What did you do when you first got the internet?

Heathen · 20-10-2008 09:05PM

pretty much porned it up for the first 5 years, then found out you could send emails instead of writing letters and putting a stamp on them... now i can send porn to friends via email without ripping pages out of my skinmags

technology ;-)

rainbow kirby · 20-10-2008 09:06PM

Tried to find out if The Verve were doing any gigs in Dublin.

It was late 1997 at the time - I was 13.

mumhaabu · 20-10-2008 09:18PM

I first connected to the Internet in December 1998 at 44kbs! It was slow an was on a Tinet connect which changed to to Indigo gofree a while later! I remember Altavista'ing the Titanic and Britannic as the first things I looked up on the Internet as I was pretty obsessed with the whole RMS Titanic following the movies!

Then I discovered there was more to the Internet than emails and stuff when noticed bertieahern.com, cyber veterans will remember than one with lolness!

Back in the day the Internet was quite fastish and not as polluted as it is today. The invention of flash and popup etc. killed it for anyone on Dialup from about 2001 onwards. Broadband ftw!

5starpool · 20-10-2008 09:38PM

I think one of the things that kept me occupied on the internet when I first started using it was reading scripts of tv shows like blackadder and bottom. I used wired magazine to get new websites to look at. 1994, what a crap time on the interweb in retrospect.

I remember having to go in and edit config files in windows 3.1 to allow me to connect to the internet from anywhere inUL as internet access was restricted to very few computers at the time. Dot matrix printers abounded, and the average pc in UL at the time wasa a 386 which I'd imagine a huge amount of people here have never used, never mind the old black and white 8086, dos only pc my brother had in about 1990.

Caoimhín · 20-10-2008 09:44PM

I plagiarised someone else's academic research.

My bad. But i got a first class honours out of it so....

The Master · 20-10-2008 09:48PM

I went to the oceanfree chat room and abused anything that moved.

missingtime · 20-10-2008 10:03PM

Was into the x files so i signed into the chatroom with the name "Deep Throat"
The admins told me to change my handle. I asked them what a handle was.

I got kicked out

Duffman · 20-10-2008 10:06PM

Shortly after installing indigo's software I think I upgraded from Netscape 1 because it didn't let me look at sites that used frames.

Toto Wolfcastle · 20-10-2008 10:33PM

I remember the first time I used the internet. I went to my dad's office and searched for 5ive. (The 5 bit was important back then! Five just wasn't the same!)

Then when we got the internet at home I remember being given out to by my mother for staying online for longer than half an hour.

I remember sending free e-cards and my mother being convinced that we would be charged for it.

And I remember my mother making calls and throwing me off the internet. God, that was so annoying.

Simpler times!

emeraldstar · 20-10-2008 10:54PM

Constant constant chat rooms for me. I thought they were incredible. You could talk to someone in America or India just like THAT?! :eek:
I used to go over to a friend's and we'd do nothing but stay logged into chatrooms all day. Then jump off it when her parents arrived back because them were pre flat-rate days

And Napster, of course. Also found that amazing.

motherfunker · 20-10-2008 11:17PM

Developed an extremely muscular right arm!!!

pickarooney · 21-10-2008 12:06AM

Sent an email on VAX, used alt.rec.humor to meet Norwegians and logged onto something called Diversity University while waiting for Mosaic to exist.

Dord · 21-10-2008 12:40AM

The Master wrote: »

I went to the oceanfree chat room and abused anything that moved.

I used to do that too!

Actually I used Oceanfree as an ISP for many years.

Anyone remember DNC in Temple Bar? I used to go in there with my mates and play Counter Strike. My connection at home sucked for playing it, and it was more fun with a load of people in the same room.

OK-Cancel-Apply · 21-10-2008 12:42AM

missingtime wrote: »

Was into the x files so i signed into the chatroom with the name "Deep Throat"
The admins told me to change my handle. I asked them what a handle was.

I got kicked out

I was a member of an X-files chat room too! Which one were you on? I know there was one huge popular one (well, huge for the time!)

Anyway, things I did on the internet when I first got it.... some time in the early to mid 90's... found this hilarious thing called 'The **** List', which listed different types of poo that people do.

Oh I also attempted to play multiplayer Doom, but I couldn't figure it out. Was really complicated to set up. You had to set up IPX protocols and stuff...didn't get it!

SimpleSam06 · 21-10-2008 08:53AM

Kermit and gopher ftw ye blow ins.

KTRIC · 21-10-2008 09:42AM

I used it in 1996 in a net cafe in Dublin city center. The guy next to me was looking at a kiddie porn website at the time :eek:. Nobody batted an eyelid.

grundie · 21-10-2008 10:09AM

Late 1994 using Navigator 0.9 and a 9600 baud modem. This was just before the internet really got popular, so I spent my first day on the internet looking for something, anything, interesing and ending up browsing Usenet on a DOS based reader that was painfully un-user freindly.

Dudess · 21-10-2008 10:51AM

AARRRGH wrote: »

I started using the Internet in 1992/1993.

Wow! I never even heard of the internet til 94/95. There was a feature on it on the Gerry Ryan Show and I couldn't believe how amazing it sounded. Didn't become internet literate til early 2001 though - when one of my best mates was heading to Oz and I needed to get myself an email address.

I did a computer module in college in 96/97 and internet was part of it, but we barely touched it and I didn't need to use it again for over four years.

The Economist wrote: »

It was 1994 and I was 7. I went to TCC's Saved by the Bell website.

When you wake up in the morning...

Again, wow. I didn't think households had it until years after it became "mainstream" (which I remember being 94/95). I presume any households that did have it though were rich ones, and it was actually needed for work or whatever...? Maybe I'm wrong about the rich but wouldn't it have been quite expensive?

My folks didn't get it til 2004.

OK-Cancel-Apply · 21-10-2008 11:45AM

Another thing I remember is that everything was in 256 colours, and images took AGES to load. It used to be common for people to switch off image loading.

Sleepy · 21-10-2008 11:45AM

First time I'd have used the internet was 1994 in a friends house. Didn't get regular access until 1998 in college and managed to finally convince my mother to get net access at home in 1999 or so...

Professey Chin · 21-10-2008 11:56AM

rotten.com

Ponster · 21-10-2008 12:11PM

Worked on Clonmel Bulletin Board in 1988 but moved on to the 'net in 1993 with access from RTC Carlow. Got it at home in 1996.

Lockstep · 21-10-2008 12:21PM

I was around 9 and used a program called Webferret to endlessly look for Simpsons stuff. I also have recollections of going onto the Beano site and playing rock-paper-scissors (watergun/pea shooter/catapault) or something.

I also remember the first time I found porn.
I was innocently looking for Simpsons stuff when I found a site advertising itself as "Simpsons, Simpsons and more Simpsons"I clicked on it and was confronted with two blonde women with boobs the size of zeppelins. I was horrified and told my parents who found the whole thing very amusing.

Silenceisbliss · 21-10-2008 12:46PM

napster...heehee....downloadin me tunes!

I can even remember my very first pr0n site!

I remember I (not googled) but LYCOSED...or was it yahood......anyway, i looked up "virtual reality" (dont ask...omg...ffs, dont ask)....anywho, a blank page came up with some shortcuts, one of the shortcuts was in tiny little letters and it said something along the lines of "only 18yrs or older"...being a little hell raiser at the time...I decided id give it a clicky!

alas, PR0N WAS BORN!

good old days!....

hal9000 · 21-10-2008 01:20PM

94/95 (cant remeber) had to go out to some business park out near spiddal Co.Galway to get the software and modem from IOL 14.4Kbps. went looking up about the new 3D! "wow" mechwarrior 2 game on navigator...good times waiting. Told my friends I had they internet they just looked blankly at me

Howard the Duck · 21-10-2008 01:47PM

i set up my dial up connection with a oceanfree cd. I think i set up an ocean free email address too... i just remember that today.
Sundays were my downloading songs day if i was lucky i would maybe download 3 in two hours... thats if someone didn;t disconnect me by trying to make a phone call :mad:

lol5605 · 21-10-2008 01:50PM

I looked up the WWF wresting site lol, was like 10 remeber it like yesterday

Silenceisbliss · 21-10-2008 01:50PM

Howard the Duck wrote: »

i set up my dial up connection with a oceanfree cd. I think i set up an ocean free email address too... i just remember that today.
Sundays were my downloading songs day if i was lucky i would maybe download 3 in two hours... thats if someone didn;t disconnect me by trying to make a phone call :mad:

i hated when they would disconnect you with the phone....urg....the whole day dloading a song, then my sister has to call her friend becasue its OH MY GOSH; SOOOOO IMPORTANT LOIKE!

superfly · 21-10-2008 01:55PM

the first thing i did was download the internet

is_that_so · 21-10-2008 02:02PM

Used to make cups of tea while pages were loading. Used it in 1996, 14400 and Compuserve . Think it was IE3/NN3. All very grey and you were screwed if there were pics. Yahoo was the extent of it and any sites that had no pics. Got it at home in 97 and BB in 2001.

What did you do when you first got the internet?

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