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  • How long have you been online

    Can anybody beat this?

    I started back on COMPUSERVE (remember them?) back in 1985. I was using a TRS-80 model 4 with 128K of RAM and a 4mHz Z80 CPU 2 single-sided 184K 5&1/4 floppy drives and an external 300 baud (0.3K) modem.

    I actually purchased some model train cars from a hobby shop in the "mall".

    It was all text-only and the nearest "portal" was in Rapid City, SD about 350 miles away, yep, long distance.

    I moved up to a Tandy 1000 (8088) and later a 1000TX (80286 & a 20 meg HD) with internal 1200 baud modems, man was that fast!
    sigpicUSS North Dakota

  • #2
    I got online late. My first modem (that I actually used) was a US Robotics Winmodem. It was 28.8k software upgradable to 33.6k. The realistic speed was 31.6k. ISA interface on my Pentium 133 with 16MB of RAM. I still have the modem. It's in my Baby AT box running a Pentium 233MMX. I think I bought the modem in 1996 or 1997. Then I moved to cable modem around 1997 or 1998.
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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    • #3
      I'm sure I had used the internet a little bit in the 90s but I didn't become a regular user until 2001 when I started posting at forums and started the one that can be considered as the grandaddy of this one we are on posting right now.

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      • #4
        Dorked around on a local BBS via something called Frognet (I think) a bit on my dad's 8086, probably back in 1988 or so. A few years later I had a 14.4 modem and used Prodigy for online arguing, moved through 28.8 to DSL and local dialin access. Then in 1997 I actually went to work for ANS just before we were bought by Worldcom, and I spent more time troubleshooting and configuring modems and routers than I did using them for my own purposes. :)

        Once I moved here (MN) in 2001 I switched to cable modem and never looked back. I think I still have some old modem cards in my closet somewhere. One of them might even work. I have a Cisco 2501 in there too, I think.

        I was aware of usenet and MUDs and the like but somehow avoided them.

        Ahh, the interwebs...

        -dale

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        • #5
          Originally posted by 2DREZQ View Post
          Can anybody beat this?

          I started back on COMPUSERVE (remember them?) back in 1985. I was using a TRS-80 model 4 with 128K of RAM and a 4mHz Z80 CPU 2 single-sided 184K 5&1/4 floppy drives and an external 300 baud (0.3K) modem.

          I actually purchased some model train cars from a hobby shop in the "mall".

          It was all text-only and the nearest "portal" was in Rapid City, SD about 350 miles away, yep, long distance.

          I moved up to a Tandy 1000 (8088) and later a 1000TX (80286 & a 20 meg HD) with internal 1200 baud modems, man was that fast!
          I definitely remember COMPUSERVE! Before that we used this machine called a typewriter to type of the ID card applications! Now when I use a typewriter it seems so foreign!
          “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
          "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
          sigpic

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          • #6
            Do those old text games count from the late 80's early 90's?
            Originally posted by GVChamp
            College students are very, very, very dumb. But that's what you get when the government subsidizes children to sit in the middle of a corn field to drink alcohol and fuck.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Expat Canuck View Post
              Do those old text games count from the late 80's early 90's?
              The online ones?

              -dale

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              • #8
                First got on-line in '97.
                AOL-itis set in big time.Wife and I used to scrap over who was on.
                Good times.
                "Where are the Carriers?"

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                • #9
                  Jesus Christ I went online in 2005, I feel like a dinosaur !
                  Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
                  - John Stuart Mill.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Expat Canuck View Post
                    Do those old text games count from the late 80's early 90's?
                    You mean MUD, Multi User Dungeon? I suppose that would count.

                    Back in the old days, before the internet reached our homes and Al Gore invented the World Wide Web, there was this thing called Network 23 in my area. A guy literally bought 23 phone lines and connected 23 modems on a computer to let people call in and talk to each other over the computer. It was the earliest form of "chat room" we have today. I suppose that counts as being online.

                    No, I was never on it. My friends have though. I don't use chat rooms even to this day.
                    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                    • #11
                      1996, MSN dial up 9,600kbit which then rapidly became 33kbit. Because of where I lived I only got broadband in 2003!

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                      • #12
                        First use of computers: early 1990s (I was only born in 1987)
                        First use of internet under parental supervision: late 1990s
                        Regular use of internet under parental supervision: 2000ish
                        Unmonitored regular use of the internet: 2001ish

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                        • #13
                          My first computer was a Sinclairs ZX which ran on audio tape!


                          "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                          I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                          HAKUNA MATATA

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                          • #14
                            I first used the internet in 1995 at the latest. I used to play green-screen games on my dad's IBM in 1989.
                            "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                            • #15
                              February 99.
                              In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                              Leibniz

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