AOL, and then MSN mixed with Juno, freei and netzero depending on what gave me better ping. FreeI was pretty good because you could connect kill the program and avoid the ads and get better ping. MSN 4 was ok but 5 and 6 were horrible for awhile. Juno and NetZero were ok but nothing amazing. AOL was aol, I used to like the chat rooms when I was a kid and messing with gopher.
I initially got "online" with local BBS's back in '89 using my 2400 baud modem. That branched out to Cleveland freenet, I think. I consistently called BBSs up until...
I eventually got to the "internet" in '94, I think, using Pipeline. (or was it GNN? Not sure which was first) Over the years, I've also used Flashnet, Comcast cable, Road Runner cable, Mindspring, Earthlink DSL, Suscom Cable and currently back with Comcast since they bought out Suscom a couple of years ago.
ISP? No idea, I was doing BBS stuff (direct dial) for years before I had an ISP... maybe it was Prodigy for a little while when I got a free trial? I dunno.
I too started on BBSs back in the day - I had a couple I'd dial into in the mid/late 80s with my c64 (my first modem was 300 baud). Eventually I ended up on a PC dialing into better BBSs with online, multi player text strategy games, the ones you'd get a certain number of turns per day.
I want to say my first Internet service provider was Netcom, but I wasn't with them long. I switched to a local company Anet around '92-'93, that was then bought out by Access US. I still have that address as my primary home address.
Dial-up, I don't remember the name (Net_______). It was small and dead now. Overall, an atrocious ISP. They use to shut us down or something after 9pm. For as long as we used them, it was impossible to get online after 9pm. We had to schedule use around that.
Started with local phone company dial up, also used freeweb/netzero in the mid 90's. FreeWeb was the best, no banners, no ads, no software, just free 56k access.
Prodigy (14.4k)
AOL (14.4k, later 33.6k)
WOW (33.6k - It was the first ISP that I had that was "Unlimited")
Mindspring (33.6k, later 56k)
Earthlink (Mindspring was bought out by Earthlink - 56k)
Alltel (1.5 meg)
Windstream (Alltel was bought out by Windstream - 1.5 meg, later 3.0 meg... Currently waiting on the 2008 speed increase. Should be able to get 12 meg + in a few months.)
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