Okay, I looked it up. The precise date on which we got AOL was June 9, 1996.
“Went online” for the frist time with my 2400 modem when AOL offered 10 free hours. That was back when AOL was seperate from the “Internet”. They didn’t offer web access until a year or two later.
It was fall 1990 for us. We got our first computer at home, and had a modem installed so we could dial into the university. That gave us access to Usenet, IRC, Gopher and Veronica, and a few other things that no longer exist.
About a year later, we subscribed to Prodigy, when it was more a “network service” for members only, than a true Internet service. It eventually gave us Internet access, but then we graduated to a strict ISP at some point a year or so later.
1992, dial-up usenet via the university here.
I think our first non-school related account was around 94/95.
So I guess that makes 13 years online. Not bad considering I’m only 21.
I got my first computer in 1995 and signed up with Prodigy, then dumped it for a regular ISP a few months later.
I was ecstatic when I got my first high-speed Internet connection in 1998. That sucker was actually faster than the connection I have now; it was 10 Mbps. The cable in those days was not bidirectional, however, so the cable modem had a regular modem built into it (a meager 14.4k at a time when 56k was the standard) for uploading.
There were times that I had multiple downloads going that added up to over 800 KB/s, yet if I wanted to send someone a file, I could barely crack 1 KB/s!
September of 1996. I was 19. Sure feels like a long time ago now.
First computer in the late 70’s or so…then online with a 300 baud modem and bbs’s…no internet. Then late 80’s early 90’s on usenet, and internet through a roomates work (dial in to work network to internet) around 1993 or so. Little fuzzy on the dates.
I got Prodigy around 1990 or so, and then got AOL a few years later when I got a Mac. (I spent so much time on AOL as a kid that I ran up a $600 bill one month. Parents were not happy, let me tell you…) Left AOL after they went to $19.95/month and all I got were busy signals for months on end. Didn’t get high-speed access until 2000.
It would have been around 1990, when my brothers got a modem (2800? Maybe even a 1200 at first) and started posting on the area’s single BBS–which was meant to be a gay community but was really a bunch of teenagers of all types. My best friend and I were soon hooked.
1994 AOL Its where I met my husband a few months later. We’re still in love 
- Prodigy. Dumped them in short order. I would be crippled without it now. Comcast Highspeed Internet all the way, baby!
Around 1992, I guess. But honestly, I don’t know how soon I would have had it had I not been married to a total computer geek. I do remember that everyone else I knew said stuff like “Internet? What do you want that for?” I would tell them that in ten years, everyone would have internet, on the same plane that everyone has a telephone. I had no idea how quickly it would grow.
I’ve had it since sometime in the mid 90s. Dunno exactly when. Before that I hung out on Bulletin Boards.
Mid-90s for me too. Can’t remember the exact year. I started with a company called Magic Net operated by an Orlando man who was a Magic (basketball) fan. I mostly just used it for e-mail. Magic Net eventually got bought by someone and I switched over to AOL for a while. Got sick of AOL and now I’ve got RoadRunner.
I haven’t had dial up for 5 years.
Me, too!
I used it for about 2 years then went to AOL and stayed with them until about 4 years ago when I got Comcast high speed.
I had been calling local BBSs since about 1992, but the first time I actually had access to the Internet was with Compuserve, perhaps either in '94 or '95. I remember when they first announced access to the WWW, and I downloaded Mosaic to see what it was all about. I remember thinking how cool it was, and most importantly, I remember how few sites there were, especially compared to today.
The Sierra Network, in 1991. We’re a bunch of game-playing dweebs in my house. My oldest son was one of the Red Baron squadron leaders. I played Shadow of Yserbius. We all played Boogers.
Well just call me a rookie of the newest order.
At home home (ie Parents) they just got internet within the last year or so - but I was long gone.
Internet in ‘my’ home ? … May 2004 !!! Oh yes read it and weep !
(Mind you I got hotmail back in '98, my password is only 4 characters long and whisper it - no spam …
Fall of 1999, when we got our first computer. Prior to that, I didn’t know a single person who owned one or had ever used one. We started with a dialup ISP offered by the local newspaper. It sold and changed names couple of times. We lived right across from the university, and would go there to use the computers in the library. They were on a T-1. This was so much better than dialup, that I called Comcast and asked them to call me the day that broadband service was available. I’d buy it right away. They did call me around the end of 2000, I don’t remember exactly, and we’ve been on it since.
We just got a modem upgrade, and the service guy laughed and said he hadn’t seen one of our type of modems in years! It was the original unit from week one of service.
When I left FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) in 1995, I remember remarking to one of my colleagues that I had heard that FDIC was going to start using the internet. He shrugged his shoulders and had no idea what the internet was. So, that should give you confidence in our government. They are always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to technology, despite what Hollywood tells you.
I was finally able to buy my very own computer in 1998 and I had that computer until last year. I nursed it along though thick and thin until WIN98 just got too old.