What was the internet like in the 90s?

[JechtShot]

- Took forever to download anything. I remember being one of the early users of Napster, greatest thing ever I thought at the time.
- I would use AOL instant messenger and hop from chat room to chat room. They also had Yahoo chat rooms that you could log in on a browser (used an applet) and you can even talk through the browser since voice chat was enabled. You could send those special codes to make the yahoo sound among other things.
- AOL disks were everywhere, literally. At the checkout line, the mail, newspaper, at your school. It was like the plague, jesus.
- Netzero, AOL, always hated when the dialed access numbers wouldn't work and you had to go to the next one, makes those ASCII tones lol.
- I remember when Yahoo and Altavista were like the main search engines, never heard of Google back then. Geocities LOL...

 

[OverVolt]

Technology was definitely less mainstream and kept out the riff raff.

 

[norseamd]

geocities was awesome

 

[dennilfloss]

Also the time when porn was on a yellow page run by a Hun, with just links, no thumbnails.

 

[bryanl]

1000 times slower but 10 times smarter.

 

[Demoralized]

Heh, anyone remember L'Hotel Chat?

I was one of the Lab Rats.

 

[Zorander]

I remember being very excited every time an MP3 file finished downloading and listening to it like a prized possession.

Emails were also the equivalent of today's IMs.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I first used BBS's circa 1994 and thought they were great. However when my father signed up for internet in 1996 it was amazing. I couldn't get enough and my poor old father had some crazy bills.

But it was obviously very primitive and crude compared to today. Those were the days that even major websites had page view counters and bouncing gifs.

My guess is that in another 20 years the likes of traditional TV broadcast will be obsolete and it will be streamed online (as is already happening).

 

[TheVrolok]

I know it's a necro, but can't help it.

I was first online on my P200 Pro with a 33.6. AOL was the only option although at one point I had to use NetZero because some forum I visited had AOL IP banned. I honestly don't remember, maybe it was actually AT?

Chat rooms on AOL like Gif1 through Gif8 and "sign me up on all lists" then waiting excitedly for "you've got mail!"

Profile punters and progs like Pepsi booting others off AOL.

IRC was fantastic. Spent a LOT of time on Dalnet and EsperNet.

Spent hours upon hours on MUDs (Apocalypse IV-V).

Hosted crappy websites on GeoCities.

Quake 1 Team Fortress, none of that TFC garbage. Was mind bogglingly good.

I still remember my ICQ number.

I could go on, those were the days.

 

[norseamd]

geocities had some great variety and indepedence of content. that is why i thought it was a good site

 

[Imaginer]

I still remember my ICQ number.

The only reason why I would even remember mine now, is from the number I inputted when I first made (or added to early on) of this Anandtech account.

Oh look, it is still there!

Pretty much, the Internet back then was not as cluttered in junk - memes and other things. Things were only much quicker to find, because there was not much junk to sift through.

I do not miss the slowness.

Porn - you have to definitely set the browser to load things pixelated before, otherwise, the whole "gotcha" with face to body thing in loading line by line top down (and even then it can be corrupted).

And Tucows. A collection of free (along with trial and shareware) utilities that can be great - kind of like the back then app store - even complete with ratings and descriptions.

Netscape Gold I used on dial up days. Firefox during my college days, but transitioned to Opera afterwards. Firefox back then was much better than Firefox now (this is not even back far in the back then machine).

And less not forget, that GRATING sound of dial up connecting and the potential to tie up land line phone for internet usage... a second land line was definitely needed if one wanted to be connected for a long period without having to miss calls.

 

[sdifox]

lulz I still remember my icqnumber too

 

[Ns1]

And less not forget, that GRATING sound of dial up connecting and the potential to tie up land line phone for internet usage... a second land line was definitely needed if one wanted to be connected for a long period without having to miss calls.

God forbid you were at the end of a marathon Warcraft session and someone called you.

Goddamn, network configuration for those early multiplayer games were brutal.

 

[Fritzo]

 

[Gooberlx2]

Oh man, compuserve and searching for my first boob pics. It was a revelation.

Getting Doom 2 to cooperate for dial-up multiplayer was an infuriating experience. Quakeworld and GameSpy changed everything.

I didn't do BBS much, but IRC was an interesting and weirdo world. Best way to exchange anime and whatnot at one time.

 

[QueBert]

dial up + call waiting = sux0rs when you were trying to do anything online. I know you could disable it but my roommate got heated when I'd tie up the land line while I was downloading the 6 floppy disk version of Street Fighter 2.

 

[sdifox]

dial up + call waiting = sux0rs when you were trying to do anything online. I know you could disable it but my roommate got heated when I'd tie up the land line while I was downloading the 6 floppy disk version of Street Fighter 2.

This is why I had a dedicated phone line.

 

[Ns1]

This is why I had a dedicated phone line.

baller.

 

[OutHouse]

We got our first computer in year 2000 or so and the internet had come out around that time.

lol whut?

 

[ImpulsE69]

LOL. I remember the call waiting fiasco..I promptly had it shut off. I didn't want to pay for a second line, until a few years later, but I used that line for another modem lol.

 

[raildogg]

It might have been slower but it was more enjoyable, if that is the right word, to use. I remember signing on to AOL and going to the Cartoon Network channel. Then Yahoo and then other places. Getting on AIM was nice too.

The goal of always going faster and faster does not always mean "better." I don't know but I think the internet is not really helping many people out there. But I don't know too much so I better stop.

 

[dennilfloss]

I remember the unending arguments over winmodems vs hardware modems on the forums. Playing Quake 3 Arena on the server of an AnandTech member, using a winmodem.

 

[sdifox]

baller.

When your download is less than 200cps, a second phoneline is vital.

There was no resume.

 

[Ns1]

When your download is less than 200cps, a second phoneline is vital.

There was no resume.

yes, so us poor people had things like "download managers". LOL, download managers...