When did you first discover the Internet?

[javacontour]

Probably late 1983, early 1984. More like uucp style e-mail and what not via the university. I'm not sure you would call it "the internet" but we were networking computers.

PDP-11's with ethernet running a flavor of BSD, probably 4.2 or at least some of the 4.2 or 4.3 stuff back ported to the 2.xBSD release we were running.

 

[oilboy123]

Wow some of you guys were really doing things early on.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
2400Baud modem

Dialed into the local University's VAX system through Procomm Plus. Had the ability to use Gopher and do E-mail. First site I visited was NASA.

Was also into BBS'ing at the time. Hung out on YakYak's, which, IIRC, eventually got an "Internet portal".


When I was a BBS user many years ago, I had a 300 baud modem, and some I accessed required me to go 110 baud. For actual "internet" things, specifically email, it would have been back in the early 1990s when there was a gateway setup allowing FidoNet to send to internet email addresses. I also did some usenet then, too.

 

[Colt45ws]

I dont remember. My mom got a hold of a 486 that had been upgraded with some AMD chip, 800MB HDD, Win95 and a 33.6 modem. I played games on it for quite awhile, then we got an AOL account....Must have been 1996ish? Then my grandma bought a new Compaq with a 200MHz K6, a stick of L2 cache, 32MB of RAM, 2GB HDD, and Win95 in 1997-1998. That was the only store bought machine we had as I started getting into them pretty hardcore and built my first machine based on a AMD Duron "Spitfire" 900MHz in 2000.
Dont remember what all I did on the internet. Mostly just cruising. Downloading songs off Napster. Ill have to ask my Mom when we got that 486 on the internet as Im not really certain. I had to do a lot of working backwards as I dont think my age was even double digits yet. I am sure I built that Duron machine in 2000, because we moved to Washington in 2001.

 

[Popinski]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My dad had compuserve on his apple II in 1989 or so, it was more BBS but had some internet content then. He was thrilled to get travel weather forecasts before going on trips!

Then in 1992 he was working at Digital Equipment Corp and my Mom got a job at Harvard Business School and his first comment was "oh, I bet you'll have email."

Then we'd be silently eating dinner and he'd say "did you get my email" with a smirk about the inside joke that us kids weren't cool enough to be in on.

Dad "let" us kids email my cousin at college in late 1993 with some unix dial in service. He admonished us to hit enter after 60 or so characters because there was no automatic line wrap and if we went longer it might look funny.

Then I went to college in fall 94 and we had full text unix. Netscape www came Jan 95.

I was a car nerd on rec.autos.tech USENET in the later 90s. Found a motor oil comparison text file with flash point, percent ash, etc. Superflo was cheap junk.

Shortly later the minimopar oil filter cutaway study made its way to the web.


Haha!! Man oh man. Everything was exciting back in the day. I heard about this old-school prodigy, AOL etc etc Only the rich families in my area had that luxury.

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
I was waaaaay behind. I first used the internet in 1999. Been aimlessly wasting time online ever since.


+11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

 

[Popinski]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
What I remember was that at first the internet seemed like a much more friendly place than it is today. I guess the internet is a reflection of our world.


Unfortunately, this is so true.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Hey, do you fellow oldsters remember when you saw your first digital calculator? A friend of mine had one back in my junior year in high school in the early '70s. It had a red LED display and I think it could only +,-,x, and divide. It cost him more than $100, which was big bucks for a high school kid at the time. It was instantly banned in our physics class when he brought it in, because we had to do everything on slide rules. My kids are still amazed at how fast I can add things up, multiply, or divide in my head--today nobody has to practice that stuff much beyond the early years of grade school. One of my first jobs was in a small convenience store and it didn't even have a cash register. The clerk, me, had to add everything up in my head manually or on a piece of paper if the list got too long, calculate the tax, add it on, write it on the slip, and then make change from a drawer. And you had to do it fast!

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
Hey, do you fellow oldsters remember when you saw your first digital calculator? A friend of mine had one back in my junior year in high school in the early '70s. It had a red LED display and I think it could only +,-,x, and divide. It cost him more than $100, which was big bucks for a high school kid at the time. It was instantly banned in our physics class when he brought it in, because we had to do everything on slide rules. My kids are still amazed at how fast I can add things up, multiply, or divide in my head--today nobody has to practice that stuff much beyond the early years of grade school. One of my first jobs was in a small convenience store and it didn't even have a cash register. The clerk, me, had to add everything up in my head manually or on a piece of paper if the list got too long, calculate the tax, add it on, write it on the slip, and then make change from a drawer. And you had to do it fast!


My dad still has one of those!!!! It has a 9V battery spot, but also an AC adapter. Wow that brings back memories!

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
2400Baud modem

Dialed into the local University's VAX system through Procomm Plus. Had the ability to use Gopher and do E-mail. First site I visited was NASA.

Was also into BBS'ing at the time. Hung out on YakYak's, which, IIRC, eventually got an "Internet portal".


When I was a BBS user many years ago, I had a 300 baud modem, and some I accessed required me to go 110 baud. For actual "internet" things, specifically email, it would have been back in the early 1990s when there was a gateway setup allowing FidoNet to send to internet email addresses. I also did some usenet then, too.


Yeah, my 2400 was "pimp" for the time. And the University supported the connection at that speed, so I wasn't going to complain

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
Hey, do you fellow oldsters remember when you saw your first digital calculator? A friend of mine had one back in my junior year in high school in the early '70s. It had a red LED display and I think it could only +,-,x, and divide. It cost him more than $100, which was big bucks for a high school kid at the time. It was instantly banned in our physics class when he brought it in, because we had to do everything on slide rules. My kids are still amazed at how fast I can add things up, multiply, or divide in my head--today nobody has to practice that stuff much beyond the early years of grade school. One of my first jobs was in a small convenience store and it didn't even have a cash register. The clerk, me, had to add everything up in my head manually or on a piece of paper if the list got too long, calculate the tax, add it on, write it on the slip, and then make change from a drawer. And you had to do it fast!


I didn't get online then but I had an Atari 400 in the early 80's. At school we also played around with the Apple computers around that time and I was aware of modems and being able to dial up. I didn't really get online until about 1995. As far store checkouts, I mostly remember price stickers on products and the cashier typed in the price sort of like an adding machine.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Yeah, my 2400 was "pimp" for the time. And the University supported the connection at that speed, so I wasn't going to complain

The worst part is my first 1200 baud modem cost me $300, and that was 50% off. At least my 300 baud had a direct connection rather than acoustic couplers.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Not my first computer, but our family had an IBM PS/2 ValuePoint with a 486SX25 processor somewhere around 1994 running Windows 3.1. I bought a 63mhz Intel Pentium OverDrive processor (anyone remember those?) for the upgrade socket that was built into the motherboard, but the BIOS would come up with an error whenever it was installed. I called up IBM's tech support and the very helpful guy walked me through dialing into their BBS (33.6k, I think?) and downloading a BIOS update, installing it to a floppy, then flashing the ValuePoint's BIOS. Magically, the OverDrive CPU worked after that. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to pull needed software over telephone lines like that for free.

First website was aol.com, I'm sure.

Anyone remember the first time you purchased something online? I nervously mulled it over for a day or two before I finally gave TC Computers my credit card info, and I was worried about who would see it, who would steal it, etc. Now, I can whip up a Newegg order and have it submitted in about 90 seconds without a second thought.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: Garak
The worst part is my first 1200 baud modem cost me $300, and that was 50% off.

Ugh, don't get me started!

2x CD-ROM drive and Soundblaster card upgrade kit: $200
17" IBM monitor: $425
12mb VooDoo 2: $400
800mhz Pentium III Slot-1 processors: $300 x 2
2x CD-RW drive: $425
ASUS GeForce DDR 256 Deluxe: $450
IBM Aptiva desktop, 200mhz K6-2, 32mb RAM: $1,600

You younger guys have no idea how good you have it now!

 

[Popinski]

Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Not my first computer, but our family had an IBM PS/2 ValuePoint with a 486SX25 processor somewhere around 1994 running Windows 3.1. I bought a 63mhz Intel Pentium OverDrive processor (anyone remember those?) for the upgrade socket that was built into the motherboard, but the BIOS would come up with an error whenever it was installed. I called up IBM's tech support and the very helpful guy walked me through dialing into their BBS (33.6k, I think?) and downloading a BIOS update, installing it to a floppy, then flashing the ValuePoint's BIOS. Magically, the OverDrive CPU worked after that. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to pull needed software over telephone lines like that for free.

First website was aol.com, I'm sure.

Anyone remember the first time you purchased something online? I nervously mulled it over for a day or two before I finally gave TC Computers my credit card info, and I was worried about who would see it, who would steal it, etc. Now, I can whip up a Newegg order and have it submitted in about 90 seconds without a second thought.

I remember when the Pentium was a big deal. The first thing I bought on the internet was a Metallica CD on a CD website(before MP3's were big). This was 1997. I think it was called "CDNow". I'm not 100% sure. Like you, I was skeptical about entering my parent's credit card on the internet.

 

[DragRace]

In the 80's..

Back when I used an antivirus program. Now there's better ways to protect our PC's,but still people rely on av's,sometimes,things will remain the same,even when technology / software changes.

 

[Nick R]

Didn't really start spending alot of time on the internet till I built my first computer freshman year of high school, though I did spend a bit of time on it in middle school because of a computer class I had to take in 8th grade. Anyway, first computer.

CPU: Intel Pentium II 450MHZ Slot 1
Mobo: Tyan S1854 Trinity 400
RAM: 512MB PC133
GPU: ATi Radeon 9600SE 128MB
HDD: Maxtor 160GB IDE

Running Windows XP. That thing actually ran pretty good, considering. Next up was same motherboard, but with a Socket 370 Pentium III 600Mhz, later upgraded to an 866Mhz version. Ahhh good times, good times.

 

[cbear]

Does dialing in to BBSs with the 300 baud modem on my Atari 800 count?

Actually "surfing the web", I suppose around 1992.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Ugh, don't get me started!


I remember when I had a Radio Shack Model IV. A 10 megabyte hard drive cost $10,000. Obviously, I stuck to floppies.

 

[williar]

1983 was my introduction to the internet. Based on ARPANET, it was hosted by universities and some larger tech firms. The net was Unix-based, of course, and there were no GUIs. It was command-line driven. But it was great to access info from various corporate and university libraries.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Yeah, my 2400 was "pimp" for the time. And the University supported the connection at that speed, so I wasn't going to complain

The worst part is my first 1200 baud modem cost me $300, and that was 50% off. At least my 300 baud had a direct connection rather than acoustic couplers.


You still have any of this stuff? My dad recently dropped off my first PC (the 8088) here at the house.... I'm thinking of firing it back up for nostalgic purposes.... I could take pictures? LOL!