How did you discover the internet?
It was about 1994, those AOL install disk were in every magazine. Almost every week I got a disk in the mail, there were so many of them that you could easily find one if you decided to join AOL to partake in the wonderful world of the Internet.
Many geeks and tech enthusiast have PC and internet experience way beyond the experience that I have. I didn’t come from a family that had money. We weren’t exactly poor, but we didn’t have things like PC’s or a lot of other things. Yea I took computer classes in high school, had computers at work but that was the limit of my computer experience. It wasn’t until about 1994, when I was able to purchase my first PC, that I really got to dig in and learn all the things I wanted to learn.
Thinking about how much I use the internet now, its hard to believe that it took me about 5 months before I decided to sign up for AOL after that PC purchase. Once I did, I was hooked. The internet was really slow, It took about an hour to actually sign into AOL, and it tied up my phone line to the point where my friends and family was always complaining that they couldn’t get through to me when they called. But every day when I got home from work, the very first thing I did was fired up my PC and start the AOL dialing session, hoping to get online before my TV shows came on TV. yea at that time TV was still my primary source of home entertainment.
Can you guess what the first thing I looked for my first time on the net?
Get your mind out of the gutter, I didnt even think that was online. Actually, the first thing I looked for was auto prices. I was thinking about buying a car at the time. Next was sports scores, looking for an edge at the work football pool.
What can I say is a big difference from then and now?
- Then there was a lot of useful, easy to find information for free
- Now there is a lot more useful information. Harder to find. Not always free. and Spam.
Just sitting, thinking about the wonder of the internet at that precious time brings a smile to my face. Now we take it all for granted, but that feeling of discovery that the internet brought about is something that kids today, growing up with the internet as a common thing will probably never understand. Its been a very short time, but we have truly experienced history in the making. I wish I still had one of those AOL disk.
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September 5th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I have joined AOL recently and got disk in my mails. Internet has grown up with amazing wonders and kids enjoy this a lot like playing games etc., I got this AOL disk and was very happy.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:03 am
Prodigy was my first internet experience. That was a long time ago. Before that I frequented the local underground BBS scene. I hung onto a 5 1/4″ AOL 1.0 floppy for a long time before I finally threw it out last millennium
Were you around for the AOL 2.0 era of AOL hacking? Those were some turbulent times for them…and great times for the thousands of kids who got free net access.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Yea I remember the hacking, I think that was before I had my own PC (not sure if it was version 2 or 3 that I first used). I do remember when I joined, it was before people were making those auto re dialers, so I had to keep hitting connect over and over again. Shortly after those auto redial proggies were all over the place, then AOL added it to the service.
It was a shame, the AOL built in auto redial was limited to 9 tries, and I would use all 9 tries several times before I would be able to get online.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:22 am
I was an A.O.L. 4.0er. Ugh, the hell of dial-up, although I think it was still cheaper than cable to pay for the extra “internet only” phone line.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:28 am
aol 2.5 yes there was a 2.5 and i still have my aol account a lot has changed over the years
September 7th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I hated AO(Hell). It dumbed people up for years about what the real internet was. Everything on their network ran fine, if you got off, well you suffered speed.
I’m a tech guy, and trying to explain to people that it was a shell to the internet and AOL would have a hard time making it later on, was a pain.
AOL is still there today, but in an almost unheard of form, to me any way. I just want the raw stuff. I didn’t need user friendly then and don’t need it now.
One good thing about AOL, coasters. An endless supply of coasters. If we are talking AOL, how about K-Marts, Blue Light Internet. HaHa…
September 8th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I used AOL for about a year. Eventually I got sick of the problems logging in and started trying the local ISP’s. Ended up finding one that connected on the first try every time and stuck with that one until about 97 when cable internet was available (I got cable internet as soon as it was available in my area).
I still remember having to explain to everyone that you still have the same internet information without AOL, haha. The only thing that was missing was the AOL buddy list and chat rooms.
September 8th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Good old times, I remember when a friend got a dial up and we were like WOW, soon everyone had it
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September 17th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
hahaha this made me laugh out loud! I remember the AOL discs.. holy cow they were EVERYWHERE! Funny to remember!