Your first experiences with the internet

I remember going onto the internet (or rather opening up a browser window and being faced with a search engine) and thinking "this is boring".
Then I discovered Neopets, post by post RPGs, and Horseland.

Also the whole "get off, I need to use the phone!" cries, the "stop going onto the internet, the connection is too noisy!" and having to find dial up cables when my father confiscated them.

 

Some dumb ones:
- when it first came out, not realizing it used the phone lines or existing infrastructure
- not realizing you could forward a message, so I recopied them and sent them individually in one instance when I was on vacation and had to send something back to several people at my place of work
- sweaty palms when making my first big on-line purchase, an airline ticket at a price that was too good for the distance, in the $700+ price range
- knowing that you CAN tell whose looking at you on Facebook if you begin to type in their name and they show up toward the top, or so I'm told

 

The first time I had Internet was when my parents got me a CD at Wal-Mart (they had them hanging by the checkout stand for free) that gave you access to dial-up for $9.99 a month or so, although the first time I got it, it was limited to x amount of hours, and then the new versions gave you unlimited versions of dial-up. Here are how the CD's looked for those too young to remember the era of the AOL CD.




Wow, I'm old. Where has my life gone?

The Internet was very slow by today's standards; fortunately, many websites had simple HTML designs so they weren't "heavy." One day, my parents got tired of not being able to use the phone, so we got DSL through Southwestern Bell.

I remember going to my first adult site when I got the Internet. For better or worse, our only computer at that time was in my room (you know, for school stuff). I also learned to erase my history pretty quickly after my dad saw some of my history when he used Internet Explorer (because I had Netscape Navigator all clean, but forgot to adjust IE's privacy settings).

I never went on chat rooms because it always seemed a little creepy to me.

 

Good god o.o That just makes me want to live in Rural Britain less and less like how phone Internet signal just completely collapses the moment I get onto a country road -.- (and strangely on motorways :s). The dial-up modem sound made my day though, I remember when it was normal to have to wait five minutes to load a website.

My first experiences as a child I can't really remember. I just remember the modem and the it taking forever to load. As a teenager, my first experience with the Internet was MSN ^^

 

A lot of Neopets and Runescape. I think that the very first thing I did was set up an email account, and I remember fighting to get computer privileges at the age of 6 or 7. Now-a-days I see two and three year old kids playing with I-phones and I-Pads.

 

By god, I haven't seen an AOL CD in quite some time. We had dial-up although I could not remember when, all I remember is I got really quite annoying using dial-up internet. I wish I had a computer in my room and learned how to clear the internet history when I was in about middle school aged. I went into chatrooms always within AIM but then I got yelled at, I never did anything bad...I would always play it safe even though no one else knew I knew how to be safe on the internet at such a young age.

---------- Post added 27th Jun 2013 at 02:09 PM ----------

Does anyone remember Jagex? Or whatever that site was?

 

It seems to me I even saw those AOL CDs included as inserts in newspapers or magazines, which seemed so wasteful. I think AOL was distributed by floppy disk earlier, and at least you could reformat that and get some use out of it.

My first experience was roughly 1997. I visited a library that had Internet access. They used PowerMacintosh computers, and the web browser was Netscape.

Then...there was a really long gap. The library system I lived in did not have Internet, except text-only (which was increasingly pointless). Cash resources did not allow me to upgrade my own computer, plus there was little practical need. Eventually, my-then home library system got graphical Internet, and I started using that. My branch was right off the main path I took, so it wasn't particularly inconvenient.

 

I remember my first time on the Internet was when my family first moved and my parents decided to get it via Bell to get with the times so to speak. My first uses of it were with going on websites for game cheats and glitches for my N64 games. I then discovered MMOs and forums, to which lead to my Internet usage today.

 

For old time's sake.
[YOUTUBE]gsNaR6FRuO0[/YOUTUBE]

You can see the floppy disk in this ad! This was about 5 years before I had internet, but it's still fun to watch.

[YOUTUBE]1npzZu83AfU[/YOUTUBE]

 

LOL. All this talk about early internet, and I've just realised my new laptop doesn't have an ethernet port. I got it six months ago and I've only just noticed.

 

2400 bps dial-up to a shell account. This was about 20 years ago when I was seven. I remember going to a site in Russia using Lynx, and everyone was like "Holy %^%% we're connected to a computer in Russia!"

 

One of the earliest occasions I remember is when my sister got me to make an account on this chat site she went to ofte and got me to talk to this girl on there (my nickname was dragonboy or something, I was such a romeo). Then we said we'd chat again the next day and it felt like really something and my sister was all like omggg you've got a date!! and we told our parents and they were like oh son you should watch out with those kinda things.

So then the next day, I was on the same chat site, waiting for her, but she never showed up. So yeah.

 

No No stop that shit!

 

I am 25 now and my first experience with the internet was through a dial up where I have to buy an internet card. I remember netscape was the browser back then. After a while I use internet explorer. I just used to visit websites like cartoon network and play games in there. Until I discovered... DragonMoon. The rest is history.

 

My family got our first computer when I was in 6th grade. I had used the internet a few times before at a friend's house, but that was the first time I had steady access. I loved sending emails!

 

I created my first yahoo account when I was 13 years old (and I've forgotten the password, therefore I'm sure I have 7-8 years worth of unread e-mails).

 

I don't really remember.

Back then I mostly used BBSes which had internet connections, especially ones that had USENET access. I also had Prodigy access and use the bulletin boards there a lot.

I remember NCSA Mosaic being a big deal, but I didn't have a computer at the time which could run it. The company my Dad worked for bought a workstation with the new OS Windows NT 3.1. I got a chance to play with it for a while. I think by this time Netscape Navigator was out. I didn't like the web as it was too damn slow to load with all of the pictures. I didn't need it, I just wanted the text. Gave up on it and went back to usenet.

Then I saw a usenet post about another new Microsoft OS, codenamed Chicago. By this time I had gotten ahold of a copy of Windows 3.0 and looking in the manual I noticed an address. It was "Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way Redmond Washington. So on a lark I mailed them a letter. In the letter I simply said I would like to be a beta tester for the new OS code named Chicago.

Then about 3 months later the mailman drops off this big envelope at the house. It was from Microsoft. It was a Non-Disclosure Agreement and information on the beta test program. I signed it (I was 12 at the time and my parents knew nothing about this.) and mailed it back. A couple of weeks later I came home from school and my mom asked why Microsoft sent me a package. I told her what was up and since it was free she didn't care.

I opened it up and it had 25 3.5" floppy disks. It also also included Compuserve software, along with instructions on how to activate my free Compuserve account. Compuserve was used for the beta program feedback, discussions, and bug reports. So I had free Compuserve access for the duration of the beta program. Then at the end of it all I got a free retail copy of Windows 95 for my troubles. When it was all said and done, I had collected at least 300 floppy disks. I erased them and removed the labels, then I gave away to friends. We never had to buy a floppy disk again. All in all not a bad deal.

 

Starfish's is by far my favorite

 

Starfish, I'm wondering: what was that beta Windows 95 experience like?

I remember when Windows 95 shipped hearing of people who had huge problems, particularly with trying to run it on older hardware (which was theoretically capable). Even when all was sort of OK, I can recall all the complaints about the Blue Screen of Death.

Although I will say Windows 95 was a major product historically

 

It was when I took up playing the guitar again .i would look up singers and there music. I remember looking up Elvis , seeing him doing his songs at the height of his career. I was so excited , then seeing him at the end was very sad seems the only joy left for him was when he perform. Still bothers me today