingon bird of prey, the cost of the telephone call did not impress my brother, who's house i was at

 

[giga]

Don't forget to use the "turbo" button on the 386SX/DX for extra power... to go along with your CompuServe connection
We have come a long way.

 

[sorex]

@beja:apparently Mosaic (Netscape) first came out in '94 but that was graphics based. Maybe you already were using a text based browser years before that.

I'm still impressed with that early online banking tho

@giga : I wonder who even used that 25MHz mode when you have 40MHz available Maybe for really old 80s 8086 games that might have run too fast.

 

[giga]

@sorex
I agree, maybe a marketing ploy. "Wait my computers running too slow while typing this" Quick press Turbo..... and hannnggg onn!!

All joking aside we have come a long way. Now we are moving so fast and got rid of DOS we have to use slowdown utilities like
i.e (DOSBox ) to run old programs that can't handle the faster processing or require DOS.

 

[Cableguy]

Wetware:
- Teenage male aged 14

Hardware:
- i486 DX2 66Mhz 8Mb Ram
- 14.4kpbs Modem (internal)

First web search:
- "Nude spice girls" on Altavista.com

First downloads:
- Nintendo Games (roms) and Emulators

First social contact:
- Microsoft Comic Chat
- IRC (one year later)

Monthly magazine:
- Cyber.Net (Portuguese Version of the ".Net" UK edition)

Good times...

It's been a while since I last remembered my 486 DX2 66Mhz 4MB...
many hours on Altavista, searching for.... the meaning of life!
Used a lot of IRC, and a lost repository called OPORTO-BBS...
Ripped a few CD's to WAV format, had my first CAD app, called ORCAD...

 

[Beja]

@beja:apparently Mosaic (Netscape) first came out in '94 but that was graphics based. Maybe you already were using a text based browser years before that.

I'm still impressed with that early online banking tho

I think you are right sorex.. but I am sure it was GUI.. I was in Brooklyn, NY when I started to receive the junk mail from Prodigy with the CD in fancy sleeve. maybe there was no browser at all and they only showing their own website.
Then when I moved to New Jersey, City Bank sent me a CD to bank online.. That was between 1993 and 1994. It included the facility to shop with Sears and a couple of other stores.

 

[giga]

Here's a blast from the past.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Compuserve-Disk-/321842935226?hash=item4aef5575ba

 

[susu]

My "super computer" that time was 486DX with 4MB of RAM. I upgraded it to 12MB RAM later so I could play Warcraft (but only 2 or 3 rounds before it crash because of low memory). My first modem was Zyxel 33.6Kb but there's no internet in my country yet. I only browsed some intranet with so boring content. But I missed that time so much.