How long have you been online?

[Pale Rider]

A remark from a judge made me think about the age of the internet.

Sentencing a sex offender, the judge said: "You've been downloading indecent images of children for more than 20 years."

This struck me as a long time, given that I started using the internet at home in 2007 or 2008, and it took a few more years for my use to become regular.

Lots of people were there before me, and in the early days of the internet it was said the only thing that made any money was filth, so I presume the judge had his timings right.

When did you first go online?

And what were your early experiences?

 

[Spinney]

About 20 years - used it for email, can't remember what I used to try to look up on the internet, but it wasn't porn. Might just have been looking up facts for work.

 

[Sea of vapours]

31 years ago; worldwide office email and other services. Not strictly the internet though - all internal with external, business-to-business connectivity - but very much 'online'.

 

[Apollonius]

That got me thinking. Then I realised I still have my original webmail account running, and the oldest surviving email there is from 1999. I remember that one of my earliest online interests was researching the CWGC website. Turned up quite a lot of interesting information from this, including the discovery that a friend's mother's uncle did have a grave, when the family had always believed him to be missing with no known grave. An early indication of the power of the web, for me.

 

[jefmcg]

1984.

There was no http/web back then. Mainly used usenet groups (very much like CC) and email.

There wasn't as much continuous connection back then. Routing was much the same as it is now, but happened slower. My institution would dial another institution regularly and exchange all the queued data, then hang up again. That institution would dial another one, and pass everything on to it. Emails could take a dozen hops like this, so could take hours. IP4 was around then, but domain names hadn't been regulated. A lot of Australians used .oz instead of .au.

Earliest thing I can find with my name on it in a quick search is 1992, in google groups. Stuff before that has probably disappeared for good.

 

[Deleted member 35268]

1995 or 6

 

[subaqua]

1999 I bought my first laptop and then got internet. before then didn't need it. Now I wonder how I cope without it.

 

[Garry A]

1999 for me. At Uni I regularly talk to people that cant remember a time before the internet or mobile phones.

 

[jefmcg]

The internet as such, with WWW, has only been in existence in the UK from 1991.

Umm, no. The internet has been around since the 1960s. HTTP is just one of many protocols used on it.

 

[KneesUp]

My brother used to use telnet to chat with his friend from school (who lived a mile away) in the mid/late 80s. I had email and internet access for free at university in the early and mid90s (not that there was much on the internet then) and then had internet access at home from 1998. Having your own email address used to be something people commented on in job interviews, I remember.

 

[Milkfloat]

30 odd years ago I used a Commodore 64 and acoustic modem to reserve a flight with BA. I was about 9 years old and did not pay or turn up for it. I have only seriously been online for about 25 years, starting at University.

 

[Sea of vapours]

(SNIP) As I've pointed out, other networks were available but these were not the WWW as we know it.

You seem to be conflating the world wide web and the Internet. If 'online' in the OP refers solely to 'on the web' then fair enough, but clearly you know that they're not the same thing, even if popularly used synonymously.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

About '96 for work purposes.

As a slow adopter of technology in general I don't mind confessing that I 100% under-estimated it's growth and impact upon the world.

I had a car phone and mobile brick back then and grasped the potential of those devices (although car phones per se are pretty much defunct as standalone installs these days) but the 'www.' I was completely out of whack on.

This explains whilst I have not got Squillions in the bank as I clearly do not have the requisite far-sight of successful visionaries.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Does CB radio count?

 

[fossyant]

Oh the 56k modem was all the latest rage !