I was just thinking the other day... it's the 10th year for me that I have been using the 'Net' in all it's shapes and forms.

... just curious how long others out there have been using it, and if we have some really old school people here (back in the 80's perhaps?), and also some newbies that maybe have only been using it for a year or less.

It'll be my 10th anniversary soon. I started in 1995.

Very late 1996 / very early 1997 here. Can't remember for sure.

Has been a very long time, can't remember exactly. First ISP was MSN who charged us about £10-15 a month just for access, then you had to pay call charges on top of that.

- I first got access to the Internet in 1993 through school (CompuServe)

- Email at home in 1995

- "Full" (www, etc) Internet in 1996 at $5 per hour.

- These days I'm on 1536/256 ADSL.

So.. 11 years for me :)

-Shaun

Originally posted by Vortex-Steve
First ISP was MSN who charged us about £10-15 a month just for access, then you had to pay call charges on top of that.

My first full service ISP at home was also MSN. It was different here (Australia) though. $9 a month which included two hours access and then $5 per hour after that.

One month we got a $950 bill. I'm glad those days are over :)

-Shaun

started with prodigy in the EARLY 90's. billed by the minute

First got online in late 97, so 6.5 years here.

2th anniversary :)

Wow at least ten for me. Started with text based browsing. Might be more than 10

Roughly 9-10 years for me as well. My dad had it back in the early 90's and so that's when I started as well.

Been around 7 years since I first had the net. I wonder how I managed without it....

I've been around the net since '94 - 10 years now. I was 14 (I feel old now).

Started out 1996, I believe.
I was 10 years old.

For bout 5-6 years :)

Prodigy on a 9600 modem.

Start Date: Feb 18, 2001
ISP: ATTBI:@Home
Current ISP:Comcast
Other ISP's ever used:MSN/AOL/Netzero (<20 hours all combined)
First hacked an email account in 2003.......:erm:

5 - 6 years, I started out in 1998 - 99. However, I had used it prior to this, but not much :)

Its crazy how nowadays, its like Oxygen. I need it all the time lol.

I started with a dialup connection to an educational network. All ascii. No tcp/ip. Gopher. ;)

Guess that's what, 11-12? Gotta be, there were no other ISP's at the time locally...

I have been online since 1993, and before that I was using BBS's.

I got "online" sorta, in 1991 or 92 using dialup telnet to my college, I also hooked into usenet on my BBS around that time with a bonafide internet email address. Later in 1992 or early 1993 I got online "for real" with Win 3.1 and good old oh god what was the name Winppp? whatever that program was called. I also got online with Linux around that time, Yggradisil (something like that) and Slackware releases (Slackware uhm, .87 pre 1.0? god it's been so long).

Originally posted by Dixiesys
I got online "for real" with Win 3.1 and good old oh god what was the name Winppp?

Trumpet winsock? That was a real popular one, IIRC.

Quarterdeck also had one. Forget what it was called though.

Originally posted by thedavid
Trumpet winsock? That was a real popular one, IIRC.

Quarterdeck also had one. Forget what it was called though.

Yes Trumpet Winsock how could I forget! Man I used and set up that program so many times you'd think I'd remember the name :D

Heh, your all showing your age now :D

Wow, speaking of which...

Looks like you can buy it still:
http://www.trumpet.com.au/products.html

Now with ipv6(!).

As far as the age thing.. Wierd thing is that I still 'feel' like I should be 16 or something. Huh...

Originally posted by thedavid
As far as the age thing.. Wierd thing is that I still 'feel' like I should be 16 or something. Huh...
Don't most men? ;)

I first started using the net back around 1995.

i started when i was four...
therefore almost 11 years now.

6 years

Think 10-11 years in a network... Can't remember precisely!
I know only, that it's worse, than alcohol dependence! :)

Started late in 1992...dial-up at 2800, wow I was screaming. *LOL* Did the BBS thing for a while then went to building sites. I think my first one was on Geocities.

I'm so glad I have cable. :)

'97 / '98 ishh when my friend showed me what MSN Messenger was :)

Fidonet in the late 80's

Internet since 1994.

Since way back in 1993... :)

1993-4 I think

nice bell curve; and I'm in the middle of it!

I belive I started using is it in the late '97. For sure its been over 6 years now, can't confirm the exact date.

mid '95. The internet hourly rate was USD 5. I used to be given 10 Hrs per month for USD 50. Then 2 year later, we got a new provider that was offering unlimited dial up ( ~ 14Kps) for USD 250 which was considered very cheap ...

I used to dial into a Freenet locally from 1991 until I got my first regular Dial-up in I believe 1994 and then Cable internet in 1996. Haven't looked back since.

Good 'Ol 28.8kbps Modem on a P75 / 7mb Ram / 1gb HD in the year that was 1994.

i have been useing it since 1992

Originally posted by MStar
Good 'Ol 28.8kbps Modem on a P75 / 7mb Ram / 1gb HD in the year that was 1994.

lol, that was about the same specs of my first "good" computer Although, it wasn't really all that great..lol. Mine was a P75 from futureshop. I remember it was onsale for $3500. I didn't start using the net right away though. I was fooling around with local BBS's... I then made the big jump to sprint canada (The Most Online)...bah that was a horrible experience.

RMF

Started internet early on-also remember using Prodigy cant recall the years now

Originally posted by RMF
lol, that was about the same specs of my first "good" computer Although, it wasn't really all that great..lol. Mine was a P75 from futureshop. I remember it was onsale for $3500. I didn't start using the net right away though. I was fooling around with local BBS's... I then made the big jump to sprint canada (The Most Online)...bah that was a horrible experience.

RMF

Mine was $4000 with a 15" monitor and Canon BJC-4000 printer from A&B Sound.

Damn that was a good printer. It'd take it over the **** coming off the production lines nowadays.

Originally posted by thedavid
I started with a dialup connection to an educational network. All ascii. No tcp/ip. Gopher. ;)

Guess that's what, 11-12? Gotta be, there were no other ISP's at the time locally...


i used to dial to my colleg VAX system and use gopher there and also telnet to our SUN lab and use irc :)
i think it was in 1993

Geesh, I can't even remember when I first got into it, I remember I was so excited when I opened up my first BBS on my blazing fast 2400 USRobotics modem running WWIV and the great IceZmodem file transfer protocol that allowed you to play pong while you downloaded!

I first used it on my cousins PC in Canada, summer '96. Then I went to University myself in the UK in Sept '96 where I had permanent access to it. Designed my first website by December '96 :)

OK it was a pretty awful site then but hey, I was using Netscape 2 back then :)

Since 1994

1994 with Compuserve (yuk) and a 14,400 USR Robotics Sportster modem.

Late 80's for me, I was fortunate enough to be working in a major UK (now consumed into a global) telecoms company. I had an account on a Sun box with a restricted shell allowing me ftp & gopher access - Ah... Real Internet access :-)

Prior to that I seem to remember something about a couple of the BBS's I was on having Internet links, but that may just be old age !

I also remember being shown this World Wide Web thingy thinking It'll never catch on !

I first paid for it out of my own pocket in early 1995, registered my own domain and have been here ever since !

8 years, but it seems like a friggin lifetime.

8 years or so, I started September 1996, my first year of high-school :P Free internet for students, woo!

We have been on the internet since about 96 - 97 cant remembe what Dial up ISP we started with but i know we started back then

although we were using BBS way before then. so 96 - 97 for true internet and 94 - 95 for BBS for me

Thanks
- James

Greetings:

The late 1980's in terms of email, then the Web in the early 1990's.

Thank you.

i actually had the internet before the school corporation did. I beat them by 3 months while they were still running the line to connect the three schools. The engineering firm that my mother worked for helped design a local ISP's infrastructure so employees were offered "State of the Art Connection" at a wopping 2400 - 9600 baud connection...SO that would have been 10 or 11 years ago. I had my ole Acer...Was around 3400 bucks at the time Dungeons and Dragons was my first PC game..Woohoo those were the days!

In January 1993 I was working at UCSB and did not get much work done that first week.

In 1988 I was junior assistant sysop on a BBS devoted to nothing other than AI. The guy who hired me was a Clarion Developer who enjoyed expounding the virtues of "case tools" in software development. This was also about the time I upgraded to my first fixed disk hard drive. Man that was exciting.

I've been using the internet since I was 12 which was in 1998 so its been 6 years. I didn't get into webhosting until almost 1 year ago. The other 5 years I just ******** and play online games on zone.com like Age of Empires, Age of Kings, etc. My screen name changed from "SuperKerry", "Kingkerry", and finally "Kerry Jones".

Think it's 6 or 7 years or so... first Internet was with Windows 3.11 and crappy compuserve software :P

double post :(

I started with a webtv(ugh) back in 98.

I started on Windows 98 not Windows 3.11. I was too computer illerate back in those days. :D

First laptop was in '95 (Black and white Win95), first email in '97 (Hotmail), first desktop computer in '98. My starting point in '98 was going to an RPG chat with a few friends from school. I then moved to forums when the chats shut down (Beseen). First website was with Geocities/Angelfire. I had to sign up for a new account when I transfered the pages from the WYSIWYG editor to HTML.

I remember the NetZero days with free internet and a second phone line. NameZero when I had my first domain. (Used the free UK provider which I can't remember) Used CoolArchive.com to design logos. Those were the days. ;) Starcraft was a fun game to play then and still is now.

Originally posted by RDX Media

I remember the NetZero days with free internet and a second phone line. NameZero when I had my first domain. (Used the free UK provider which I can't remember) Used CoolArchive.com to design logos. Those were the days. ;) Starcraft was a fun game to play then and still is now. [/B]

Hehe...wow do I feel old. I remember the days of 300 baud modems and 1mhz computers and 10 megabyte hard drives that cost $1000. :eek:

As for the internet. I remember getting acess through the BBS's at first. There wasnt much out there then and it was all text. The internet sure has come a long way.

As for the internet. I remember getting acess through the BBS's at first. There wasnt much out there then and it was all text. The internet sure has come a long way.

Hrrrrm, I forgot all about those. My response should be changed to 10 or so years instead of 6+ then:P
I started using text based bbs'es as a dialup thing, then moved to running my own text based (non dialup) bbs, then doing gaming/mud stuff. Good god, it's been ages, or so it'd seem.

Anyone remember the game You don't know jack? Or more specifically when you could DOWNLOAD the game and enjoy it for free? Now THAT was an interesting game.

Started at AOL :: lol :: Than a company called WoW! from compuserver . . . (went out of business) than a generic isp . . . back to aol . . . isp . . . isp . . . than dsl with swbell.

10 years . . . started at 13.

Wow . . . wonder what's next ;)

Originally posted by RDX Media
[B]first email in '97 (Hotmail)

My first Email was sid@aol.com (during the pay by the hour days)

second was sid@hotmail.com (well b/f microsoft).

How things change . . . I feel old now ;)