The day the internet was turned on

[ZOLLAR]

JonRB said:

So this thread has gone from your first connection to the internet, through to what your first computer was, and now what your first console was?

Outstanding.

Funny that eh, conversations developing onto a new topic just like in the real world!

[JonRB]

ZOLLAR said:

Funny that eh, conversations developing onto a new topic just like in the real world!

By that argument, there is no point having forums and sub-forums. Might as well just have one big thread called "stuff".

[Chris Type R]

sooty61 said:

SWMBO still uses hers - refuses to switch to gmail for some reason she is not prepared to divulge.

It might be that gmail sounds more smutty ?

My first experience of an on-line community was using a public system in South Africa named Beltel, early/mid 80s.

[ZOLLAR]

JonRB said:

ZOLLAR said:

Funny that eh, conversations developing onto a new topic just like in the real world!

By that argument, there is no point having forums and sub-forums. Might as well just have one big thread called "stuff".

Sounds like that could be a busy place!

[Nimby]

First program - 1974 on Uni's PDP11, in Fortran on 80-column punch cards.
First time online - 1975, IBM "RETAIN" system
First home computer - 1982 Video Genie
First "download" - 1985ish(?) BBC Micro with a borrowed Teletext adapter.

[boxst]

Not really the internet, but was accessing bulletin boards in 1982 or 1983 I guess. From an Atari computer, using the hard to get hold of 850 interface:



As someone else mentioned followed by huge phone bills. Then if you got to know the right people, you could dial the boards for free if they installed a little device that made BT think you were still 'ringing' the phone even though it had answered. Something to do with AC / DC switching when the phone was picked up. Also had a tone dialler box that could dial numbers without BT realising.

Then I started running my own bulletin board using the amazingly hi-powered 1200bit WS2000 modem.



Then CompuServe and finally the proper internet started to emerge as we know it today.

[anonymous-user]

Early 90's for me for generally being online but my big year to remember was 1995.

I was working for Microsoft and was in the MSN business unit. We launched the MSN online service simultaneously with Windows 95 at a big press event in London. Then the WWW took over with cheap Web access so we moved out of the access business and into online content.

Fun times to be involved and hugely fast moving. There was never a dull day.

[Benni]

Decades ago in the 80s, some of my Moped-Tuning buddies got C64s and cassettes and were all hyped up,

I just didn´t get into gaming & programming and liked wrenching more,

they ended up being sys admins for a big german newspaper, I went on to become motorcycle mechanic.

Found out much later that turning your hobby to profession leaves you with no hobby.

Got a Job as handyman / janitor / jackofalltrades in the "Institute of new media" in Frankfurt, 1994.

Got my first E-Mail account, used Netscape, these geeks even then were mistrusting Google so used a

uni-based metacrawler called MetaGer, still in use.

The good thing was that even though I was a novice at 34 I got loads of good advice and some tricks

from that team, so avoided many mistakes and was very cautious.

Associated with the Institute was a bunch of students who programmed the very first websites for

many top-notch german companies because there was no one else around with that knowledge.

One customer required the FRA flight schedules live online for his page......hmmmmm....

Nowadays you would get this out of the net but not in 1994, but wait, the flight schedules were to

be seen "live" on TV text, so a clever programmer got a SAT TV antenna on the building,

and wrote some lines converting btx data to HTML, voila !

I still remember that the "server room" was becoming too small , around 1998, and I took out

drywall and the wooden-beam supported double ceiling in order to make it bigger.............

while the servers hosting big customers were in full swing underneath,

and since they were never offline / shut off , there was NO backup Server, sweaty palms moments.

Had big interactive art exhibitions and seminars that somehow ended up in drum n bass sessions,

supplied carambolage tables and darts for the company-sponsored "Friday Beer Run",

good times in Web 1.0 while it lasted.

[technodup]

Studio117 said:

Thehun.com

nsfw obviously

That's brilliant, you can even switch to classic layout the way it was in the 90s.

AOL on a Tiny PC for me, think it was Win95, maybe 98. I'd used it at uni and badgered the parents into getting it at home. Earliest thing I remember other than the dial-up noise and the timed sessions was being on some site which helpfully left a shortcut icon on the desktop. No problem other than it was "XXX Sluts" or similar with a wee picture. I'd no idea how to right click, remove or use add/remove program so when inevitably Dad saw it I waffled something vague about viruses. Doubt he believed it but I think it opened his eyes to certain possibilities...

[V8mate]

gl20 said:

You could tell a lot about someone parents from which 80s home computer you had. BBC in particular said Mum and Dad were a bit studious, took the kids education really serioiusly and be dammed that the only decent games it had were Elite, Aviator and Revs (all simulators really as home computers shouldn't be about games. Oh no!)

Defender!

[eliot]

JonRB said:

gl20 said:

First computer I remember at home was a borrowed Digital VT100 from Dads work.

The VT100 wasn't actually a computer - it was a dumb terminal.

I was thinking that too.

[ApOrbital]

I remember getting a bill for £800 for using the interweb in the late 90s g/f was not happy no it was not p0rn.

[sjabrown]

This thread brings back many memories.

First computer was a BBC, learnt some basic programming on that.
Spent too much of my childhood playing some excellent games on the Amiga A500. With external disk drive and extra memory.
First time on the internet would be 1995, at school.
First internet at home was dial-up in 1997 on our first PC. I still clearly remember the modem noise. Websites like rotten.com.

[Steve vRS]

I too have a [e-mail] address and mine is only 2 years old. The advantages of a rare surname.

First internet wow experience was at Leeds University in the very early nineties playing on a Multi User Dungeon (MUD) with all the other geeks and then watching the T2 trailer.

Steve

[Ynox]

Early 1997 here, so not too early. Was February if I remember right, using an AOL disk from the front of a magazine. 36kbit modem that used to connect at 31kbit.

Later that year I think, we moved across to MSN. This was OKish, but not great.

Then 1998 we moved across to Globalnet.

Then early 1999 we moved across to Tesco as it was free/cheap. I remember at the same time using XStream as they had their 0800 weekends.

Later 1999 moved to BTInternet as my old man had shares and we got this for free. Also upgraded to a 56k modem that used to connect at 42667 baud.

2003 - tried getting ADSL installed. Line was too long so no luck. Stuck on 56k - glacial compared to JaNET at uni.

2004 - got 2Mbit ADSL in my student gaff. Parents' house still was stuck on 56k.

2005 - finally could get 512k DSL Went with Pipex.

I used to spend way too long online - mostly computer forums, IRC, ICQ etc. Vividly remember winding up religious people on IRC and getting banned. Also used to play Quake 1 online. Ultimately it paid off given what I now do for a living (write software).

[soad]

ApOrbital said:

I remember getting a bill for £800 for using the interweb in the late 90s g/f was not happy no it was not p0rn.

Someone's been busy!

[thanetspeedshop]

Remember at school they told us that one day there would be a computer in every town in the country.

Seemed unbelievable then, still don't believe it meself...

[viggen114]

eliot said:

JonRB said:

gl20 said:

First computer I remember at home was a borrowed Digital VT100 from Dads work.

The VT100 wasn't actually a computer - it was a dumb terminal.

I was thinking that too.

Attach one modem and away you go, 4 sessions available.
9600baud was as fast as I could read streaming text based info, at 1200, had time to make and drink a lot of tea.

[anonymous-user]

I remember telling my mate than when you dialed in on theem onto the net, the phone numbers and websit were recorded on the bt bill. You can imagine what websites he didn't look at for a while.

I sed computers from 86, BBC's then amiga 500 +, then a Time PC computer in 1997 when i started going on the net and playing online FPS.

I singed up to totalnet where you got shares (worth nothing now).

[Hub]

My first experience of the internet was in the school IT suite - signed up to hotmail as everyone did (20mb storage limit or something ridiculous?) and messed around on bulletin and message boards - music mainly (nme, dotmusic and other band based ones).

Got the internet at home in about 98, built up huge phone bill for daytime use while on exam study leave - oops. We then switched to one of the first subscription based free off peak ones, but you could hardly connect at 6pm! Freeserve or 'worldonline' can't remember which.

I remember everyone had to have their own crappy site - GeoCities, and there was another popular one I forget the name of. Page view counters were everywhere, guest books, garish background colours clashing with the text colour etc.