# What year did you get online? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 26, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430 "2015-12-26T22:04:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/61 "2015-12-27T22:57:04Z")
1995 or 1996, I’m not sure. I know I was well entrenched by early 1996 when I went to work for E\*Trade. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/62 "2015-12-28T02:07:09Z")
Depends on what you mean by on-line. I was on PLATO in 1974, and wrote a Star Trek column on the Red Sweater’s PLATO News lesson. We also used the ARPANet to log into Stanford from Illinois and play Parry. In 1980 I had email when I started to work for AT&T well before domain addressing. We installed usenet software somewhere around 1985 I think. We had an AOL account in the late 1980s, I think, got a login with a small ISP in 92 or so, and I used Mosaic at work pretty soon after it became available. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/63 "2015-12-28T06:25:21Z")
1. I was in fifth grade, and everyone in the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program got a free UNIX shell/SLIP account. I didn’t get online at home until 1996, when the teachers at my school came together and bought me a modem. They made a big deal of saying “Santa” was going to give some kid a gift on the last day of school before Christmas. I was floored when it was me. The modem itself was a bit longer and wider than a sheet of legal paper, and as thick as a novel or half a Bible. The power brick was as bigger than a typical two socket, and nearly as thick as it was wide. And it was a blazing 2400 bps! ---
**Author:** ![TheSpeculationElucidation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@TheSpeculationElucidation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSpeculationElucidation)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/64 "2015-12-28T06:42:55Z")
I was born 1990, and we had an e-mail account by the time I was 5. But we ONLY had e-mail. It was an EarthLink account. Our computer couldn’t run anything more than that. Then we got a new computer probably in 2001 that could support websurf. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/65 "2015-12-28T08:02:47Z")
1989, using computers at labs in first year computing science at university to Telnet into LPMuds. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/66 "2015-12-28T13:28:02Z")
1. I didn’t really know much about it, and my first use other than sending emails was joining a forum. I assumed that everyone on the forum lived in the United States and were just fanboys like me. It turned out that I was getting replies from one of the world’s premier experts in the field. I guess that’s why he knew so much. :o ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/67 "2015-12-28T15:25:10Z")
'82, I guess. Worked at a place that had Usenet and email. So some posts I made around the time are probably still archived in the Wayback machine (if that still exists). ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/68 "2015-12-28T18:22:54Z")
Both my husband and I were online at work from about 1992 onwards, but didn’t have internet at home until my older son started high school. So that was 1996. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/69 "2015-12-28T18:35:01Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > '82, I guess. Worked at a place that had Usenet and email. So some posts I made around the time are probably still archived in the Wayback machine (if that still exists). It does. [Wayback Machine](http://archive.org/web/) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/70 "2015-12-29T13:44:46Z")
Was hosting chat rooms for MSN in 1989 so shortly before then. I was way past college 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/71 "2015-12-29T13:50:11Z")
1984-ish. I was a teenager into BBS’s. The internet proper, in the early 90s. My then-coworkers didn’t quite understand the possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/72 "2015-12-29T21:04:42Z")
In the late 80’s I was on a 300 baud modem on a C64 dialing into BBS systems. Got on the Internet around 1993, back when you had to install Trumpet Winsock because Windows 3.? didn’t have TCP/IP built in. Win95 did. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/73 "2015-12-29T21:22:27Z")
Dad bought a complete Commodore 64 package in spring of '86. I found an RBBS board with software for virtually every OS by looking in the Yellow Pages. Got on Quantum Link (the predecessor of AOL, for those who don’t know) the same year. Had my very first email address via some other BBS within three years, never used that address and don’t even know if it actually worked. I remember it looked very weird compared to those in use today. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/74 "2015-12-29T21:32:56Z")
I bought my first computer (Mac Plus with an incredible 1MB of RAM!) in late 1986 and got a 2400 baud modem with it. I piddled around on some local BBS’s with that for a bit, but got bored with them after a couple of months and mostly used the computer to play games and write papers for school. I didn’t really get online much until about 1994 or so. ---
**Author:** ![dizzee\_dee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dizzee\_dee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dizzee_dee)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/75 "2015-12-30T00:12:44Z")
1995-ish. I had AOL very briefly, then went with a local ISP. I signed up for my first yahoo email around 1999 and haven’t used an email provided by my ISP since. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/76 "2015-12-30T00:26:29Z")
I got my first email address in 1976 as a freshman at University of Illinois. That was when you had to be a real geek to be “online,” such as it was. It was pretty much a worldwide network, but limited to academic and government organizations. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/77 "2015-12-30T00:27:17Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > The internet proper, in the early 90s. My then-coworkers didn’t quite understand the possibilities. I work with people like that now. They use this old battered AAA book to calculate milage because they don’t know how to use Google Maps. I started on AOL in 1996 at age 26 (still use my original email). I remember the year because the first nest of crazies I ever encountered was on some bulletin board full of people having aneurysms over McDonalds changing their menu. It’s the sort of thing you see on a daily basis now, but it really blew me away at the time to see people freaking out over a [goddamn hamburger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Deluxe). ---
**Author:** ![potatonurd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@potatonurd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/potatonurd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/78 "2015-12-31T15:10:08Z")
2003, when I was in 2nd grade and was using my dad’s old IBM thinkpad notebook. I remember using a prepaid dial-up internet card in order to surf the web… I think it was in late 2005 where my parents switched to dsl… Well I’m living in a slowpoke country where a dsl connection can only be found in a popular internet cafe, big offices and in the homes of wealthy people back in 2003 😕 not to mention its frequent disconnections and the PRICE!. I’m currently paying P1299 or $27 a month just for a 2 MBps speed ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/79 "2015-12-31T15:22:00Z")
1995 or 1996 ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430/80 "2015-12-31T15:34:07Z")
I grew up with the internet! I probably first got on the computer around age 4 or 5. It’s actually a bit weird to think other people can remember a time when no one knew what a website was. (Feel old yet?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-did-you-get-online/741430.md?page=5)