What Era Did You First Get on the Interweb?

[Majestic]

Well I thought I might do the Polling Team's job this week/fortnight.

 

[Avon]

Around 1999 for me. It's funny, I was never really into computers much. It was actually my mum who suggested I would like it, and should get one. How right she was (god rest her sole)

 

[Terra_Inc]

It was our first PC. Originally, we had just bought it for games (not what the young ones play today, this was 'Education', lol) and writing stuff. Then when the Internet came up, we just signed up for AOL and a 28k connection we had until about a year ago. I was just a little kitteh back then, so me and my sis had only one hour of surfing per week. I miss the Web 1.0...

 

[Majestic]

I think it was 1998 for me, however I didn't really get fully into it until probably 1999/2000 when I discovered ICQ and could chat with my friends *cough* girls *cough* from school. I still remember my first email address/addy too from that time: Lennier77@hotmail.com

 

[Starfox1701]

Did my first hunting and pecking in high school

 

[-RJB-]

It was around 94 or 95 for me. Ah the good old days of dial-up on a 14.4k modem.

 

[CABAL]

I think it was around '98 or '99, which would have put me at seven or eight. That's more when my parents decided to start letting me use the internet than when we got it though.

 

[Zelph]

Think it would be some time around '97 or so, my parents got the 30 Day Free Trial for AOL. Good times, of course, the only sites my eight-year old self was aware of were the Animorphs and Beast Wars ones...

 

[Undying_Nephalim]

when I discovered ICQ and could chat with my friends *cough* girls *cough* from school.[/email]

You and me both.
That's pretty much how I discovered the internet back sometime around 2003ish. A year later I found A2 files. I remember it took about 8 hours to download the Dominion Ultimate mod in my dial up back then...

 

[Hellkite]

1986

Spoiler: my first computer

IBM Convertible PC

Model: 5140 "Convertible"

Weight: 12 pounds / 5.5 kg
CPU: Intel 80C88 @ 4.77 MHz
RAM: 256K, 512K max
Display: LCD - 80 X 25 text
640 X 200 graphics
Storage: two internal floppies
3-1/2 inch, 720K each
Ports: expansion bus
Peripherals: thermal printer
serial, parallel ports
CRT display adapter
Power: 12vdc, pin +
OS: PC-DOS 3.2, BASIC

And I had a external modem that you had to place the phone head set on the modem looked a lot like this one

 

[CABAL]

After Hellkite's post I'm now very interested in how long LCD displays have been around. I thought they were relatively recent, not dating back to the DOS era.

 

[Hellkite]

[video=youtube;w6SGsqy6T-I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6SGsqy6T-I&feature=player_embedded[/video]

A long time ago CABAL but these were black and white... think calculator and wristwatch displays

 

[CABAL]

You know, I completely forgot that watches and calculators use LCD displays, lol.

 

[Adm_Z]

I am right on the edge between 1990's and 2000. I think it would have been around '99, but I can be sure so I chose 2001+

 

[Atlantis]

1997: Started secondary school, so will have probably used a VERY restricted Internet there. I think. Most of the computers there were still using Windows 3.11 then, though, and I can't remember using the Internet on anything pre-Win95, so maybe this wasn't until 1998...

1998: Found out my local library had pay-by-hour Internet access. Started going there, downloading small (to fit on 3.5" floppy disks) mods for the Sims, and, when it came out in 1999, STA1.

1999: Got a cheap modem and CD for connecting to Yahoo. Discovered MSN, Napster, etc. Only plugged it in when the parents were away, as it meant trailing a wire through most of the house and down the stairs. Not allowed to use it much, as even at 1p a minute it cost the parents a small fortune, and as they ran their own business at home, they didn't like me using the phone line too much.

2000: Parents buy second phone line, and have it put in to the computer room. Whoop!

2003: BROADBAND.

 

[Majestic]

I started High School as well in 1997. However I didn't get broadband until like 2004/5. I had a 30 meter phoneline running from downstars up to my room and in 2004/5 we replaced it with a broadband one. Using the phone line to pull it through. When my Mum sold the house in 2009 I pulled it out, but due to the addition of ducted air con, it took ages, god it was dusty up there. So I how have in a box a 30 meter broadband/network cable.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

In 2002 I had my first internet connection when my family moved back from southern Berlin to northeastern Berlin and we got us a 56k-Modem. Armada 1&2 made me get into forums and enjoy the interactive side of the internet from early on.
Since then I watched and sometimes participated in all the inventions and evolutions in internet communications. I am an avid reader of multiple forums and blogs concerning my hobbies and my work, but I could never really get accustomed to facebook or other not-so-social networking sites. It's just that I'd rather share my life with my friends off-line then put it all on the internet. I am especially suspicious of pictures of me being on the internet. (there are two images showing me on a webpage, which would be the page of the Berlin Red Cross and you would have to spot me among a lot of other folks wearing the same white, grey and red colours )

When I got DSL I was so happy for trashing that lame 56k connection. Two years later I moved again and was stuck with UMTS because in the street where I live, there are no DSL cables...... and I do not trust WLAN.