When did the internet become publicly available?

[Anomaly1964]

Didn't know where else to put this so I put it here...

I know someone is gonna say "do a Google search" but it's more fun for me to read the responses of those who may have actually experienced it...

What year was internet access publicly available?

Who was the first ISP (AOL?)?

Who had the first web-browser (if it was not Windows based)?

Who had the first search engine?

Who had the first alternative browser to IE?

Do you remember or possibly even still have your very FIRST email account?

 

[Lobo56]

The Internet was around and publicly available for a number of years before a web browser and search engine were.

You would have public access bulletin boards hosted by Uni's and enthusiasts that you could dial into. You would find out about them from lists published in pc magazines and what not.

For some old school fun telnet into a bb, just google public bb's and telnet to the address. I first got the net at home in '94. By then alta vista was around and the 'web' was growing rapidly.

Our first ISP cost $1 per hour of Dialup access.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Google it...

Just kidding. 1991 it first came available to the public but is was available to researchers via the ARPANET since 1969. Cern introduced the World Wide Web protocol system which made it available for every one.

AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe were the first ISPs

Mosaic from Netscape was the first graphical browser

VERONICA were the first search engine

Netscape

No were still had a Pilot tv then. Yes i do still have my first email account

 

[Compman55]

My first internet was in 1994 with a 2400 dial up modem using AOL. Ultra slow even back then. Graphics and websites were in 16 colors. I remember my friend had a 14.4kbps dial up modem in his with a 256 color graphics card and we were absolutly amazed. I later got that modem while he got a 33.6k. Then I paid over $200 for a ultra fast 56k modem which took an ISA slot and needed to be configured with jumpers.

Old telnet terminals had internet access long before but in my opinion the internet became the "internet" when we had graphical browsers.

 

[dac7nco]

The first browser was NCSA Mosaic; it was a project at the University of Illinois Supercomputing Center, which became available in 1993. My first ISP was Netcom in 1988 (d####@netcom.com). I used an Amiga 2000HD and a Tandy 286/12 running SCO and X. The primary forum activities were usenet groups; email was usually PINE or ELM. In a few very obscure ways I miss it.

Daimon

 

[wirednuts]

i remember netscape being the first browser to have graphics, then ie followed.

 

[mammador]

Since the early-mid 1990s, in the days of dial-up and 28K modems lol.:awe: The Web only has been in existence since the early 90s or so.

The Internet (not the same thing as the Web) has been around for decades, but only itself became widespread as the Web, e-mail and multimedia became big. That and the fact that telecommunications uses a lot of IT principles, and you have things such as IP-based cameras, speakers, etc.

 

[dac7nco]

It wouldn't load Anandtech Forums, or Google, or much else for that matter, but It still loads NCSA's site. I had to put it in an x86 VM; I forgot it was 16 bit.

By dac7nco at 2011-04-10

I forgot how vile it was.

Daimon

 

[Deleted member 4644]

I started with a 9600 baud modem connecting to AOL back around 1994. That was early, but by no means the earliest. I think it was pretty early for "the internet."

I was on the web in 1994, which was really early for that.

 

[ripster55]

Al Gore sat me down and got me on the internet.

Made me use Alta Vista.

I still haven't forgiven him for that.

 

[mikeford]

I used dial up connections with 110 and 135 baud, teletype and selectric, i/o devices then much later on used a 300 baud modem to connect to bbs systems, but I knew people who had dial up to the WELL and that supported email back and forth to the "internet". A short time later many home based BBS systems started offering "fido-net" connections which I think also allowed email and some limited file exchanges with the "internet", 300 baud was common, but some supported 1200.

Tymnet and similar services were timeshared access to mainframes or mini computers, and some of those had connections to "internet".

I used BBN, business to business network, before Prodigy or CompuServe (which initially was timeshare).

Timeshare differs from later services in that you paid for mostly CPU seconds, not just connection time. Main use was for businesses to do payroll, reports, or research. For many years typical connection was not sitting connecting and looking around, but a very brief connection where message titles and directory updates were transfered, you would write new messages, and select messages to be downloaded at your next brief connection, and all reading and browsing was done offline.

 

[ArisVer]

I used Mosaic and Netscape for a while as an alternative to Explorer.
It was in the 56K modem era.

My first account must be logged somewhere...

 

[alkemyst]

Lynx was around before Mosaic.

There were ISP's prior to AOL and the like, funny I found this from an old ATOT'er: http://www.trygve.com/nyx.html

I was on the Internet since 1983...tchh, lutzifer, QSD type places through X.25 and Tymnet...there was not much graphics unless you count ANSI TradeWars 2000.

gopher was an 'original' search engine.

my first non-edu address was shadow.net

 

[Evadman]

I used to use my Bell 103 acoustically coupled 300 baud modem to connect to BBS's long, long ago. You had to dial the phone yourself, and put the handset on the modem. I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere.

 

[stahlhart]

My father used to bring home from work, once in a great while, a 110 baud teletype with an accoustic coupler. I remember dialing in to the host mainframe on Sunday mornings/afternoons to play text-based games like gunner (guess the elevation to hit the computer's target before it guessed yours), football, blackjack, craps, hangman etc. We went through reams of greenbar. This would have been late 1960s.

 

[Raswan]

In or around March 1989: http://www.techspot.com/news/43285-world-wide-web-inventor-internet-access-is-now-a-human-right.html

 

[alkemyst]

In or around March 1989: http://www.techspot.com/news/43285-world-wide-web-inventor-internet-access-is-now-a-human-right.html

World Wide Web <> Internet.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

The first browser was NCSA Mosaic; it was a project at the University of Illinois Supercomputing Center, which became available in 1993. My first ISP was Netcom in 1988 (d####@netcom.com). I used an Amiga 2000HD and a Tandy 286/12 running SCO and X. The primary forum activities were usenet groups; email was usually PINE or ELM. In a few very obscure ways I miss it.

Daimon

Good taste in computers :thumbsup::thumbsup: (I just restored one of those; check my retro-computing thread in Off Topic if you're interested)

First "online" experience for me was CompuServe in the early 80s (83 or 84, IIRC, via a 300 baud VICmodem). As far as the internet is concerned, I used the internet in the late 80s/early 90s at school, but I don't think I started using the WWW until 93 or 94 IIRC and like dac7nco, I used Mosaic as well.

 

[dac7nco]

300 baud VICmodem

Jesus, I had one of those; my mother was "pleased as hell" when she got several hundred hours of phone bills to the 415 (~50 miles away)... I think I upgraded to 1200 by '85.

Daimon

Edit: CDC Forever!

 

[dbarton]

70531,9134

Anybody?

 

[alkemyst]

Jesus, I had one of those; my mother was "pleased as hell" when she got several hundred hours of phone bills to the 415 (~50 miles away)... I think I upgraded to 1200 by '85.

Daimon

Edit: CDC Forever!

You saying you were part of the Cult of the Dead Cow?

I was around the scene pretty heavily up to and through the whole hacking war between MoD and LoD. It seems everyone out there online now seems to think they were hackers.

Much like the guy that didn't get laid until 25 telling stories of how he was a player in high school.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

70531,9134

Anybody?

Geesh, that was so long ago but I think mine was:

75476,112

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Jesus, I had one of those; my mother was "pleased as hell" when she got several hundred hours of phone bills to the 415 (~50 miles away)... I think I upgraded to 1200 by '85.

Believe it or not, I still have the VICmodem in the original box in my garage, complete with the software -- on tape! :awe:

 

[dbarton]

my mother was "pleased as hell" when she got several hundred hours of phone bills to the 415 (~50 miles away)...

Maybe you need PC Pursuit.

 

[dac7nco]

You saying you were part of the Cult of the Dead Cow?

Hell no; my parents were married - when I was 16 I admired harmless idiots.

Daimon