FWIW, in those days a CompuServe Id was a number like 74230,1056. (Amazingly, reading this thread brought my Id out of dusty long term storage)
This was true only towards the end of CompuServe. I don’t recall CompuServe access to the internet in 1988 and certainly no web browser until Mosaic in 1993.
If you already owned an external modem you would probably use it. Internal modems were dropping in price rapidly and if you needed to purchase a modem that would be the common route. Before long internal modems were standard on most PCs.
1988 you’re probably talking about an 300 baud.acoustic modem. like the kid in War Games used.
I had one around that time (1986-1988). got my first 1200 baud modem in 1989
A business would have gotten a 1200 baud a year or two earlier. Hobbyists at home had to make do with older equipment.
Also dialing was done my issuing the command ATDT 123-4567
There was several modem commends we used. ATDT dials ATH0 hangs up etc.
I’d start my terminal emulator software, then from the terminal issue the modem command to dial
I used Kermit back then as my VT100 emulator. Later I bought Crosstalk because it supported quite a few terminals.
First, internal ve external modem: while PCs sure had the option of internal modems, the iconic Hayes smart modem is surely best known for its sleek external form factor. I don’t think there’s any doubt that a Hayes compatible modem, with its red status LEDs, has got to be the single piece of hardware most associated with BBSes (though maybe not CompuServe).
Second, by 1988, 2400 baud modems were starting to be affordable. Looks like the Google has articles saying that 2400 baud modems were available for less than $200, and prices were falling quickly.
Finally, I would just emphasize the difference between CompuServe and a BBS. A BBS was basically a hobbyist project that your computer called on the phone. CompuServe was a proprietary network that was sort of like a smaller, crappier version of the Internet.
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ATH0
I was online in 1988. In 1988, modems were mostly external (at least, here in the U.K.). It was only later that internal modems became common. Part of the reason why internal modems became common was that standard serial ports could not cope with high data rates. You needed a serial port with a 16550 UART to fully utilise the high speed (9600 bps) Courier HST modems that were the fastest of the day. In 1988 I remember connecting to BBSs like Abacus and Mission Impossible at 300 bps and 1200/75. I quickly progressed to SLMR and then OLX for my mail.
I was connected to Prodigy at that time. They surged in popularity then because they were the first to offer unlimited, non-timed service for a flat rate monthly fee. They also were the first to introduce the ‘banner ad’ which always covered the bottom inch & a half or so of the screen. Even so this proved to be unsustainable and they eventually went bankrupt.
Yes, I got CompuServe in 1991 (and didn’t cancel it until 2001!) and when I first started it was $15/hr at 2400bps!! I used to use these auto-downloading programs (CIS-Oz, WinOz, WinNav etc.) to peruse forums. It would sign on, quickly download all the header info, then sign off. You’d then go thru and click on the threads you wanted to read and it would go back online and download just those. Then you’d read & reply all offline. When you were done it would sign on again and post your replies. Sounds crazy but it worked like a charm! CompuServe (along with everyone else) eventually switched to a flat rate service in the mid to late 90s.
Here in the US modems were originally only external. But this was when PCs were still business and nerds only. After Windows 3.0 came out in 1990 and PCs started to become home devices internal ones came out and were generally more popular because they were significantly cheaper (they offered the same baud rates and not sure what you mean by ‘lower maintenance’). Reason they were cheaper is that an internal modem is only really about 2/3 of an external one. As mentioned above they used your motherboard’s UART chip whereas externals had their own chip sets. And they were easy to reset, you just flipped their power switches. Internals had to be reset thru software only. Internals also were a pain to configure, jumpers to set the interrupts & COM port, and you couldn’t change them with the modem installed and/or the PC on. Lots of trial & error, installing & uninstalling initially. Externals just had DIP switches on them you flipped. Even so, because of their price I probably had a half dozen different internal modems before I ever bought an external (actually I think I finally ‘borrowed’ one from work!) Oh, and external modems connected to the back of PCs with a cable going to their (now obsolete & missing) COM port, either a DE-9 or a DB25 style.
Yup. 70754,105! When CompuServe first started providing internet access my email address was 70754.105@compuserve.com. Took them a couple more years to offer personally named ones.
And there was a foot of snow on them! 
Mine was 73547,3210. I also only ever used external modems connected to a serial port on my computer. I briefly used a 300/1200 baud modem (change the speed with a switch) at work that had an acoustic coupler that you could cram a phone into if you needed to, but it could also be hooked up to a serial port. At home, I only ever used Hayes compatible external modems (i.e. where all the modem commands started with AT). My fastest modem was supposedly 56K, but if I recall correctly it was actually impossible to get above 48K. I thought that was FAST at the time!
Not in 1988. Many people I knew had external modems because they were easier to hook up. Remember that modems at that time were at best 2400bps. The move to internal modems really came when the bps became large enough to “overload” the limitations of the serial line and around the same time the advent of faxmodems. The options then were internal modem (most popular) or parallel port modems (I had a 28.8 parallel port modem in 1993).
As for BBS software, WWIV ruled and the only people who needed a 40MB hard drive was a sysop.
I remember my C=64 and the 300bps modem for it. I blew it out and the serial port by plugging it I upside down by accident.
I had a 300 baud modem as a college freshman. For those who have no experience with such speeds, I could read the text on the screen faster than it could download. (My roommate, on the other hand, had a 1200 baud modem. At that speed, the screen scrolled faster than I could read.)
Bad Ravenman!
Slightly off topic, but probably of interest to some in this thread - the AT command set is still alive and well, and used in many current technologies. We used it in multi-core cell phones to talk to the cellular modem, and at least some ZigBee implementations use versions of it.
I think I remember it being in the headset profile in Bluetooth too.
I had a 2400 internal card for several years then I bought this beast just a year or so before the internet took off I thought I was the shit!
This is bringing back memories of plowing through Computer Shopper magazine looking for deals. “CUT THE BALONEY!!!” - Who remembers what that phrase was selling?
Answer here InfoWorld - Google Books
It must also be said that these haven’t disappeared at all. Internally, the connector is different (PCI Express instead of ISA), but the physical dimensions are identical to the ones in 1988. Internal expansion cards have become a tad less common now that computers have decent integrated sound and networking, and USB is good enough for most other things, but all modern graphics adapters still use the old slots.
Indeed. The Bluetooth serial adapters I use in various projects use the AT command set for configuration, as does the Iridium satellite modem. It’s all over the place.
To explain the concept of the expansion buss as if it vanished seems bizarre. TV tuner cards, wifi adapters, cards for extra USB ports, extra drive controllers, and cards for legacy serial and parallel ports aren’t uncommon. Motherboard manufacturers are still putting conventional PCI slots on new motherboards & new conventional PCI cards, including graphics adapters, are still being manufactured and sold. Conventional PCI is a standard going more than 20 years strong.
Yeah, I laughed. Sorry, Little Nemo, I just found it funny because at work I have piles and piles of probably a hundred “plastic card[s] with a bunch of circuits” in my cube and I somehow imagine that I’m in a time warp from three decades ago.
FWIW, conventional PCI is getting really hard to find on modern motherboards. Not a huge deal but it means we have to throw out some of our old peripherals, like Firewire adapters.
I’m sure they’re still out there. But I don’t think their use is common among the average computer user anymore.