Poll: When did you first get online? Newsgroups? BBS?

[dude]

Dude, I must have been using the newsgroups since about 1991 or so when my Onyx BBS finally started carrying it! It took alot of begging and nagging!

Hell, I even ran my own BBS, although I only had two phone lines

For those of you too young to know what a BBS is, it's like AOL. But not quite that lame. Was logging on at 9,600 baud. That was slower than 14.4k modem dudes! Then I upgraded to a blazing Hayes (remember them?) 14.4k external modem for only $250 or so. BBS's were so much fun. Everyone knew each other because most everyone was local because back them, there was only dialup, DSL was a far way down the road!

Anyways, back to topic. My favorite group was alt.2600 and all the anime groups, especially the for sale groups, which I've used extensively before these snazzy online auctions came about!
Hell, I remember being desperate and having to sell my 4mb SIMMs for a big loss at $160 each! I also remember trying to buy the Kimagure Orange Road 6 CD Box set for $400 but no one would give it up. Missed the damn order deadline!

 

[AU Tiger]

Can't remember when I started using BBSs.

I remember using TIN for newsgroups via my university unix account back in 92 or 93.

 

[Maggotry]

It was about 91 or so. I was on Prodigy with my super-awesome 286. It had an insane 1MB of memory and an enormous 20MB HD. I think I had a 2400 Baud modem. CGA graphics. Sweet.

 

[FoBoT]

i built my first PC in 1993, and got a blazing 14.4kbps US Robotics modem (only $275 :Q ) to get online/BBS's

before that , back in about 1982-83, my dad had a tandy (110 baud modem) at work and he had some type of account to Genie or one of those ancient things, i got online and played some star trek type text game and racked up ~$300 bill! :Q (but i paid him back )

 

[AaronP]

about 91-92

 

[kgraeme]

I remember using a modem with the rubber cups to put a phone handset into for the tone connections. I remember ARPAnet. I remember when Bob McElwain was the insane cross-poster, off-topic whackjob of UseNet. I remember when Gopher was the cutting edge of hyperlinking before the web was born.

Edit: I remember when AOL was announced using Mac technology only and it was a nice place.

 

[Flashram]

BBS. Believe it was called Zap. Those were the days.

 

[dude]

Originally posted by: kgraeme
I remember using a modem with the rubber cups to put a phone handset into for the tone connections. I remember ARPAnet. I remember when Bob McElwain was the insane cross-poster, off-topic whackjob of UseNet. I remember when Gopher was the cutting edge of hyperlinking before the web was born. Edit: I remember when AOL was announced using Mac technology only and it was a nice place.

Wow! I remember all of these things too! Remember when having telnet access was the shiznit. Also, had alot of other telnet accounts to telnet to and from. Using pine, vi bledit, spoofing, writing programs in pearl for unix on my web page (this was later) and doing a pretty large site, complex frames, etc, all using a text editor! :Q And a Mac! :Q :Q I don't remember anything about AOL or using Mac technology. I used BBS's only and never touched AOL or Prodigy back then. Nor now.

I'm surprised there were actually people that used it before the internet boom!

 

[dude]

LOL! This was back then with my blazin Mac! 16mhz, 4 megs of ram, 256k video, 13" monitor. And I got it cheap, too! Only a little over $3500! Whooppeeee!
And I got a HP LaserJet 4 for only $1200, I believe.... Still have it to this day, in a closet. I now use a Tektronix color laser... bah

 

[Pundit]

My friend had a C64 BBS and I was logging on with my PS/2 and playing some of the games. Of course, he would let me cheat by giving me infinite cash or something like that.

I still remember some of the questions you had to answer when joining a new BBS: are you a cop? how long have you been modeming? Auto-verification to confirm your phone #. Those days were so cool.

Circa 1988 I believe.

 

[murphy55d]

I think it was95 or 96(voted for 96). Had a 33.6 modem with an AMD k-6, AST Adventure! system, with AOL. Still have it too, sittin right here on the floor. (not aol, the system)

 

[Derango]

The first ISP I used was prodigy back when the DOS version was in its prime. Then we moved to Compuserve, then onto a little known service called WOW, an extremely buggy compuserve experiment that went horribly wrong. Then I spent the obligitory time on AOL, quickly moving off that to a local ISP. After a few years, Road Runner came though town, and I'm on that right now.

 

[dude]

The best part about all this was I was 14 or 15 and paid for all this junk! Yep, a job helped (computer tech/repair of all fields!)

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: dude
I don't remember anything about AOL or using Mac technology.

Yep, AOL started out Mac-only. Prior to AOL, Apple had a bbs for developers called AppleLink. (I was on it.) AOL took the AppleLink idea and built the first gui online service. It was only on the Mac and it was actually pretty cool and a very polite and happy place. As they grew and competed with Compuserve, they brought out a PC client. That's when it hit the bit-bucket. It attracted the clueless on the one hand as well as the obnoxious kids. What's interesting is that a few years later, Apple licensed AOL tech back and created eWorld, their attempt at a Mac-only online service. It failed.

 

[NetworkDad]

1991 - BBS, pacifier i think

 

[toph99]

my friend's dad first showed me the net when i was 9-10, after about a year i started using it more often(i'm 17 now) on our mac powerbook laptop(16mb of ram baby!) and i became an addict after we got out blazing PII 233, i still have the original US Robotics 56k modem. the mac ran on an external 14.4 which we upgraded to a 28.8(still have that one) i joined just as the net was getting good

 

[GiGoLo]

Renegade BBS's in the late 80's on my 1200 baud modem those were the days... downloading warez copies of kings quest, eye of the beholder, bards tale, all in 1.44mb files hehe

 

[Supermercado]

It was about 1996 when I was big into Customizable Card Games. I used to visit the website of the company that made the Star Wars game's website and talk on their bulletin boards.

 

[rip22]

middle of 95 was the first time i got introduced to it. Been a hardcore surfer since early 96

 

[abc]

i used to have a external modem, a 14.4 Supra modem and would connect to local BBS's. Wasn't there a thick BBS monthly magazine? They changed their format as the times changed to more Internet stuff.

i remember trying out a friend's AOL waaaay back then when Compuserve was still around. I remember asking somebody how the weather was in their area heh heh, but other than that never used AOL.

 

[wnied]

C64 BBS user here also. Early 1989 - 1990 when I started. Was when you could have your own BBS with the commodore, but your BBS was limited as to how many users, according to how many phone lines you had. Many a time we spent sitting and recalling a BBS to see what someone replied to a post we left.

Busy Signal, Busy Signal, WOOHOO we're Through!!!
~wnied~

 

[notfred]

first time I ever used a modem was to play falcon 3.0 against a friend of mine, at 2400baud.

First time Iw as really online was on a 14.4, with win 3.1 and mosaic, I beleive.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I started using a thing called Peachnet around 1993. It was totally text-based, and I quickly discovered all the "action" was in the usenet newsgroups, especially Binaries

Edit: We used a Macintosh LCIII at the time and connected at 9600 baud I believe.

 

[Random Variable]

I started using Prodigy in 1991.

 

[FrustratedUser]

Rather late I would say.
'95.