What year did you start using the internet regularly?

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What year did you use start using the internet on a regular basis?
1991 or earlier 5%  5%  [ 3 ]
1992 or 1993 10%  10%  [ 6 ]
1994 8%  8%  [ 5 ]
1995 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
1996 8%  8%  [ 5 ]
1997 10%  10%  [ 6 ]
1998 12%  12%  [ 7 ]
1999 5%  5%  [ 3 ]
2000 2%  2%  [ 1 ]
2001 or 2002 8%  8%  [ 5 ]
2002 or 2003 12%  12%  [ 7 ]
2004 or later 19%  19%  [ 11 ]
Total votes : 59

Fogman
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02 May 2011, 2:34 pm

Summer 1997 is when I first started to use it regularly, I got my first comp (AST notebook, 90mhz Pentium w/24 Megs RAM, 1 GB HDD, floppy drive only, used $800 US) in late 1997 and was online almost constantly in 1998.

Before that I had experience connecting to The Source on a Wyse Terminal w/300BAUD modem in 1985, and BBSing on a freinds' TurboXT Clone w/1200 BAUD modem in 1991.


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League_Girl
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02 May 2011, 2:38 pm

I voted 1998 because that was when I started to use it daily and it was looking up my obsessions and movies. That was how I found IMDB, through my obsession with 101 Dalmatians.

But I started using it in 1996 but it wasn't part of my life and we didn't have it at home until 1997 and dad canceled it because I was on it too much. Back then you had to use the phone line to be on. Thank goodness that doesn't exist anymore.

Then we got it again in 1998 and we had two phone lines.



Zen
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02 May 2011, 3:07 pm

I think it was 1994 for me, based on where I was and what I was doing at the time. I used Lynx. :D I didn't even start using Mosaic (my first graphical web browser) until a couple years later.



dunbots
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02 May 2011, 4:08 pm

I voted 2004 or later. I started using it pretty late in my life, but despite that, I know tons about computers. :nerdy:



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02 May 2011, 5:44 pm

I believe it was sometime around 1994-1995. I was barely a teenager.


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jc6chan
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02 May 2011, 5:56 pm

I started in grade 9 or 10 so 2004-2005. At the beginning I just played games. I'm not sure if my family still had limited internet connection (where you have to pay extra fees if you go over the time limit).



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03 May 2011, 1:02 pm

It was around 1994-5. I'm a born Luddite and at the time I felt like I was the last one online, but given your answers (with due consideration for age), apparently not.



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03 May 2011, 1:26 pm

ViewUpHere wrote:
1988, back when minicomputer operating systems came on quarter inch cassette tapes. (Ooog... Dating myself.)

yes, our TI-99/4A (texas instruments) computer had a modem that you had to put a phone handset onto.

Image

but i was anti-technology until about 1996 or 1997.


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richie
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03 May 2011, 2:24 pm

I was using computers at work since the early 1980s and had occasional access to what was known as D.A.R.P.A.-net. Bought my first computer,
a 486DX, in 1992 and installed a modem (2400 baud) and was able to telnet into the Genie net and various dial-up BBS services. My first internet experience was
in 1993 just before the advent of the World Wide Web. I was on AOL, Compuserve and Genie throughout most of the 1990s.


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Descartes
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03 May 2011, 2:32 pm

Although I've had a taste of the internet since my early elementary school years, I didn't start using it regularly until around 2002, when I got my own computer for the first time.


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ocdgirl123
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03 May 2011, 6:26 pm

Late 2003.



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03 May 2011, 6:34 pm

Dunno, I've got no memory for such things. Possibly 10 years, give or take a few?


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03 May 2011, 7:04 pm

2007. I was a yahoo answers user than I decided to go onto other foums so that I can see what other threads that other people posted.



WillMcC
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03 May 2011, 7:20 pm

Back in 1994, my family had Prodigy, Compuserve, and AOL, and we connected to those using a blazing fast 2400 baud modem. With the exception of e-mail and a failed attempt to view Usenet posts on AOL, I did not ever get to use the Internet. Around 1995 or so, I got to surf the web for the first time using the Prodigy web browser. In 1996 I started using the Internet regularly as we had a proper ISP (actually a free community based service that was so popular, it would take several attempts to get through without a busy signal) and Mosaic (an early graphic web browser, later to be replaced by the first version of Netscape)

Shortly after, I used a 486DX2-66 running Windows 3.1 to create my first webpage using some basic HTML in the form of a Doom fanpage.

Does anyone else remember:
Trumpet Winsock (software that provided the TCP/IP stack in Windows 3.1)
Pegasus Mail
Agent and Free Agent (Usenet clients)
MS Comic Chat
Internet Gaming Zone (before it went web based)
ICQ (the original version - I still have my old six-digit UIN)


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hyperlexian
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03 May 2011, 7:21 pm

WillMcC wrote:
Does anyone else remember:

Trumpet Winsock (software that provided the TCP/IP stack in Windows 3.1)
ICQ (the original version - I still have my old six-digit UIN)

only those 2.


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03 May 2011, 10:19 pm

I remember Trumpet Winsock! I also remember that familiar sound of the 56K modem picking up, dialing, and that indistinguishable sound of connecting to the ISP. I also remember hearing that sound quite often, due to constantly losing my connection to AOL while in the midst of chatting with people :evil:! !

Amazon was only synonymous with the jungle, internet ordering was generally non-existent, and there were very few, if any, advertisements everywhere. I also had my own website I created from a blank slate using pure HTML. I miss those days!


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