How long have you been on the internet?

[t1grm]

Just stumbled across this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3732844.stm and it got me thinking. How long have you been on the internet?

It’s over 12 years now for me.

I got my first desktop in late 1993 (having had access to my Dad’s work PC’s at home since 84) when I moved into my house in Brighton. Pavilion internet was my ISP. I was using windows 3.11, Eudora email and Netscape I think. Internet Explorer wasn’t even around.

The thing I remember most about it was all the porn was free

I can’t imagine life without it now. What about you guys?

Edited to add: And I connected using a 14400 bps modem nicked from work over dial up. I used to kick of a download for a 0.5 meg file and then go down the pub for a couple of pints whilst it worked.

>> Edited by t1grm on Friday 2nd December 15:39

[Jinx]

Yeah! life without free porn doesn't bare thinking about.

[wingchundave]

t1grm said:

The thing I remember most about it was all the porn was free I can’t imagine life without it now. What about you guys?

I suppose life without porn would be strange....

Anyway, internet since 1994 for me. Eleven years! Oh my god!

[t1grm]

Jinx said:

Yeah! life without free porn doesn't bare thinking about.

Amen!

[silversun]

Since about 9.30 this morning.

[Prof Beard]

I go back pre-web to UsenetNews/Telnet/FTP/Gopher days. Many people forget the Internet pre-dates the web.

[scorp]

Went on the net with my Amiga 600 and 14.4k modem in 1996
The joys of 4 colour web surfing.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Prof Beard said:

I go back pre-web to UsenetNews/Telnet/FTP/Gopher days. Many people forget the Internet pre-dates the web.

Indeed.

1993 for me. I remember using a green screen vt220 Wyse terminal at university, telnetting into various sites, MUDding, FTPing, Gophering, using talkers, etc.

And when I ftped any files had to go and use the awful Viglen 386s to pull the files onto a floppy! Maybe it wasn't so ...

We had a room full of state of the art SGI Indigos as well!

I remember the first search engines too! Was it Yahoo that was thought up and run by a couple of american students, used to have a funny address (not www.yahoo.co.uk!)

>> Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Friday 2nd December 15:53

[t1grm]

Prof Beard said:

I go back pre-web to UsenetNews/Telnet/FTP/Gopher days. Many people forget the Internet pre-dates the web.

I had web access to text only internet at brighton uni from 92. I assume it was unix based, or maybe VAX/VMS. I wasn't very computer literate then. 93 was first time I had access from home.

[Whoozit]

T'Internet proper, since 1996. I used JANet and Gopher at Uni in 89-93, though only for boring purposes

[t1grm]

NiceCupOfTea said:

I remember the first search engines too! Was it Yahoo that was thought up and run by a couple of american students, used to have a funny address (not www.yahoo.co.uk!)

Webcrawler was my fave. I remember when Altavista launched we all thought it was the mutts nuts.

[whirly]

I think it was 1993, through Compuserve, which wasn't really internet proper, but tried to partition off a small section for itself. You weren't a name, you WERE a number!!

[Jaglover]

10 years for me

Had my first look at the internet at Uni, I therefore had to wait another 4 years for internet porn, until I had a computer with internet access at home.

[Zod]

94. I Remember Inktomi, hotbot(still exists), altavista (still exists), as well as Yahoo. I remember when Google was a new thing back in 98.

[alexkp]

I was on Prestel years and years ago - but it was the BT bulletin board system rather than the Net as we know it. For the Internet proper I got fully online about 1996-7 I think.

[page3]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yep, started with Prestel (Micronet) here - with a 300/75 baud modem and a BBC B Then of course BT shut down Micronet as they didn't see any future in on-line communication

[wanty1974]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Prestel!!! Wasn't that a through-your-telly service that was around in the early 80s? Seem to remember a very well-off friend having that on their finest Redifusion set.

[wedg1e]

97 - 98 IIRC, somewhere around the time that my ex was running one of Labour's new computer learning centres...

[t1grm]

wanty1974 said:

anonymous said: [redacted] Prestel!!! Wasn't that a through-your-telly service that was around in the early 80s? Seem to remember a very well-off friend having that on their finest Redifusion set.

I used to use that at work. I had to download exchange rates from it every day. Wasn't it used by travel agencies as a booking system or something?

[willmcc]

Fidonet in the early nineties, not proper internet but the begining of th enet