I didnt know the internet existed until 1996.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I didnt know the internet existed until 1996. (Page 1 of 3)

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:01:10 PM EDT

I was born and raised in a small town in south Georgia and decided to enlist in the Air Force in 1995. I completed Basic Training, Air Base Ground Defense School, and Law Enforcement tech school in December of that year. I got to my first duty assignment (RAF Molesworth UK) in January 1996. When I got there I heard people talking about the internet and had no idea what they were taking about. I asked about it and had someone show me what it was. I thought that it was cool to see bewbies for free on a computer. I know Al Bore would be so disappoint. When did you discover the internet for the first time?

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:02:34 PM EDT

[#1]

BBSs as a kid in high school.

I was thinking "this idea needs alot more scale."

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:03:42 PM EDT

[#2]

something like '92 or '93 when i was in second grade. SOmewhere about there. Didn't really know what to do with it until alter though.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:04:08 PM EDT

[#3]

hmm honestly, maybe 1998 or so...

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:05:28 PM EDT

[#4]

BBS when I was in 7th grade, which was what? 1987?
D&D type adventures and message boards. We'd make contact with other nerds and then meet them for bowling and pizza. Some of those nerds were girls and their <shudder> mothers, who were what we would call cougars now. All kinds of drama and silliness.
I read about the world wide web in a book store and I had to try out this Mosaic thing. First you needed a PPP type connection. I called the local telecom company's customer service line and they had no idea what I was talking about, that was 1995. That summer Netscape went public. When I went to college out of state later that year, the library had the web and Netscape, that was the first time I used the web. Yahoo had just gone public. I actually thought about buying stock, but I needed all my money for that valuable liberal arts edumacation

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:05:28 PM EDT

[#5]

fall 1994

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:08:08 PM EDT

[#6]

Used to have to gopher information with my pals Archie and Veronica.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:12:02 PM EDT

[#7]

I think i was like 4-5, so 93-94

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:14:51 PM EDT

[#8]

1993 or whenever prodigy came out, sucked balls paying by the minute.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:20:24 PM EDT

[#9]

alt.guns.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:21:12 PM EDT

[#10]

I did compu$erve way back in the day 1989?

it cost too fucking much and kinda sucked

so I bailed and didn't come back till 1995 sprynet was my ISP for the first year or so

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:28:24 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I think i was like 4-5, so 93-94

God I feel old. I graduated high school in '92.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:30:06 PM EDT

[#12]

1991, when I started working for CompuServe

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:30:46 PM EDT

[#13]

The internet was too complicated for me until windows 3.11 and GUIs were invented

Granted I was about 7

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:33:19 PM EDT

[#14]

I've shown these before... But this is what hooked me up to bbs's around 85 or so and helped me with my fortran homework in '88

And all my old systems... Yes they still work! They date back to 1980 or so.

And alt.guns rocked.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:34:03 PM EDT

[#15]

96 for me as well. I was in 4th grade

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:35:37 PM EDT

[#16]

I think I first used it at the local library in 1997. My family got our first computer in 1998, a Packard Hell. Two years later I convinced my parents to get dial up. Sometime in 9th grade we got DSL and after I left for college they switched to cable.

I'm 23 for reference.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:35:58 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

1993 or whenever prodigy came out, sucked balls paying by the minute.

Yep 1993 sounds about right. I had Prodigy on my screamin' Packard Bell 486-66.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:37:57 PM EDT

[#18]

Whenever my dad got AOL. 94 or about?

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:43:06 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

BBSs as a kid in high school.

I was thinking "this idea needs alot more scale."

same. towards the end most even had web portals.

honestly I miss em. sure youve a lot more access to stuff on the interwebs, but we had a lot of local bbss around here, which meant you typically knew damned near every member. sure was a lot less asshattery back then when everyone on the board knew who you were and lived within a convenient asskicking distance

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:43:18 PM EDT

[#20]

After my divorce.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:48:22 PM EDT

[#21]

Around 1995-1996 I had AOL v3.0 on my ancient B&W Macintosh computer. As a seventh/eighth grader I would troll AOL's paintball message boards

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:48:29 PM EDT

[#22]

1995 when I was 35.. didn't get on until about 1998 (my own computer)

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:51:48 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:

I've shown these before... But this is what hooked me up to bbs's around 85 or so and helped me with my fortran homework in '88

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/DSCN1371.jpg
And all my old systems... Yes they still work! They date back to 1980 or so.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/IMG_1477.jpg
And alt.guns rocked.

I still have my TI99.

My parents sold my Atari 400 and 800, though...

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:52:36 PM EDT

[#24]

The military -
Computers in 1987, email in 1993, the intardweb in 1994.
I bought my first computer in 1996, two months later I found ARFcom.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:52:55 PM EDT

[#25]

1998 for me.

Our generation will be the only one that recognizes teh dial up sounds as an every day occurence back in the day.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:54:18 PM EDT

[#26]

Al didn't do a very good job of promoting it after he invented it.

Posted: 10/28/2010 7:55:33 PM EDT

[#27]

My genius Harvard friend used GEnie and PANnet around 85' or so.
I used to dick around on his beta Apple.

I didn't actually own a computer until about 1992 and wasn't online until 1998.
But I have met Vint Cerf several times.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:02:22 PM EDT

[#28]

Compuserve 1990.
First thing I read was the Pyschological profile of Saddam Hussein.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:02:32 PM EDT

[#29]

alt.
seeing pictures in a 'Mosaic Web Browser' in the IT trailers at the LAAFB in late '93 was pretty cool.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:08:02 PM EDT

[#30]

'98 or so. I'm usually late to the party on this stuff. I still have a cell phone that is only used for a phone (and a watch)..

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:14:02 PM EDT

[#31]

I knew about it in the 80s.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:14:26 PM EDT

[#32]

In elementary school or so, 95 or 96ish. My dad worked for a tech company so we were always ahead of most people.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:22:06 PM EDT

[#33]

Quoted:
I've shown these before... But this is what hooked me up to bbs's around 85 or so and helped me with my fortran homework in '88

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/DSCN1371.jpg

And all my old systems... Yes they still work! They date back to 1980 or so.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/IMG_1477.jpg

And alt.guns rocked.

I have that TI in your pic. My parents got it new when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Been hooked on the PC's since.

I was on email in 1993 and did some medical study searches in 1991 on what service I cannot recall now.

1996 I wet full blown with a ISP in my area. They had a T3 feeding it. I got to see all the modems in the racks. Fun times.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:29:40 PM EDT

[#34]

1993, eight years old.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:33:25 PM EDT

[#35]

I started with BBSs playings MUDs early 90s. Fun times.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:39:40 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:

BBSs as a kid in high school.

I was thinking "this idea needs alot more scale."

THIS!!!

Only I was in middle school at the time.

Played with fones at that time too.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:55:59 PM EDT

[#37]

I remember firing up a VT220 terminal, logging into the VAX system and using Telnet and FTP back in 1991.

Posted: 10/28/2010 8:58:19 PM EDT

[#38]

I am not sure when I became aware of the web, probably 89 or 90. I was aware of and occasionally used BBSes prior to that though. You guys can be as proud as you want of your old 300 baud modem, I think my first was 2400, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that I was downloading dirty pictures on broadband before most! I guy I had served with at Ft. Bragg had gotten out and went to work for a company that ran a lot of Frame Relay stuff, and he took me to their office where they had full T1 access to the internet, and gawd usenet had lots of dirty pictures in those days.

Of course the real harbinger of doom for the internet, or what the internet was in the early days was the advent of the Angelfire and Webring sites, remember those shitty prefab DIY sites? Once it became easy enough for those users to figure it out, I knew things were going to change.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:01:03 PM EDT

[#39]

I remember being on the internet in '96, but it was quite frustrating to say the least. The last 14 years have done much in the way of access and functionality.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:02:14 PM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:
BBSs as a kid in high school.

I was thinking "this idea needs alot more scale."

I miss 'em. They had a really fantastic built-in dumbass weeder-outer.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:06:17 PM EDT

[#41]

98' when I got my first computer and signed up for AOL.

Titties, titties everywhere...

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:06:24 PM EDT

[#42]

Damn, I just remembered, most of us are wrong, very wrong. I couldn't have been aware of the internet in 1989 or 90, Al Gore didn't invent it until 1992.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:21:45 PM EDT

[#43]

My first memory of the internet is when we got our first computer (a Compaq Presario) and that was around 96 I think. Before that I dont recall ever having used the internet.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:27:55 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Used to have to gopher information with my pals Archie and Veronica.

Well done

!

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:30:26 PM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
1993 or whenever prodigy came out, sucked balls paying by the minute.

Prodigy was out at least by 1988. I used to moonlight in 1988 at Electronic Boutique - engineer by day -software salesman at night. I sold enough Prodigy subscriptions to earn a crappy sweatshirt - which became my defacto 'work on the car' shirt so I wouldn't screw up my T-shirts..

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:33:22 PM EDT

[#46]

The early 90s... I dunno, 1992 or 1993.

Crap, it's almost 2011. Where are the hoverboards and flying cars, dammit...

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:39:49 PM EDT

[#47]

It was in '93 or '94.

I was a bill collector for a credit card lender.

One of my "debtors" told me he was going to pay off all of his debts by making money off the World Wide Web. I practically laughted him off the phone because I didn't know what he was talking about.

He's probably a millionare now...I always wondered how he came out.