Rewind the clock to 1992.  I was just starting college as a mathematics major in Southern Missouri.  I was interested in computer security back then and endeavored to learn as much as I could on the university's VM system that I had access to as students for email.

I spent a fair amount of time learning the nooks and crannies of the VM OS (as much as my access would allow me anyway) and learned that we were to get something called a UNIX system during the second semester of  '92.  It ran on AIX v3.2.1(?) and was a much more fertile environment for experimenting and learning how an OS worked.

As I said earlier, I was interested in computer security and had seen a book in the book store called, "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll before.  I went ahead and purchased it, read it in an entire afternoon and lent it to one of my friends to had a room in a frat house in which he had a modem that allowed us to dial into the university's network.

One day, this friend calls me and tells me to come over quickly.  He had been reading through there and decided to try one of the commands that Clifford Stoll had put into the book.  The command was called "telnet" and there was another one called, "FTP" that worked as well.

One thing lead to another and we discovered that our university's network was connected to something called the Internet that the computer staff of the University was striving to keep quiet.  We had attempted to use the "Bitnet" network before at school and had our accounts locked because it was strictly for research only.  The same approach was used at the University for this new network called the "Internet" but we started using it just the same.

Yes, our accounts were locked again (we weren't doing anything wrong per se just using the network that our computer staff didn't consider was important enough to allow us to use).  We had already let the cat out of the bag though and pretty soon all of the CS students were using it left and right.  By the first semester in '93, it was accepted by the computer staff that there were indeed academic benefits to letting us use it and so our use was allowed as long as our actions were "responsible".

I remember being completely fascinated by the fact that I was no longer captive to upload and download ratios of local bulletin boards to obtain utilities such as zip/unzip and graphics viewers, public domain games and so forth.  It would take another 4 years though before the computer bulletin boards in our area began to dwindle.

I can't tell you how many hours I wasted farting around with "C" programming and TCP/IP on that Unix system at school but it did pay off even though my grades showed that I spent more time in the computer lab than I did in my introductory undergraduate mathematics courses.  A very interesting time.

Well, what about the rest of you?  When did you first start to use the "Internet"?

95'ish. A few friends had AOL and that was back when there were only a few thousand net' sites. Good stuff, family got our own computer in 96' and life was never the same!

Internet? Whats that?

Quoted: Internet? Whats that?

Oh, sorry, "Interweb" ...

I have been online since Al Gore invented the internet.

if you're talking about WWW, it was in 1995 when I was working for CompuServe when they bought Spry, which had the Mosaic browser.

Didn't get internet until early 1994. When I was 13, however, I got my first modem (2400 baud external, parallel port interface) and ran up some outstanding phone bills dialing BBS numbers I found in the back of the Computer Shopper.

When I was 14 or perhaps 15 I signed up with The Sierra Network online gaming community to play multiplayer Red Baron, RPG Shadow of Yserbius and of course, chess.

I guess I had a technology blackout for about a year and a half...

P.S. they have the internet on computers now!!

Prodigy in 1991.

Quoted: I have been online since Al Gore invented the internet.

I have too!

Al is my Hero!

Danny

1993/94

NRA had a lobbying thing going on. Was given a startup deal with Netcom.com

Used a 386/20 with a hopping 14.4 modem in Win 3.1
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Now I have Cable AND wireless ISP's (each is a backup for the other) and about 20 Computers here at home.

Atleast I don't WORK on computers anymore ( that job was outsourced overseas ).

I dont remember exactly when, probably about 9-10 years aog when I was a wee lad.

Quoted: Didn't get internet until early 1994. When I was 13, however, I got my first modem (2400 baud external, parallel port interface) and ran up some outstanding phone bills dialing BBS numbers I found in the back of the Computer Shopper. When I was 14 or perhaps 15 I signed up with The Sierra Network online gaming community to play multiplayer Red Baron, RPG Shadow of Yserbius and of course, chess. I guess I had a technology blackout for about a year and a half... P.S. they have the internet on computers now!!

I was the first kid on my block to have a 2400bps modem.  Local bulletin boards sucked (all but one) so I was stuck subscribing to something called PCSprint which was an X.25 network with a local dial-up.  I used this to connect to bulletin board systems in CA that had much neater software although the file transfer times were cut in half because the only file transfer protocol that would work decently was X-modem (Z-modem was "the bomb" back then).

1995. Windows 3.11.  I was part of the beta test group when the telco I work for became an ISP.  We rolled out from the start with 28.8k dialup & upgraded within 6 months to 56k.  In 1998 we launched DSL at 512/256.  We are now offering 8mb in a few areas, many at 3mb & most at 1.7mb.

I used "the googles" to find the internets......

Back in '95 I signed on with the first internet provider in Goldsboro, NC.

I was running OS/2 at the time which the ISP didn't have any easy setup instructions for, so I had to do deal with my own troubleshooting. But I got it to work.

Was a few months before I could send email to anybody I knew.

By '96 I was playing Doom online using Kali since by then a bunch of my friends were also online finally.

I had my first domain name in '97 www.billparadise.com. Currenty don't have any.

I guess I was a little ahead of the power curve. At least in this part of the web.

I hooked up with AOHell back in 96, back when you paid by the minute.  My first bill after the trial period was for almost $300...  

1988 for the internet...

Not really the internet, but I was running a BBS back in 1986 on a Commodore 128, 1200 baud modem, and 4 floppy drives. I had to put the computer and drives up on Lego blocks, put pennies in the ventilation slots as heatsinks and aim a clip-on desk fan to keep it cool enough to run 24/7.

1984

Was a member of CompuServe when 300 baud was the standard and 1200 baud was the fastest available.



Vulcan94

1993 or so, had AOL and a 14.4k modem, it was awesome

incredible how i ever managed to browse the web at such slow download speeds.  downloading took a LONG time.

Quoted: 1988 for the internet... Not really the internet, but I was running a BBS back in 1986 on a Commodore 128, 1200 baud modem, and 4 floppy drives. I had to put the computer and drives up on Lego blocks, put pennies in the ventilation slots as heatsinks and aim a clip-on desk fan to keep it cool enough to run 24/7.

What's crazy is the amount of time it took to copy a 144k 5.25 floppy on my Apple //c back in the day.  A blazingly fast 1.0MHz 65C02 CPU.

Basically grew up with it.  I'm 24 and had from middle school on.

When did they start calling it the Internet?

I had an Apple IIE and a 300 baud modem.

Quoted: 1984 Was a member of CompuServe when 300 baud was the standard and 1200 baud was the fastest available. Vulcan94

I must have remembered this wrong ... BUT, CompuServe and GEnie weren't really part of the internet per se were they?  Early on, they were really just their own networks.  GEnie users weren't able to use the Internet until much later into the game if I remember correctly.  I may have CompuServe wrong though.

Quoted: Quoted: 1984 Was a member of CompuServe when 300 baud was the standard and 1200 baud was the fastest available. Vulcan94 I must have remembered this wrong ... BUT, CompuServe and GEnie weren't really part of the internet per se were they?  Early on, they were really just their own networks.  GEnie users weren't able to use the Internet until much later into the game if I remember correctly.  I may have CompuServe wrong though.

Technically your right.  Let's just call it "pre-internet'.


Vulcan94

Dialup into the local unviversity (300 baud). Path over to a different server, then telnet connect mit.edu . From there....

My dad was on the net in the early 70's (I forget the exact year) at Arizona State.  I suppose he was on arpanet.  He played chess with either GI's or university students in Germany.  

My first encounter with the internet was in 5th grade, which would have been in 1993-1994.  My first time seeing internet porn was 2 or 3 years later at a friend's house.  My first home internet connection, and my first big exposure to the net, was either in 2000 or 2001.

Years ago, my youngest boy had to show me what a computer was and how it worked.

Then later he told me that we needed that internet thingy.

Now, when he get's back from Iraq he can fix everything I f@cked up

GM

I started in 1992 as well, sending internet email via a dialup BBS with ANSI graphics.  
And I had to pay long distance charges...the closest BBS machines were in Cape and St Louis.  I had a 2400 modem.  Terminal was my friend.

**********************************************************************

**********************************************************************

*****PRESS  X   TO EXIT BBS **********************************************

I was working on it for about a year before Al Gore invented it.

In the early 70's using a Model 33 teletype with a 110 baud acoustic modem (and a paper tape reader) to dial into a local university's CDC 6400, through which I could connect to other CDC and Burroughs machines nationwide on some sort of research thingy they had connecting them back then.

Does that count?

Early '90s, computer science at the University of Wisconsin.  Usenet, Mosaic, Gopher, Lynx...

Quoted: In the early 70's using a Model 33 teletype with a 110 baud acoustic modem (and a paper tape reader) to dial into a local university's CDC 6400, through which I could connect to other CDC and Burroughs machines nationwide on some sort of research thingy they had connecting them back then. Does that count?

Porn took a little more imagination back then I bet.

A friends dad was a geek, and on his very fast circa 1994 computer he was car shopping.  On Fords website.  In my infinite wisdom, I told him that the ford dealer was right down the road and his pictures were lousy.  He promptly told me to scram.  

94' ~ and PORN the PORN BABY!!!!!!!!!        

Quoted: Quoted: In the early 70's using a Model 33 teletype with a 110 baud acoustic modem (and a paper tape reader) to dial into a local university's CDC 6400, through which I could connect to other CDC and Burroughs machines nationwide on some sort of research thingy they had connecting them back then. Does that count? Porn took a little more imagination back then I bet.

Two words: ANSI ASCII graphics

edit: wrong era.

BBS stuff by dial-up modem when I was in jr. high, which was like 1988-87 I believe.

MUDS, and interweb drama/romance, even way back then.

Fell out of it from high school until 1995 when I was like 21 years old and WWW/Mosiac/Netscape became prominent and my school had internet browser-capable computer labs.

AOL trial CD, was it 7 free hours???

Dial-up BBS' around 1987.  (1200 baud modem)

Compuserve around 1991.  (33.6k modem)

"Internet" (Usenet, Email) via Compuserve 1992.  Web around 1993.

1998
windows 3.1
14.4 modem
486\33mhz
16mb ram
navigator 2.02

Sometimes it took thirty minutes for a webpage to load\display

My first modem was a 300bps modem attached to an Apple //c 'puter with a color monitor.  That was back in '85.  In '86 I bugged my Dad enough and he bought a 2400bps modem.  You want to talk about FAST!?  Two years after that a buddy of mine bought a 9600 bps modem ...  

Late 1991 on my IBM PS1. I was using AOL back when it was called Promenade, and it's competition was Prodigy, which eventually failed.

It's come a long way since then. I don't remember what my first web page visit, but it must have been around 1996 or so.

comadore 64
300 baud
BBS

like one letter every five seconds(at least that how I remeber it)

and I thought it was hte coolest thing in the world.....


hell to play games I used a tape deck looking drive the ole comadore cassette drive...

Quoted: Prodigy in 1991.

Me too

Anyone remember MUDs on usenet?
Or Relay?

Quoted: Anyone remember MUDs on usenet? Or Relay?

Yeah I did a little from column 'A' and a little from column 'B'.  By 'relay I'm assuming you mean Internet Relay Chat.  Those forums back then largely consisted of folks who thought they were tougher than nails because they were well versed in 'leet speak  .

Come to think of it, they still do today.  

1990.

Freshman in the M&T (engineering and business) program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Got myself an e-mail account from my EE department ([email protected]) and it all started from there.

Don't get me started on MUDs and all that ... I wasted SO much time on those dinosaurs!

I dunno what "Leet speak" is... but we used relay to talk to friends back home.
Also the muds were a blast, wish they existed today.

Was initially exposed back in the mid to late 90's to AOL.  I was young at the time, and more interested in playing outside for the most part.  Once we moved out east in like 2000/2001, we picked up one of those new-fangled iMacs.  Been an IRCer, forumer, and general internet user ever since.

i am too young to remember.

Well, pre-internet I started to play around with a fascinating thing called Fidonet.  That was around 1989, but I never had a pay account at the local access bbs so I didn't get much use out of it.

My brother introduced me to the internet through Delphi back in about 1991/1992 when he was in college/grad school.  Of course, this was in the days of Archie/Gopher, so not much in the way of graphics (or content, as far as I could tell back then).

I went to college in fall 1994 and received my first internet email account and mainframe access.  This was on a VM system (VM/ESA) which I would access either through dumb terminals on campus, the few networked campus computers, or my own computer by calling up the modem bank.  I remember I used Procomm 1.4.3 and Procomm Plus 2.0 in those years.

I've been connected continuously since August 1994.