How long have you been on the Net?

Just wondering...

[Sinner_G]

I was asking myself how old (errr, I mean how young ;)) people are on WW and found the age thread [webmasterworld.com]. Although it's nearly 1 year old, it gives an idea. There are very young people and errrrr, some wise people.

Now the next question is, how long have you WWers been on the Internet?

I started with usenet and telnet back in 1992, so this year is my 10th net-anniversary. :)

<edited>
Mac, I said ON the net, not IN the net (or the matrix) ;).

[edited by: Sinner_G at 1:12 pm (utc) on Aug. 3, 2002]

[Mardi_Gras]

Brett wrote:

Later I would learn this was the first sign of addiction ;-)

It is too bad for all of us that you moved from user to dealer :) Now you have a bunch of hooked WebmasterWorld junkies.

[Xoc]

What are we calling the Net here? When I connected to CompuServe in 1980, it wasn't hooked to anything else. My first connection to the actual Internet happened in 1988, when I used UseNet for the first time. On the other hand, if Brett actually touched ArpaNet, he was on the Internet in 1976, since ArpaNet became the Internet.

Maybe we should call it the first time that you used the Internet Protocol (IP), directly or indirectly? (Including sending email to an Internet @ address.)

[nancyb]

I wasn't going to say anything here because I thought I was such a newbie :), but if we use Brett's criteria as anything with a modem I'm almost an old timer since I used a modem back in '82.

But, if we use WWW as criteria, I'm still a relative newbie since it was late '98 when I bought my third computer.

Since, then I would say I've been on the net for an average of 8 hours every day since and somedays even longer. Does this qualify as addiction???

[KodeKrash]

I qualify myself as being addicted - I sold my car so I could pay for my internet connection, which still costs more than my car payments ever did. :)

[ebynum]

This is a difficult one for me, as my Net-time easily exceeds half of my life.

I was born in 1982. At that time, my dad already had 3 computers (I couldn't even guess what kind they were) around the house. Shortly thereafter, he started using BBSes (there were several "important" ones that were run in our area). When I was 4, I convinced my dad (I'm quite certain that he was looking for an excuse) to get me a computer ... an 8088. I never got online with it, but my dad would occasionally let me use his computer to play around on the BBSes. I was upgraded to a 286 when I was 6 (1988), and was connecting to BBSes with my very own external 300 baud modem. I was so proud of myself.

In 1992, our local library system got connected to the beginnings of the Internet. They would give anybody with a library card an account on "Gremlin." My dad was the third or fourth account signed up, and he took me in a few days later, and I was in the top 10. We had access to Internet Email, telnet, FTP, and UseNET. Sometime later (a few years I guess), the WWW gained enough ground to be common. I believe I started with a text-based browser (thought it was cool too), and then moved up to Mosaic and eventually Netscape.

Edward

[creative craig]

I am currently paying the loan off for my laptop :( don't know if that makes me an addict but it keeps the bank manager happy! :)

[ann]

well, let's see.....

Got my first used computer in 1996 at the ripe old age of 60.

connected to the internet and promptly got hooked...started learning everything I could find and my first site went online in oct of 1997 (a full year later).

Hooked? oh yeah...Even when I leave the house I still think about the things I "need" to get done on the sites or a new script I want to play with...and of course there is webmaster world and Ihelpyou boards to completely gobble up all my..uhh..."free" time.

Ann

[itrainu]

Got online in 1992 when my university professor who was guiding my thesis said that he didn't answer the phone...only email. I went e-who?

Somehow I bought a new computer (had one without an modem...2 floppies - 5/4 that is!) and the salesguy ran a BBS and gave me the phone number. I wiped out windows 2 days later, took it in to get fixed, and then somehow got onto the BBS.

Next step (matter of days or weeks) got onto the National Capital Freenet (was ao574...quite an early number!) and started the ball rolling! I was reluctant to switch to windows (netscape) to access the www - so painfully slow just to see ugly pictures!

Now...I teach software applications, do web design (learned html in 1993) and SEO!

itrainu

[lorax]

Telnet since ... about 1989. Mostly worked with LANs and BBSs (remember them?) until the Office wanted to connect up the three branch offices. Discovered VPNs and Frames and TCP/IP and email and web servers and javascript and chat and message boards and VOIP and streaming media and gosh Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore... that was just about 1996. Late bloomer I guess.

[saurabh]

1997.. started using it for business only in 2001.

[shelleycat]

I remember the first time I used the internet was when my boyfriend sneaked me into his computer lab at uni late one night so we could use the Sun machines. They multi-tasked, something PCs didn't at that stage, so we could both use the same machine. This was near the end of 1996 I think. We only did this three or four times before exams started and there were no free machines.

I started using my university email account the next year but not the web. It wasn't until 2000 that I used my university internet account for the first time and realised what I'd been missing. We finally bought a modem for my computer in 2001 and I was hooked. Now I'm averaging connection times of around 250 hours per month.

So while I had my first taste a while ago I'd put the start of my real net useage as late 2000.

Just bought a new .nz domain last week - $85 for the domain. $7 per month just for the ISP to hold the domain.

*raises eyebrows* Mine cost $40 for registration with no ongoing charges for the holding part. I've wanted one for a while but couldn't afford it until domainz dropped the name holder fee at the start of this year. Now I have two :)

[thejenn]

Back in '91. Anyone remember when there used to be "Freenets" in all the major cities? I logged in through a local university and then would telnet to the other Freenets. Mostly email, chat, SIGS and gopher back then. Has some local BBs that I could dial into for games and such.

I remember getting an email about "this great new site" called Yahoo back when it first launched as a text only directory and using a text browser to go visit it.

Didn't get on the "web" as we know it until '95 when I headed off to college and had free access. Started developing a few months after that.