How long have you been online?

[Mo1959]

I'm not bald though.

The dragon is bald?????

 

[Andrew_P]

I was gaming on BT Wireplay in the mid to late nineties and paying through the nose both for the time spent on line and fees to Wireplay!

Remember the revolution that was a single payment for going online rather than pay per minute.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm close, I had to put the number 1 after my name for a hotmail.com address.

That depends on your name. I just checked and I can get <surname>@hotmail and <firstname>.<surname>@hotmail. My name is quite unusual.

Of course, as I have my own domain, why would I want a hotmail address?

 

[stephec]

The dragon is bald?????

Well I know she shaves her chest at least.

 

[stephec]

That depends on your name. I just checked and I can get <surname>@hotmail and <firstname>.<surname>@hotmail. My name is quite unusual.

Of course, as I have my own domain, why would I want a hotmail address?

I'm not unusual.

Outlook now suggests the number 51 after my name.

 

[jefmcg]

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

This may not be using the web much if at all. Back in the 80s and 90s people used to run bulletin boards out of their own homes. It was a pc connected to a single phone line. One person at a time (or more, if there were more lines) would dial up, read the messages, add their own messages, add files, download files. A group of paedophiles could find one of these servers and communicate completely anonymously, sharing illegal images and stories, without anyone ever being able to identify or trace them. It's possible the bulletin board owner might have been unaware of this activity.

Similarly, people used to crawl the internet open FTP servers (think of it like a network drive). Then they could anonymously drop illegal images there, and share the address quietly in chat and they could exchange files again anonymously. Think of it as a dead drop if you are a fan of cold war spy novels. This would definitely have been without the knowledge of the person running the server.

These days it's probably more on the dark web, which is a road I haven't been down.

 

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

I started playing Counter Strike in 2000 using a 56k modem.

 

[Jefferson Meriwether]

It was about '95/96 that I first went on internet when my Dad got AOL for the home computer. Can't remember what I used it for; mainly just occasional emails if I remember rightly.

 

[marknotgeorge]

After uni, I got online in about 95 or 96 by buying a 14.4k modem from Escom. After using up the Compuserve trial and not having a credit card, I signed up with the only ISP that let me use my Switch card.

Meanwhile, my friend Paul was still at uni, and had joined the Grape & Grain Society, so I tagged along. Two of the female members thought I looked like George of Drop the Dead Donkey, and I needed a username. Marknotgeorge was born...

 

[martint235]

Was just talking about this at work today. First internet access was at uni in 1986. However my abiding memories are of giving live internet demonstrations of a library database in 91/92. The sessions were booked by the head librarian and were always at 2pm and over a 56k line. Oh how I laughed. (If you don't understand the significance of the time, I hate you for being young)