First internets experience?

[shafnutz05]

The first game I played via modem was Doom (the old deathmatches).

[newarenanow]

Freshman year in college, I remember going to the computer lab and emailing my friends. It was pretty cool. I remember we'd go up all drunk at night and type drunken emails. We thought we were hilarious (looking back, we were idiots).

That was teh first I remember.

Honestly, it was amazing how much changed in the 5 years from when I was a freshman in college to the first year I was out of school.

1) Freshman year in college, I bet only 3 or 4 people I knew had a computer in their dorm room. You had to use the computer lab. And no one really went on the internet because there really wasn't much. We used to keep our fantasy FB team stats in notebooks for god's sake! And then within the next 5 years, everyone had a laptop or some form of computer in their dorm room. No one went to the computer lab.

2) Cell phones. I knew 2 people with a cell phone in college, and you could only use it after 9pm because it cost a lot of money to call prior to that. I remember at 9, I'd use my roomates phone to first call my girlfriend and talk for like 20 minutes, and then call my parents every once in a while. Other than that, you had to use a phone card to make off campus calls. 5 years later, my first year out of school, everyone had a cell phone and you could call whenever you wanted.

3) DVD players. I was the only person i my frat with a DVD player. Everyone else had tape players still. When I graduated, like 2 years later, no one had a VHS.

Just in the span from 1996 - 2001, I think technology changed big time. It was the most drastic change I can think of. Sure, there are advances every day, but I think in those 5 years, technology took a HUGE leap into digitial technology.

[jprolley]

A/S/L?

[SoupOrSam]

1996. AOL. Right about the time of the new 19.95 flat fee was introduced.

Making punters and other various proggies. Sitting in the vb private rooms. Making Overhead accounts to spam, gag, and TOS the LAMERZ. Exploiting just about every feature AOL pumped out until I finally got Adelphia cable for a connection. By that time, AOL was pretty much dead with Version 532. Fun times though.

Man, I remember when if you wanted an mp3 you would wait for the people pumping the warez group mailing lists out so you could wait 45 minutes just to hear FILE'S DONE for your new mp3. Load up Winamp and BAM!

Who knew making AOL proggies would lead to what I am today, lol. I still keep up with quite a few of the people from those private rooms.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

I remember when we first got the internet at my house in the late 90's (probably around 97/98). When using the dial-up connection for AOL, there were a handful of 412 #'s to use. At busy times of the night (around 9PM), it was almost impossible to get online because so many people were trying to dial in. I used to change my dial in number to some remote city in the US because I knew that Id have no problem logging in. It used to drive my dad nuts because he would get outrageous phone bills because it was like making a long distance call for hours.

[canaan]

1996. AOL. Right about the time of the new 19.95 flat fee was introduced.

Making punters and other various proggies. Sitting in the vb private rooms. Making Overhead accounts to spam, gag, and TOS the LAMERZ. Exploiting just about every feature AOL pumped out until I finally got Adelphia cable for a connection. By that time, AOL was pretty much dead with Version 532. Fun times though.

Man, I remember when if you wanted an mp3 you would wait for the people pumping the warez group mailing lists out so you could wait 45 minutes just to hear FILE'S DONE for your new mp3. Load up Winamp and BAM!

Who knew making AOL proggies would lead to what I am today, lol. I still keep up with quite a few of the people from those private rooms.

i wonder if weve ever came across each other on AOL. I did some work with a decently-sized hacker prog called AOIce and we had a decently-knit gathering of like-minded individuals. never got into phishing or anything destructive, but enjoyed the TOS banning of people with differing opinions.

[JS©]

Man, I remember when if you wanted an mp3 you would wait for the people pumping the warez group mailing lists out so you could wait 45 minutes just to hear FILE'S DONE for your new mp3. Load up Winamp and BAM!

The worst was when you were getting a solid 5.1 kbps, you were 95% finished with a song, and you'd see the download speed gradually drop.

About 5 seconds later, click click.....{{AOL voice}} Goodbye!

[llipgh2]

1985 - working for CMU's School of Computer Science.

Email and bboards and ftp, oh my!

I loved it.

EDIT - I can't believe I forget this:

Spoiler:

and my first workstation:

Spoiler:

[malkinshair]

[pressure=9Pa]

Freshman year in college, I remember going to the computer lab and emailing my friends. It was pretty cool. I remember we'd go up all drunk at night and type drunken emails. We thought we were hilarious (looking back, we were idiots).

That was teh first I remember.

Honestly, it was amazing how much changed in the 5 years from when I was a freshman in college to the first year I was out of school.

1) Freshman year in college, I bet only 3 or 4 people I knew had a computer in their dorm room. You had to use the computer lab. And no one really went on the internet because there really wasn't much. We used to keep our fantasy FB team stats in notebooks for god's sake! And then within the next 5 years, everyone had a laptop or some form of computer in their dorm room. No one went to the computer lab.

2) Cell phones. I knew 2 people with a cell phone in college, and you could only use it after 9pm because it cost a lot of money to call prior to that. I remember at 9, I'd use my roomates phone to first call my girlfriend and talk for like 20 minutes, and then call my parents every once in a while. Other than that, you had to use a phone card to make off campus calls. 5 years later, my first year out of school, everyone had a cell phone and you could call whenever you wanted.

3) DVD players. I was the only person i my frat with a DVD player. Everyone else had tape players still. When I graduated, like 2 years later, no one had a VHS.

Just in the span from 1996 - 2001, I think technology changed big time. It was the most drastic change I can think of. Sure, there are advances every day, but I think in those 5 years, technology took a HUGE leap into digitial technology.

You got in and out of college one year ahead of me. My freshman year, we may have been the only dorm room on our floor where both roommates had their own computers. I remember that web addresses were usually short abbreviations, and not every company had one. By my third year of college, it was almost impossible to make a call out of our fraternity because the 8-10 phone lines were occupied by computers. By the time I left, we had a computer lab in a library of our house entirely on a cable network. A couple of guys had wireless, but it wasn't common. It's mind-boggling that this progression was less than five years.

As far as phone calls, 1800CALLATT, 10-10-321, calling cards, etc. were the norm when I went to college. Cells were expensive, unless you called at night. By the time I left, 75% of incoming freshman had cell phones.

To the OP, I remember a friend having prodigy in the mid-1990's, but didn't really understand what he was doing with it. I started using Netscape with a dial up in the summer of 1997, right after I graduate high school. I had this conversation with a buddy recently: If you were two years older than me and you were on the internet in high school, you were a "computer nerd". If you were two years younger than me and not on the internet in high school, there was something wrong with you.

[PensFanInDC]

Prodigy message boards. Usually talking about Nirvana.

[pens9192]

1996 on AOL 3.0 on my Pentium II 233 mhz, 10GB Hard Drive Dell computer. I was 12 years old.

I spent many a nights and weekends with my friends in the AOL N64 vs. Playstation chatroom.

Keyword: ANT

[viva la ben]

Back in the day http://www.l0pht.com/ was the go to place for hacks and cracks. Not just computers but telecom systems, anyone ever redbox?

[Froggy]

some time back in 2006, i first used the internet to find information about quality ink based writing utensils that i could use for my various correspondences. I mistakenly stumbled on this site instead.

[offsides]

some time back in 2006, i first used the internet to find information about quality ink based writing utensils that i could use for my various correspondences. I mistakenly stumbled on this site instead.

[offsides]

The first game I played via modem was Doom (the old deathmatches).

Mine was Duke Nukem!!

[Mango Salsa]

1985. I had just graduated and was taking a computer class at Computer Tech in Pittsburgh. I had a Commodore 64 and a phone line modem. Me & a girl there exchanged passwords and went thru the schools mainframe to send cyber sex messages to each other. Thing is, she was printing them out to keep and the schools admin got wind of it and we were both expelled. Totally worth it! I contend to this day that Im a pioneer of internet dating.

[DudeMan2766]

[columbia]

There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Or something like that.

[JeffDFD]

1985. I had just graduated and was taking a computer class at Computer Tech in Pittsburgh. I had a Commodore 64 and a phone line modem. Me & a girl there exchanged passwords and went thru the schools mainframe to send cyber sex messages to each other. Thing is, she was printing them out to keep and the schools admin got wind of it and we were both expelled. Totally worth it! I contend to this day that Im a pioneer of internet dating.

Did you invent putting on your robe and wizard hat?


haha fixed. - i meant to say "trolling" and then robe and wizard hat

[shafnutz05]

Lol...troll?

[JeffDFD]

Lol...troll?

all better now

[FreeCandy44]

/me loved to chat on yahoo! Chat all day

[Mango Salsa]

1985. I had just graduated and was taking a computer class at Computer Tech in Pittsburgh. I had a Commodore 64 and a phone line modem. Me & a girl there exchanged passwords and went thru the schools mainframe to send cyber sex messages to each other. Thing is, she was printing them out to keep and the schools admin got wind of it and we were both expelled. Totally worth it! I contend to this day that Im a pioneer of internet dating.

Did you invent putting on your robe and wizard hat?


haha fixed. - i meant to say "trolling" and then robe and wizard hat

100% true on my life. My first real internet was a Web TV. I registered on this site in 199- something as Badger-Bob

[SoupOrSam]

1996. AOL. Right about the time of the new 19.95 flat fee was introduced.

Making punters and other various proggies. Sitting in the vb private rooms. Making Overhead accounts to spam, gag, and TOS the LAMERZ. Exploiting just about every feature AOL pumped out until I finally got Adelphia cable for a connection. By that time, AOL was pretty much dead with Version 532. Fun times though.

Man, I remember when if you wanted an mp3 you would wait for the people pumping the warez group mailing lists out so you could wait 45 minutes just to hear FILE'S DONE for your new mp3. Load up Winamp and BAM!

Who knew making AOL proggies would lead to what I am today, lol. I still keep up with quite a few of the people from those private rooms.

i wonder if weve ever came across each other on AOL. I did some work with a decently-sized hacker prog called AOIce and we had a decently-knit gathering of like-minded individuals. never got into phishing or anything destructive, but enjoyed the TOS banning of people with differing opinions.

Remember any of the moorpark kids, numb, dos, soap, netr? I went by Sam.

Man, I remember when if you wanted an mp3 you would wait for the people pumping the warez group mailing lists out so you could wait 45 minutes just to hear FILE'S DONE for your new mp3. Load up Winamp and BAM!

The worst was when you were getting a solid 5.1 kbps, you were 95% finished with a song, and you'd see the download speed gradually drop.

About 5 seconds later, click click.....{{AOL voice}} Goodbye!

Yeah, that was terrible. Then you go beat the crap out of your younger brother for picking up the phone. Lol.