Remember the name of your first ISP?

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pulse8

Lifer
May 3, 2000
20,860
1
81
I had AOL "pre-internet" as well, then I want to a company called IDT for internet access. Then it was Netcom, then BridgeNet, then Bellsouth and then ATT Broadband.
 

MrDudeMan

Lifer
Jan 15, 2001
15,069
94
91
The Edge (EdgeNet)

i was...9 years old? haha that was funny thinking about dialing up...
 

GtPrOjEcTX

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
10,784
6
81
AOL 1.8 for DOS I believe it was. :) that would be around '91. Yes I've been on the net for over half of my life. :eek:

edit for pricing.. I think it was ~$20 for 5 hours a month on my 2400 baud modem. :Q
 

Tanner

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2001
7,391
0
0
wow...what a GREAT thread.... this is sooooooo kewl to see all the ISPs that have come and the countless that have vanished/been absorbed. ;)

I started w/ Nutscrape on our 486sx 25Mhz badboy w/ a 14400 modem...I remember I had to use Trumpet as the PPP dialer I think...something like that anyhow. ;)

That was AccessUS
I used that from '94 through college... now it's network access for me!!! w00t w00t! :D
 

Scootin159

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2001
3,650
0
76
Never did get our 386/33 online, but our IBM Aptiva (Pentium 200Mhz/16MB EDO RAM) came with a 28.8 modem (and about 3 months later a software update to 33.6). We used that to connect to Spectra.Net for $20/month.

Gotta love the days of being one of the 1337 few who found out how to use AIM w/o an AOL account :).
 

geoff2k

Golden Member
Sep 2, 2000
1,929
0
76
I spent so much time at work after college that I never got my own ISP until I got DSL last year. At work however, we went from a PSI dedicated 28.8 dial-up (1993), to a PSI dedicated 64K (1994), to a full T1 from Netrail (1995-1996), to a fractional T1 from MCI (1997-1998), to a fractional T1 from Qwest (1998-2001).
 

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
Actually, my first, now that I think about it was Sprynet, then Netcom - and a short period on Concentric :)
 

Perplexer

Senior member
Feb 2, 2001
317
0
0
Originally posted by: Liviathan
It was in Miami, FL back in 1994. Had a P100, Icanect 19.99/Month.


Heh, I was an Icanect user for a long time...

My first "online" experience was BBSes, then "Quantum Link" (how many of you remember that?!), Prodigy and Compuserve, then the university shell account. Finally went with Icanect, then got a need for speed and went with ISDN, and went through a number of ISDN and dial-up accounts. Jumped on Bellsouth DSL when it was available, switched to Telocity DSL, then moved out of the city, with no broadband.

With the phone lines out here, I get a piddly 21.6Kbps (even ISDN is unavailable!), and currently use SurfBest. Time-Warner, please run a long-ass cable to my house! I'll pay you for it! Are you listening?! :D
 

Choralone

Senior member
Dec 2, 1999
924
0
0
I've had 4 ISP's (7 if you want to get technical)

1. Midwest Communications Linky Aug 96-Aug98 Good ISP, just not local. $19.95 for Unlimited.

2. Internet Revealed Linky Aug 98-Dec98 Had to drop this one cause I moved out of their local call area. $19.95 for Unlimited

3. Iowa Network Services Linky Dec98-Aug99 For when I lived out in the middle of nowhere. Great connects even in the country! $11.95 for Unlimited if you were a local phone subscriber, which was pretty much everyone who had it.

4. Cable modem. Aug99-Present. First it was TCI@Home, then AT&T@Home, then Medicacom@home, now it's Mediacom Online. I still have the same cable modem, and I'm still getting roughly the same speed. Freakin expensive, but still worth it. :)

Before then I got on the net via the Univ. of Iowa when I went up to visit friends, or via a then free BBS/half-assed Net gateway called Midwest Access Online that folded 1 week after going from being free to a pay service in Aug of 96. (hmmm I wonder why...) :D

 

ScrapSilicon

Lifer
Apr 14, 2001
13,625
0
0
Originally posted by: Mist3rMischi3f
Damn...when I first learned about what the Internet REALLY was in 1998 or so(read: NOT AOL), I was nursing an AOL screenname from a friend. After that, during the rush of all those free ISPs, I jumped about with Netzero, Juno, Freewwweb, FreeI.net, and almost all the others...never had a real pay ISP.
was freei.net ..altavista and encyclopedia britannica
 

Ime

Diamond Member
May 3, 2001
3,661
0
76
1988 was when I dialed into my first BBS. I think it was with a 2400 baud modem.

1991 was when I was first exposed to the Internet. James Madison University was my ISP back then.
 

CtK

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
5,135
2
81
IPquest
i think it was 94-95
not sure
dont remember how much it cost
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
9,965
590
136
I have used the same dialup # for almost 10 years ROFL, at first I had AOL for a short bit, but then they I dropped them pretty quick. I then switched to Netcom because both me and my friend could dialup at the same time with the same account :) And have stayed with them since then, well kinda, Netcom got bought by mindspring, and now mindspring is owned by earthlink. I have absolutely no complaints. Earthlink has done very well for me, the dialup I use doesnt diconnect me...... I had a 2 week connect time once. They offer things like Earthlink Pop-up blocker (Which is really just GuardIE and it works well) and they offer spam blocking, and it has NEVER blocked something that wasnt spam. Never had any busy signals (not one in 10 years) and have never been down, except sometimes at 3AM or so to upgrade, but Im not up at 3AM.
 

Ernieb

Senior member
Jan 13, 2002
880
0
0
ok my first ISP was web club - $11.00 for 33hrs
2nd was IPoline $19.99 i think Unlimited dail up already
then Rogers cable then Sympatico..then now Rogers again
 

BCYL

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
7,803
0
71
I used an ISP call Internet Direct... It provided 30 prime-time hrs a month, and unlimited non-primetime hrs... primetime hrs is actually mon-fri 3pm to 12am... Since I dont usually use the internet a lot during primetime hrs, this was like an unlimited plan for me...

And after I got a second phone line installed at home, I just left it connected during the night and weekends downloading stuff ;)

Always end up using like 300hrs of non-primetime a month, and only a couple of hrs of primetime...