I started with a vic20. First time i was online was through bbs stuff or kermit type crap.

Now I've got a cute powerbook and wireless internet.

-Rudey

I have a cute ibook and wireless internet as well as an iPod!

I was on maternity leave, Dec. 26, 2003, waiting to have my daughter and bored outta my mind. My (then) husband said "Take this and see if you can get on the internet" and gave me a CompuServe disk. I asked him how to turn on the computer! We had a 286 DOS based pc with a 400 baud modem. I got on, and quickly became addicted to chat! It was $9.60 an hour then AND it was a zone phone call to boot. After the first bill, he was really really angry. Within a couple years, I was teaching him things and in 2000, I became an MCSE and now I'm a LAN Systems Analyst. I've come a long way since that "How do you turn it on?" day!

Dee

Cut my teeth on my old man's Trash-80 but didn't get my own computer until 1991 - a 386DX with 8 MB of RAM. First got online on Compu$erve, then went to AOHell, and in 1996 subscribed to an independent ISP.

First saw the beginnings of the internet on Usenet newsgroups way back in the late '80s - then only the domain of the seriously geeky or the university student.

December of 1991. I got a VAX account at IU. (all students could have one. IU was one of the few schools where everyone could have email and it wasn't just limited to computer science students.) I still miss the VAX system at times...VAXphone and BITNET were loads of fun! I logged onto QuartzBBS and ISCABBS soon after. My life was never the same after that. :D

My mom got Internet access shortly thereafter. (she taught at the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy at the time) In the summer of 1992 we got AOL but I couldn't get to the rest of Internet from there. I remember driving 40 minutes to her school every so often during that summer to check my IU email. heh. We got actual Internet access at home from a local company in the summer of 1995.

1997, sophomore in high school.

AOHell with a 28k modem.

It was the year 1995 and I first learned how to check emails using these computers with orange lettering. Those computers were sooo cool. Too bad the lab got rid of them once they upgraded to pcs.

It was in 8th grade computer class, I think the year was 1996. We all used to look up famous stars we had crushes on. I had one on andrew Keegan at that time.

I think it was Netscape Navigator that the school used.

Wow... an MCSE and a time traveler to boot... :p ;)

Thanks for the link, Annie!

Started with a 300 baud modem and a DOS based 64KB system around 1989. Before that I'd used school or friend's computers. My husband had an old Commodore 64 (don't have the system anymore, but he's got all the manuals and support docs saved around here somewhere.) Got myself online around 1989 doing local BBS--Telnet is our friend--later on found Prodigy and AOL, dumped AOL quickly and kept Prodigy for a few years.

I was so excited to upgrade that modem to a 2400 at one point, thinking, "wow, this is so fast!" Now I grumble that the cable modem isn't fast enough!


ETA: Anyone have a version of Zork that will run on WinXP? If so, please PM me! Please!

senior year of hs, 1996 at my friend's house. we went to chat rooms and had absolutely nothing to say to these people but we still thought it was cool. they charged by the hour so we were only allowed to be on less than an hour.

MY powerbook could eat your ibook. And I wardrive and don't believe in paying for the internet - you probably do :)

-Rudey
--Who's a bigger nerd now?

Rudey,

I don't pay for my internet either. And MY BOYFRIEND'S computers could eat yours for lunch. I think that man could run NASA with the computer power he has. He is a computer nerd who has been online since before many GCers were born, lol. :D

-Peaches-n-Cream
--loves a computer nerd :p

I thinkmy VERY first internet experience was at my public library. My mom used to make jewelry, and they had a Christmas bazaar at the library. I was bored out of my mind, and they said I could use the computer. This had to have been the late 80's or early 90's.

Didn't think MUCH of it, but it was fun.

In high school, we had a partnership with a government agency that donated computers and internet access. I was one of the kids who was "trained" to use it before the official launch. I don't know the connection speed, but "Mosaic" was what we used before Netscape came out.

And of course, when you're dealing with a bunch of 15-18 year olds, the porn soon followed, lol.

That summer, most of us then got internships though that same government agency, and we learned how to create web pages there. All of this was in 1995, and I have been online ever since.

If you're 45 you'll still be looking for what's out there.

-Yedur