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!