When Did You First.....

...go online?

We are all pre-internet people here, so I'm curious to hear your stories about when you first went online, how you managed to navigate things like emails, etc, and what prompted you to be online in the first place?

For me, we were persuaded by the kids to get a computer for "homework". It was 2004, and for some reason we got one built for us, by a guy who lived round the corner. I think it was cheaper than buying one from a shop at that time.

So we trundle home with this massive machine and set it all up in the living room. I made a rota for the kids so they would get equal time on it, and as it was dial up internet back then, I was super conscious of keeping them each to their time.

A few months on, and they had friends from all over the world, playing games and not a bit of homework got done!

Meanwhile, I had set up my first email account with Hotmail, and as I worked in an office back then, I spent time sending myself little email reminders to get stuff done, thinking I was ever so smart and techno minded!

Now, of course, we are all using phones, tablets, and laptops with huge memories and wi-fi. Funny how things rapidly evolve!

Re: When Did You First.....

I wondered what the question was going to be Pixie.

I think I went online around about 1995. In fact, I had Windows 95.

Re: When Did You First.....

I was teaching in 1991 and remember the first email I got from my husband from Iran. In the years before that, we had depended on the mail which took weeks. It seemed like a miracle! I still have the messages printed out on dot matrix paper, but I confess that they don't have the charm that the handwritten notes.

I am fairly sure that I was using the internet somewhere around 1993 doing some university work, and I recall being with my dad when we opened up his first PC. We exercise a lot of trial and error to figure it out and in awe of the capabilities. Of course,the solitaire on the PC itself was pretty fun and amazing too!

Re: When Did You First.....

It was 1996, as I needed to enter statistics for the company I worked for at the time.

I remember thinking that it would get easier as time passed. I was correct.

Re: When Did You First.....

Way back in the 90s. When internet dial up first came out. I reckon we were one of the first.

I can still hear that dial up tone ringing now and when it used to drop it drove me bonkers lol.

Been using computers before the internet. I was a whizz on the Commodore 64 so much so I gave myself the name Commodore Lady for my handle for the old fashioned way of connecting with the outside world the CB Radio LOL. Oh man, they were such fun, good days.

Mine and Johns first social media meeting was called Net Meeting and we met a couple from Canada and a bloke from near Washington and we are still friends to this day albeit on facebook.

Re: When Did You First.....

1994 on an Amiga 1200 and 56k dial-up modem. Used to like the beeps and screeching as it connected to the internet.

Re: When Did You First.....

About 1990 ? I bought my son an Atari computer for Christmas, he was in his early teens.
A good move, his first step on the ladder to becoming an entrepreneur.

Re: When Did You First.....

Can't remember for sure, think it was around 2005.

My friend's husband used to rebuild computers and he did one for me, then my friend gave me my first lessons.

Re: When Did You First.....

Same here Judd, there are still some things I could do on the Amiga that I can't do now......

I used to run with a bloke who had a computer and he loaded it up with a cassette tape, it took ages. He wrote all of his running logs on it and I had running logs going back ten years. That's when I bought the Amiga second hand. When it packed up in 2000 .... I bought a new desktop running windows 95 and moved all my backed up stuff (mostly print offs) I then upgraded to Vista (I still use that computer for backup) I love statistics and graphs, and made lots of them on databases and spreadsheets, it really helped when I went self employed as a courier.

I did lots of work on the computer for my business, invoices, route sheets, VAT and tax calculations, job sheets which I kept for old times sake...
I look through my job sheets now and remember every job I ever did, it's as good as a photo album or diary.

Re: When Did You First.....

I'm sure you did, LD!