The early days of the internet (1995-2001)

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I also remember that one webpage took like 10 minutes to load, there was 6 channels of AOL (search, message boards, horoscope (i think) chat and welcome screen, weather)

of anything, I remember when you needed help, there was no wait time, no menus to annoy the heck out of you, (press 1 for this, pres 2 for that) and NO arabs answering the phone, it was dial a 1800 number, it would ring like 3 or 4 times, and a tech who understood computers and was located in Dulles Va answered and actually helped you get the problem fixed.

a bonus, who remembers the telephone modems?? you had to dial a 1-800 number (charge by minute) and quickly put the phone on the cradle that was connected to the back of the computer, then when you got a phone call, the internet disconnected.

as for me, yes I remember this, was like this until about 13 years old, (my grandfather had this on his tandy intel pent. I and another with pent. II) my first use of AOL, was umm, May of 1999 AOL 5.0


now with today's internet, you have techs who have only been trained for 2 weeks in basic computing, customers who know more about the web then the CS agent, never ending menus on the phone when you call for help, more less the installers (FiOS for instance, there too, customer sometimes knows more about it then the installer


-doordoctor

I remember accessing 'The Source' via a Wyse Terminal and a 300 BAUD modem in early '85 when the internet was still unknown outside of government and academia.

I also remember quite a few years later accessing the internet via AOHelL using AOL's 3.0 software on my then new AST P90 notebook computer with 20MB RAM, 1GB HDD, 10" DSTN screen with Win95 WO Internet Explorer biult in that I scored for the bargain price of $800 which was a 50% discount, and buying a 33K Baud PCMCIA modem that I got for about $80. --This was late 1997.

My first time on internet 1996, when I finally convinced my parents and got Windows 95! I loved the noise of the dialup connection, but it was horribly slow, and it would cut out if someone decided to phone our landline, which was very often.

Webpages were ugly tho, with all those basic colours. Should have started a blog back then, there was so little going around that it may have even got some hits

I'm from Poland, in my country internet become available much later than in west. I remember 1999 as i begged my dad to give my 4 pln a dollar more or less, for Internet Caffe, which was recently opened. I already spend my allowance. And i desperately want to surf the web for fist time in my life
I was 13 back than. I remember one day in 2001 i have my allowance and go with my dad on shooing later i go to Internet Caffe, i went there with my dad, he ask me to search on the internet something for him. But this day Internet was terribly lagging. I knew that Polish Internet Land line was much slower than in the west everything loading extremely slow, my dad suggest that i should go to the owner and demand money return . I renumber than on "Wirtualna Polska - Virtual Poland" on of biggest Polish Internet Poland posted new "Atak terrorystyczny na USA - Samolot Uderzył w gmach World Trade Center - Terrorist Attack on USA: Plane hinted World Trade Center Building" My dad said using little crude language that is sick stupid and tasteless joke and insisted me to search on internet about what he asked me.

I think if I was looking for information about diseases of the heart, because my poor dad suffered from heart disease. Sadly, he died in 2002

As I returned home with my dad it turned out that it was not a sick joke, but the truest truth. All Polish and foreign TV stations talked about a terrorist attack on America, it was a memorable 11 September 2001, I hence knew why the Internet work so slowly on that day.

Since 2005, I have high speed internet, at a very affordable price, because municipal heating plant, laying a new heating pipes, laid a fiber optic cable.
By creating a Wroclaw Municipal Internet Network, from what I know it was probably subsidized by the European Union, because Poland joined the EU in 2004

I started on the internet in 1997 and there was always pop ups, there was malware and spam and people treated each other badly.

On the good side we were aware you were participating in a revolution in communication and research, and there was a lot of naive, innocent optimism of where it would all lead.

If the first thing is the case, then I don't recall seeing them when I first used it then.

I started using the Internet in 1999ish. I remember back in 2001, I had my own website for a role-playing league I created. It was hosted on Angelfire and I used frames and tables to organize everything in the HTML file. Yes, guest books and counters were quite popular back then, and my site had both of them. That was back when we had Windows 98, with the Mystery theme and wallpaper:

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/imag ... 6cPh0zOnGQ

My first time trying online was at the local home expo in 1996-ish where one of the fledging local ISP's had a booth. I was with dad and we both got our own computer to try, the salesman asked what I wanted to search and I said "trains", lots of results came back. I can't say I was overly impressed though of my first time and we would not have any internet at home until 1999, dial up of course. I still remember having to log off and disconnect the computer so people could dial in or out on the telephone.

I remember it being so bad it hurt the the experience, until I found out about blockers. I could be confusing 1997 my first year with 1998 or 1999.

Iam still on the same E.Mail Forum run from Indiana University I think, that I have been a member of since 1996, still operating in exactly the same way as back then and with a lot of the same members, though I think we are slowly dying out.

I only started using the internet properly as a tool about 3 years ago, before then I'd use it to play games on and watch videos as a kid, we got the internet back in '05, I can remember getting our first computer, it was a desktop ahh back then it looked so advanced to me.

I can relate to you. In my homecountry in Austria, people in more crowded areas already had around 2000 pretty good connections, but I live in a small village in the countryside, so there had been no superhyper-cable internet connections, because of it being to expensive for companies. ISDN and later a light version of ADSL was the way to go. Luckily, since they advanced the satellite internet for the mobile smartphones, we now have a satellite internet receiver. Watching series and videos, without getting disturbed by the buffering all the time - Wooohooo! ^^

I do miss old style internet. It gives a nostalgic feel, although I never really used he internet it those days (because I was a few years old). It's like an enjoyable little era.

My first family computer was a Comador 64 at about the age of 3. I would love to play Frogger. Next computer we had was a Wang windows 3.0. My first personal computer was a Compaq windows95 with a 36.6 modem.

My first system was a Nintendo. When my mother's boyfriend moved out he left it. I was around 6. I had was Mario, monster trucks and Sesame Street.

Next I had a Super Nintendo when I was around 8 or 9. Played it to death. Had Mario, Mario paint, Mario Kart, Street fighters Turbo, Yoshi World, sim City, Robot Baseball, down hill Skiing, Donky Kong, Zelda, Bart Simpsons Nightmare, ninja Turtles In the ring I also had a Turbo Controller and the thing you put over the Game to get cheat codes. My favorite game of all times was Legends of the Mystical Ninja. Should of kept it. Gave it away 9 or so years ago.

Next I got a Sega around 9. I had Sonic 1-4, sonic Pinball, Road Rash, Lemings, Comic Zone and Mortal Combat.

When I was 12 I would go to my father's in the summer and he wanted something for me to play so he found a old Atari 7600 to play with like 30 games including chopper Command, Missle command, space Invaders, both Donky Kong and more.

Last was when I was 13 I got Sega CD. Not many games. Only Star fire, Willy Bemish, Sonic CD and A plane a flying

I really do not like playing the new Systems.

I went on line first in my early 20s in 1994 when I was a student, in those days text only was the norm for many sites. I had a go on a social networking site (monochrome on neutron.city.ac.uk) where everything was in text. I recall the fun we had looking at the cows and the cunning pikes.

I got online in the mid 90's, and was immediately blown away at the ability to look up practically anything I wanted in just a few short minutes. I had an affinity for message boards which is probably why I'm here today, and it was easier to, "meet people" online than to make friends in real life. Crappy 90's internet got me through a lot, and meant a lot to me.

Now I get upset if my phone doesn't recognize my speech when I'm asking it directions to a place and expect it to navigate me there instantaneously. 90's internet me showed a lot more patience and discipline.