Your first internet connection experiences.

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Well, I did set up a deviantART a while ago, but never really used it that much. I'd say my first real online experience would be when I joined this here forum.

First time I ever used the Internet was around 1994-1995. We had used online services for a while (AOL, Prodigy, CIS, etc.), but it was Prodigy that took us there at a blazing 9600bps. From the Prodigy interface, it was through keyword "Web" that fired up the internal web browser and it was then that I was "riding on the Information Superhighway". If I recall correctly, I checked out a few sites about Doom (the PC game). It was not cheap, so I only got to do it once. Later on, when a free community based ISP sprung up, we connected using that and dumped Prodigy, AOL, etc. With the Internet, we could do all sorts of stuff, like download new levels for Doom, buy stuff on a site called "AuctionWeb" (which we know today as just "Ebay"), and even make your own page on a place called GeoCities (yes, I had the animated GIFs, background music, under construction signs, online guestbook, hit counters, etc.)

We had a whole bunch of applications for Windows 3.1 that contributed to the experience
-Trumpet Winsock (for dialing out)
-NSCA Mosaic (web browser used before Netscape came along)
-Pegasus Mail (early POP e-mail client)
-Free Agent (UseNet client - who remembers that?)

Later on, we discovered other fun apps, including
-Internet Gaming Zone (before it became the web-based MSM Gaming Zone)
-ICQ (I still have my rare 6 digit UIN)
-AOL IM (for chatting with those who were still on AOL)
-Comic Chat (as mentioned in a previous post - I have memories of the avatar with the paper bag on his head and the cat with the robe. Apparently cats ruled the Internet back then too)
-Napster (the original "steal steal steal" P2P music client - those were the days)

I remember when DOOM came out, Dial up internet. My high school had a very rudimentary server database, uploading homework from home then printing it at school. The next day.

I know I downloaded the home page of the Cartoon Network website, thinking that would be enough to access the whole site when I was offline

Oh I miss the sounds of the telephone modem making the connection~

Discovered internet in the '93 or '94 time frame, was in college at the time so used their connection - at first in the computer labs but then discovered (if I remember the names of these correctly) SLIP and PPP which allowed dialing in to the college via modem and connecting your own PC to the internet. Was slow as heck - I'd often walk from the dorms to the main campus just to do internet stuff on the PC's there which were wired to the school's LAN and so so much faster. A year or two later they added the ability in the dorms to wire your own computer into the LAN. A year or two after that got cable modem at home and haven't looked back since.