Newbie, geezer, or codger? How long have you been using the Internet?

Bard

Just how many so-called "newbies" have we and how many "old-hands"? How long have you been using the Internet?

Simple question, really...

(Be truthful!)

I'll get the ball rolling...

The first time I used the Internet was about 8 years ago. All I did was send an email to Dublin from IBM's offices in Limerick and have it sent back to me. I have been actively using the 'net since early 1995, making a living off it for most of that time... so I reckon I fit into the last category above.

reply here too... give us a synopsis, if you like, of how and when you got into using the 'net.

pertinax

been using it for about four years. we got the net not long after we got our first computer so for the first week i went into withdrawal when i wasnt surfing the educational.
Apart from my time molesting no limits ive been payin chunky lolly for the privilage.
Oh internet nothing is more important then the happiness of your internet.

pete

I said 4-6 years, because I've been on the modren intarweb since IOL were selling their starter kit on a 3.5" floppy in a crummy cardboard box.... 96? I dunno...

But for a little while back in the 80's I used a wonderful half-a-breeze block sized Compunet modem on me C64 - does playing AMP (a MUD based in some UK university, I believe) and looking up flight details to timbuktu via Eirpac accounts count as internet?

of course, it was all in black and white in those days.

ehhh, actually it was....

Paulw

I remember working in IOL boxing those disks !!!! That was a long time ago.

I used the internet about 4 years before then though.

Oh those were the days ... gopher ... before WWW existed. *sigh*

R. Daneel Olivaw

1994, but only really a lot since 1995.

You might be better off making a differentiation between the web and the internet, because I am sure there are undoubted amounts of people in Ireland who were involved in the "old" internet before Berners-Lee cocked it all up and allowed people to add image tags lol.

I wonder did any universities have net access (like old telnet stuff) before 1991. Most people I know are not that old......anybody know how long Ireland has been connected to the internet because I would presume it's been for a long long long ass time but used in more restrictive circumstances.

Julie

I first discovered the internet in college in 1996 and used it all the time I was there. I left college in 1997 and never used it again except for emailing until I bought my own computer in January 2000 and there's hardly been a day since when I haven't been online. I also use the internet at work - we are completely dependant on it.

Julie

I first discovered the internet in college in 1996 and used it all the time I was there. I left college in 1997 and never used it again except for emailing until I bought my own computer in January 2000 and there's hardly been a day since when I haven't been online. I also use the internet at work - we are completely dependant on it.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I started out in 1992, when living in the states.

We got Prodigy Internet in our school. It was basically just like a big encylopedia on the net- It was installed on a mac in our computer lab - and as you could imagine it was very sloooow!

When I cam back to live in Ireland (1994), I dont think I used the net again until 1996- I remember the first site I checked was www.cricinfo.com- the online bible for cricket stats @ the time (still is:))

Since 1997- when we bought the 1st proper family PC i've used the net regulary- although until SNL came along it was like a finite resource-

At the mo. I'd guesstimate I've logged onto the net for c. 600 consectutive days now- I'm sad I know:)- that even included a 3am manic search in Brussells to find an internet cafe- but we did:)

ando

LONG STORY: introduced to the internet october '99 in college. Been using it ever since, started to use it heavly last summer when I got flat-rate with IOL..... I was one of the 2000

waiting for adsl now, i expect to be a heavy user once adsl is here, or flat-rate !

SHORT STORY: 2 years

Matfinn

I first used the net in early 1994 in a friends house. His dad had a huge amount of computers, like 486s. I wasnt interested at first, because I was more concerned at playing Duck Tales on the NES. I was 12 years old

I started really using the net in 1995 in my dads house whenever I could, which was usually for an hour once a week. In 1998 I got my own Dell PC and i have been using the net daily since in order to learn all about computers and software. From using the net, I have built up a valuable knowlege of computers and other technologies, and made many new friends. My knowlege in computers is pretty well versed thanks to the internet, and I am one of many knowlegeable people who are of great value to the States main industry . I feel that this is being taken away from us though, in the form of those massive phonebills. I think thats good in a way though, because either way, I will use the net alot, even if telcos wont give us what we want, and the government do little to alleviate the current lack of broadband in this country. This situation has encouraged Brendan Kehoe to start up IrishWan, and Im with him all the way. Would you do the same? Join up today;)

http://www.irishwan.org

Thanks for reading,
Matt

kamobe

Convinced the old man that a P120 Compaq Presario with 16 megs of EDO RAM and a powerful 2meg graphics card was what he needed to make life so much easier.

Half a year of constant hassle later, we pluged the phone line in.

Victory is Mine.

1998

PiE

A new-b at a mere 2 years I'm afraid.

SNL in '99...one of the 2000...yadda yadda...

sutty

I first used it in 95 if I remember right. It was when I got a AST 600 Series computer. Ah those where the days........I first started on Microsoft Net, when they closed shop in Ireland I was movied over to IOL.......back in the day when 1k a sec was about the top D/L speed I could get on a 33.6 modem......then I went to Indigo....which was faster and then to SNL......which again was faster (for a while) Ah the memorys...................

Praetorian

For as long as I can care to remember!!

First used BBs's. Is that what they were called?!?!

I remember one called Topsi ! Anyone remember them?

I was very young probably about 13 when Id my first experience of the net. I also thought it was very slow, 9600k modem eek. But my uncle tried to explain what a revolution is was going to be. First site that I visited was www.apogee.com i think.

The memory fades...

DeVore

bah, 6months to 6years... what about us old codgers

Been online on internet proper since 1988 (in fact, I've been DeVore since then too come to think of it)

Prior to that fidonet and occasionally phoning Finland direct to login to BBS'es there...

DeVore, the old fart.

MindPhuck

God, I feel old.

Ive been BBSing since 87, then the net!


Jesus, somebody get me a zimmerframe plz.

Kix

Very start of the 90s for me. In UCG there always used to be a few priviledged people who could get net access and it was down to who you knew. Anyone around at the time will remember Joe Desbonnet; his machines in physics were one of the first way we ever got access.

It was mostly archie and ftp for me then, fsp occasionally (a UDP based file transfer). I never bothered much with Gopher. I do remember checking out the CERN pages on the just released NCSA browser too.

Memories.

K

Ivan

I started out sometime in good ol' 95 (more like the start of 94 but anyway).

My brother introduced me to this net-cafe where the next 4 years of my life took place. After playing a game on the playstation called crazy-Ivan, I just kind of took the name for my email and well have used it the whole way through duke nukem, quake 1-3, and now CS.

6+
1994

Ivan

Dustaz

i had a little bit of experience with some bbs's, but it wasnt till the early 90's that i got into the swing of that telnet goodness:)

BKtje

October '99 i believe to play the great game that was C&C Tiberium Sun. Them were the days

Cake Fiend

My first memory of using any sort of computer networking was dialing up to the GamesMaster BBS way back on a friend's Amiga (he'd been trying to get it to work for days, I popped my head in and sorted it - it helps to read instruction manuals :rolleyes: )

First WWW use was about '93 on a Mac using iirc a 14.4k modem (started messing about with HTML about then as well)

First taste of IRC was the summer of '95, iirc, in a computer camp using the sparkly new Win95 OS

kendragon

I started work in a small computer company in Limerick years ago and had my first taste of the internet. Ran that companies phone bill up quite a bit I can tell you.

Looking at the results of the poll so far you get the sense that there are a hell of a lot more people using the internet than any of these so called surveys are making out. If a good number of people on this board are using the internet since it basically came into this country then it stands to reason that with all the promotion it gets now (everthing on TV has a website behind it now for example) that the numbers must be much higher than eircom are stating.

Edit: BTW what i mean by the internet coming into this country is that ISP's such as IOL were making it available... i know you could access the internet before this. /edit

Bard

I bet a lot of people didn't realise that the WWW has already passed the age of 10 years...

more

ekehoe

I started on AOL in the States in '95, cause I had hooked up with this old friend of mine from high school (now the hubby). I had used BBS's in the 80's and went to computer camp, but left that behind me. So I guess I've been on for 6 years. Which am I? Geezer?

Hubby's been on, well, he says he's had an email address since '85. I believe him :-). Something about a BBS in Chicago called Jolienet (no, Joliet County, not Angelina). I can prove that he was on the Net in 91 (just do a search for Brendan Kehoe, you'll see....).

The baby will have an email address soon as he/she is born :-). <you can all yell GEEK at me now>

E

Bard

I've gotten good at yelling lately, Elana... (being a barman does that to you...)

/me clears his throat...

GEEK!!!

*cough*... like I can talk, ... with my personalised e-mail address :rolleyes:

Originally posted by kendragon:
I started work in a small computer company in Limerick years ago and had my first taste of the internet.

Which one, kendragon?

(I'm from Limerick, originally, myself... my first Internet/WebDev job was there in '96)

morgana

Yeah I remember thoses IOL boxes too - got them as soon as they were available in Cork. I still have the two floppies I think.
Before that it was shell access only with some local company ... graphical was access was such a revelation ...

dathi1

I've been on since 91/92. We (me brother) used Demon in the Uk through some dialup server they had here. We used a 286 IBM laptop with 9000kbaud modem. We then moved to a new set up called internet-Erin Thought it was brillo at the time. We were into pirate radio and decided to create Irelands first Radio Station webpage (Alice's Restaurant). I cant remember the exact year probably before the above but we were the twelfth customer to sign up with IOL. The then owner( cant remember his name) used to regularly mail us for feedback...now he's aop notch millionaire. My lasting memory was the move to mosaic (Netscape) from all that green screen stuff....I couldn't believe it pictures on the internet!! Does anybody remember that first internet cafe on Dame St with the bunny rabbits? . Dathi.

adnans

1992: nemesis dungeon bbs, concillium orb bbs, another one called sampler(i think it was called that, from Dublin), ghosts in the machien bbs...

1994: someone got me an account for club internet, never looked back

adnans

Zefren

1992.

Dialling into Eirpac @2400bps, using the x.25 link into DCU to get into vax1, dropping to a shell and then going out onto the 'net from there........and then getting a 9600bps modem later that yr and getting onto IOL (when they were still in galway) , was the 1435'th account on the iol system



Zef

Kix

Originally posted by ekehoe
... a BBS in Chicago called Jolienet (no, Joliet County, not Angelina).

As any fan of The Blues Brothers would know, cos' Jake was in Joliet.

Now Wayne, he lived up the road in Auora.

See, filims teach you stuff.


K

satchmo

Originally posted by adnans
sampler(i think it was called that, from Dublin), ghost in the machine bbs...

Jesus I remember those two! And another one called Alien BBS, I remember I got my very first email address there (@alien.ie, I was very proud of it). It can't be almost 10 years, can it?

phaxx

Wish I'd been into all this back then... started out on a 14.4 modem in an IBM thinkpad lappy given to me. I can remember sort of using it a few years before that, some friends in Dublin... windows 3.11, using Opera and some dialing software I can't remember the name of right now... I think I was shown how to use Altavista then.

*sigh*

I can remember using MS Comic Chat about four years ago... I liked being the cat in the dressing gown. Hehe.

DiscoStu

my first experience of a bbs was about 1988/89 a friend of mine had a crusty old amstrad cpc464 and one of those real old modems where you had to put the phone handset onto it. i really didnt care at the time. then in 95 a guy in my class in school got you of those new fangled pentium-66 and windows 95 and a modem. on that machine i saw my first web page, the cover of www.rockdog.com a porn site . When i started college in 99 i began to heavily abuse the internet. when i got my pc in jan 99 i got snl and became a recluse for 4 months because of the internet. ive now managed to control my addiction and now am aware of the concept of daylight again.

edit: wow rockdog is still there

EvilGeorge

Started College in 96 where I met my first PC - win 3.11 using netscape to access the internet.....and then all the corruption to my mind began...........

ManWithName

Using gopher on vax1 in DCU, 1994. Ah, God bless the ould vax.
I remember someone in the CA labs showing me "Mosaic" which was like gopher, but with built in pictures....wow!

amen

Def an old hand.

Being using it since 94 on an Amiga 1200

had to configure all the tcp/ip stack, port settings, dns etc by hand.

took about 3 hours to get connected to IOL the first time and it was just text
no browser as such

quozl

yeh i remember Topsi and Nemesis Dungeon. ND was excellant, but I used to be a fidonet point off a bbs in the north to get fidomail. Which I think was good deal bigger than email back then. No-one really used email. This must have been 1992 at the latest. Used to be on fidonet mailing lists and the BBS's as Fragle.
Then 'aquired' a logon to iol, back when you had to dial in with terminal software using some protocol like kermit. Found a brilliant mud on it, MUD2, played that for yonks and then played other net muds on my 14k4 (which was **** hot for the time).
I remember some BBS in kerry had a gateway from fidonet to internet email and let you perform gopher searchs and would email you files encoded for acsii mail.
quozl

adnans

nemesis dungeon is class. its still around on 6211360. hack n slash is still there, and also that game that is similar to Risk, where you take over the world and fight for countries like an evil dictator. :P
there was also a Gateway 2000 which was crap but the hat goes off to ghosts in the machein for being the slickest of the lot. cool ansi animation intros and madness, and not to mention the file library

adnans

MindPhuck

nemesis dungeon is still around ??!

memories

elexes

been using it since a family vacation to the states where i got onto a pc with some telnet game where i walked around with this guy i thought was a computer assistant untill he started asking what the fu<k i was doing attacking him and that if i dident stop he would come over to the hotel and kick my ass

then got a p75 the day it was released to emcee in ireland with a 14.4 modem and playing quake all day and night then . now that i think about it i might go do that now .

Blade

Yeh I started in the late 80's when I was on Toppsi and nemesis dungeon and a few others using a 2400 baud modem tho it did have 9600 fax! Someone gave me a 300 baud modem before that but I could never get it going. Toppsi were great, friendly bunch who'd let you walk into their office for coffee and give you the grand tour showing you how everything worked and it was all very different back then. Your messages to and from the outside world were only sent and collected AFAIR once a day around midnight and that took a few hours during which time the BBS was offline to users. If I remember right the guy I knew in there was called Martin McGuire and I'm sure I've seen his name pop up somewhere lately? Toppsi is also where I first met JMCC and a few other guys who I'm still close friends with.

po0k

Got a PC for £500 5 years ago about.
P100, 16Megs ram, 850MB hdd, 1Mb Cirrus.
Class. And cheap too.
Was informed that i could 'easily' get a modem later.
Convincing the mother however was a different story.
First memorable experience was getting that IOL CD trial thingy with my frind, who had a PC witha modem. AST 7102 i think. P120, 16megs, 1Gb, MWave 33.6 modem.
First thing we did was load up Yahoo! (only web engine we knew) and type in 'Pamel Anderson'.
Oh yes.
Only to be confronted with loads of shiot 'pay for it now' sites. Bummer.
Another friend called round and he found google.
Oh yessssss.

Was about 12 at teh time too I think. Can't really remember. oulda been 14 in fact.
When did IOL tiral thingies come on CD again?
Anyho, first reall venture onto teh net came Aug 1999 when I chipped in £550 to help pay for a decent PC. Got a Lucent 56K DSp. Forgot to be more specific. Also didn't know aout superiority of serial over internal for hardware guarenteeity ( ?:/ ).
installed Eircom net. Spent 2 hours trying to dial into the setup server. Constan engaged tones finally connected at 28.8.
Stayed at that since. Errorcom engineer went up my pole a month before the PC arrived. DACS box => being shafted
Excuse the innuendo.
So about a year and a bit. Had an Amiga600 before ewither PC too though. was to young and broke/techniclly uninformed to get my arse on the net. Woulda loved Multiplayer Warbirds on Wireplay though.