When was the first time you used the internet?

[nitish]

and can you remember the first website that you saw?

I think the internet and i became acquainted during the fall of 1999. I don't remember the website, it might have been yahoo.com


let's have a contest and see who used the internet the earliest. I clearly lose.

P.S. How many internets are there? and is it really a series of tubes?

 

[radioian]

I saw the internet in 1998. It didnt interest me at all.

 

[Marbas]

Sometime towards the end of 2002, at my local library, I used it to browse online book catalogues.

I got my first computer, and went online at home, on 21/03/03; and the first website I visited was an online book seller.

 

[Xenrai]

Twas 1997 in a computer class at school. I was hooked and decided I needed to have the internet at home. A few months later, that became a reality.

 

[G-Lexington]

I may have a winner here. I first used the Internet in 1992. I was in college, and I first used an intranet to "talk" (IM) with a professor to ask for an extension on an assignment. Ilater used the Internet to "talk" (again, IM) with a high school friend at a different college, in another state. We actually wrote song lyrics via that talk function.

Lex

 

[gmoney]

Got my first computer in 1997. Mainly for email, since I was moving out of state and away from friends and family. I think the service was Prodigy and they charged by how much time you were online.

 

[LarsVenice]

I got my first computer in 1994, and my email provider was Compuserve. Back then, the big three were CS, AOL, and Prodigy. There was very little graphics on the web back then - it was used mostly for news stories and fanzines. I got cable service the following year, but my neighborhood was an early test market, and it was free the first year. Before that, Compuserve had a monthly fee that allowed you something like 30 free hours, and after that, you paid by the hour. I made sure I never went over 30 hours. I never had AOL - that was considered for children/families in the beginning, whereas CS was for adults.

Lars

 

[BINOWGAYLATER]

We had internet access (very limited) in my office in 1996-97 -- one of the first sites I remember seeing was hamsterdance.com or it might have been hamPsterdance.com -- very funny !! shortly after, came the pics of musclestuds !!!

 

[Soilwork]

1980.

It was still text-based, ran at about half the speed you could read and was just a way for university students and professors to share info or play dungeons and dragons.

 

[G-Lexington]

^ I think we've got our winner.

Lex

 

[tx_doc]

In the mid 80s. My dad worked for IBM and would show us "cool" stuff like text based games and BBS. I met some friends that I still have today on the BBS. We even did "meet-ups" at a local pizzeria. (I remember my dad wondering why in the world anyone with a home computer would ever need to use a mouse)

 

[nitish]

1980.

It was still text-based, ran at about half the speed you could read and was just a way for university students and professors to share info or play dungeons and dragons.

Damn you! ..........


Edit: although that can't be considered the "internet" because it wasn't on a global scale. I am pretty sure it was a closed system. I could be wrong though.

 

[just_mills]

1998, at school.

 

[Shepherd 2]

It was 1987.
I was working in the east. It was my
first connection to educational
and church websites.
Shep+

 

[BrandonSBCA]

I started using the Internet in 1997 when America Online was huge and a lot of people used it.

 

[Soilwork]

Damn you! ..........


Edit: although that can't be considered the "internet" because it wasn't on a global scale. I am pretty sure it was a closed system. I could be wrong though.

Meh.. it was global but from what I understand it was mostly dial-up and not really for public access. You had to be part of the university to get access.

 

[nitish]

Meh.. it was global but from what I understand it was mostly dial-up and not really for public access. You had to be part of the university to get access.

OMG, are you telling me the internet was around since 1980? why did it take them this long to make it public?

 

[Kurn]

Internet dates from early 70's.
www dates from early 90's.


First?? Netscape homepage I guess.
Late '93. [or was it '94?]

 

[LarsVenice]

History of the Internet. The networks were in place in the 1960s, but the world wide web did not occur until 1992. Before 1992, the networks in the U.S. did not cross international borders AFAIK.

I remember a news story here in 1993 about a homeless guy they found in a ditch with a laptop who had email - but no physical address. At that point, I decided that everyone was going to have email except me, and so I had to have it.

 

[poncaplowboy]

I first accessed the network before it was called internet and way before the www came along and Bill Gates was still working in his garage. I remember how excited I was when I found out Digital Equipment allowed open access to its beta search engine. I was astounded when you typed in a word or two and the system responded at 1200 baud with maybe five or six hits. Even at those early days.....you could find porn online.