How did you start browsing the web? - Reveal just how old you are. Also nostalgia.

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Was well behind the curve. Started off with Myspace, soon was trolling and shitting up BestandWorst.com because that lefty chink pederast was fun to rile.
 
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Internet Explorer (probably, it at least was on Windows), I never really knew the Internet was a thing as a kid, the first time I used it was for school research.
 
I guess I started using the internet in grade school, in computer lab in the early 90s.

I didn't really care much at the time, it was just a different kind of tool that they gave me to do coursework with. I couldn't even tell you what they used. Just a different kind of book that took longer to make pages turn, and I was more interested in getting the assignment done fast so I could play DOS vidyagames. Fuck yeah, Karateka! And Oregon Trail. And some kind of post-Roman European history strategy game that I can never remember the name of, I just remember the Pope was a dickbutt and would always send emissaries to test my "faith," which is to say he would ask questions and make you get the answer out of the instruction manual to make sure you hadn't just share-ware'd the game.
 
The first exposure to the internet I had was with my father's old MacOS 9 machine in the early 2000s on websites for kids shows I watched
 
My first web experience was logging into my school's Unix system one day for a CIS class assignment and seeing a welcome banner that read something like:
The World Wide Web is here! Type 'www'.
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I did that out of pure curiosity and had my first experience browsing the web with Lynx. Later, Netscape would be my first experience with a graphical browser.

Spooky Bones said:
I'm going to out myself as old but I first encountered the wide world of Internets using lynx and gopher (remember gopher?)
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I remember gophers as well and wondering what they were for. Although I had no idea what they were used for, and never used them, I also recall a package of programs named Archie, Jughead, and Veronica (but no Betty oddly enough). I also had to chuckle upon learning about someting called KERMIT and wondering if it had a counterpart named PIGGY :biggrin: .

There also used to be anonymous FTP services. I imagine most (if not all) have been shut down now as security risks; one of my IT jobs had an anonymous FTP server our managers used for conveniently transferring data and files between the office and client sites/home until someone got in and tried to use it to hack us via whatever exploit was popular at the time. Still, they were once useful resources for finding and downloading freeware and public domain software from central repositories before search engines became popular and reliable.

I also remember the summer before my senior year in college when I upgraded from a 2400 baud modem to a 9600 or 14400 baud fax modem. The perceived difference in speed was amazing. Of course now, anyone using any sort of dial-up is a dinosaur. 🦖

ToroidalBoat said:
Costco had "free" dialup internet around 2000. The catch was constant annoyingly prominent ads in the browser itself.
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I think K-Mart had its own Blue Light internet service at the same time that operated similarly. There were also other services (Juno and/or Netzero?) that offered free dial-up in return for filling out a profile that marketers could use to spam you with targeted ads. From what I was told from someone using one of these services, it was very easy to fill those profiles with plausible -- yet completely bogus -- information.
 
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Kiwi Lime Pie said:
filling out a profile that marketers could use to spam you with targeted ads
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I made the mistake of filling out a survey or sweepstakes or something when I was younger. My email was so swamped with advertising that I had to consider that email address lost. Along with incessant popups and other ads (no I don't need a stupid X10 spy camera), that helped fuel a hatred of internet advertising.

Ad blockers are one of the greatest internet inventions.
 
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I first started using the internet around 1997 through AOL. Most of my time was spent looking up cheat codes and strategies for games I owned. The fact I could do that without having to buy a guide or codebook blew my mind. I got into chatrooms a lot also. Thought it was very cool I could talk with people across the country or in other parts of the world about video games, The Simpsons, basketball ect... Most likely just nostalgia talking, but it seemed like a much friendlier group of people online than what we have today.
 
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All I remember is that it had a speed boat and an “internet speed gage” it was slow af so I have no idea why they wanted to show their slow ass service.
 
Autumnal Equinox said:
I first started using the internet around 1997 through AOL. Most of my time was spent looking up cheat codes and strategies for games I owned. The fact I could do that without having to buy a guide or codebook blew my mind. I got into chatrooms a lot also. Thought it was very cool I could talk with people across the country or in other parts of the world about video games, The Simpsons, basketball ect... Most likely just nostalgia talking, but it seemed like a much friendlier group of people online than what we have today.
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Same story, but replace 1997 with 1996. The late 90's. Duke Nukem 3D, Command and Conquer, Red Alert. Good times. Internet was so different.
 
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A friend gave my family his old computer, which actually wasn't that bad since I could play some old games. It could play FFVII and my friend was amazed at the improved graphics over the Playstation version.

I first got on the Internet with Netzero. It was a free dial up internet service. Eventually it was ad-supported, and then it had a monthly time limit.

I can't wait to tell kids one day about how back in the day I had to wait minutes for a single pornographic jpeg to load!
 
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Mid 90’s when it became available at high school. It was too expensive at the time to have it at home.
 
Dial-up and Internet Explorer. Switched to Firefox version I think 0.8 just when it separated from Mozilla Suite.
Finally got a connection that wasn't paid by the minute (so I could afford more than 1 hour a day) in around 2003/4, through GPRS. Was OK for browsing but the phone I'd use it through (Siemens C55 I think) would sometimes overheat so I'd had to take it apart so it cooled quickly and then could finally reconnect.
 
VERY NOISY 32k modem, Internet Explorer 3. A >300Kb picture needed 30 damn minutes to load. And it sometimes wouldn't because fuck you, that's why. It was like browsing the internet using two matchsticks and a potato.
Later my father got a 56k and it sounded like this:
Let me play you the song of my people!

It was faster (kek) and I could download a POP3 queue of hundred of messages in minutes.
I don't miss those days.
 
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Back in '95 or '96 our high school had a T1 connection so connections speeds were really good for the time but using IE and Netscape was somewhat a pain in the ass. Downloading porn on the high school network was slow but had a certain mischievous thrill to it as a teenager. Did any of you have those computer desks where the monitor was down inside the desk and you looked at it at an angle? Those were pretty cool for the time.
 
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