When did you first start using the internet?

Approximately what year did you first start using the internet?

Earlier 5
1991 ( Launch of the World Wide Web ) 2
1992 2
1993 2
1994 0
1995 2
1996 5
1997 3
1998 3
1999 3
2000 ( Broadbands first debuted ) 1
2001 0
2002 1
2003 3
2004 1
2005 1
2006 6
2007 2
2008 1
2009 0
2010 6
2011 3
2012 0
2013 1
2014 1
2015 1
2016 1
2017 0
2018 0
2019 0
2020 0
2021 0
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Comments ( 37 )
  • olderdude-xx

    1981... as part of a university project.

    Back then it was only connected to military and research universities. Dial up was possible with incredibly slow stand along modems with a personal computer (typically 4 or 8 Kbyte memory). I had a suitable computer and modem by 1985. There wasn't much on it back in those days...

    I also got a chance to watch all the traffic going through the universities node point on the network. That was educational.

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    • dude_Jones

      During 1983, ArpaNet adopted TCP/IP protocol making it a network of networks. I started transferring email and supporting documentation from the US down to Australia for our defense industry project partners. The instant response was critical to keep coding/test activities synchronized. A year later, I went down for a two year assignment on the project. I never dreamed ArpaNet -> Internet growth would explode like it did.

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      • olderdude-xx

        TCP/IP was being tested in 1975-81 as best I know (I recall the discussions on it in 1981), and was first adopted for mainstream use in in 1982 with the formation of what was known as SATNET.

        The US Military adopted TCP/IP for all of the defense needs in 1983, using the existing arpanet that existed.

        It actually took a couple of years for all users on the arpanet to fully switch to TCP/IP from what Wiki identifies as the previous "Network Control Program" (NCP). Many computing centers allow both NCP and TCP/IP for a while.

        With arpanet now using TCP/IP SATNET merged with it, and new branches started to be build.

        It sure was an interesting time. I used to be able to recover my email using basic TCP/IP commands as recently as 1990 when remote from my home. I've since forgotten those commands; and its my understanding that the internet has now moved past the old TCP/IP (they have newer versions of it - keeping the name even if the structure has changed); leaving classic TCP/IP in the history bin just as it left NCP in the history bin.

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        • dude_Jones

          Well of course token ring architectures, like those used in massively parallel relational databases have never used TCP/IP. But for the most part, the seven layer (originally 4 layer) OSI model is still intact. The entire World Wide Web made a very graceful transition to IPv6 about 10 years ago and the whole standard continues to evolve with special headers, point-to-point-tunneling protocol, etc.

          Actually, network evolution is one of the smoothest most sensible foundations of the cyber universe. To be sure, Telnet is dead. My telnet manual is in the same junk drawer as my plastic slide rule from the sixties.

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    • sillygirl77

      1981 as part of a uni project that sounds so cool. You were a pioneer 1995 when I was 17 here

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      • olderdude-xx

        Not a pioneer. Those people were there in the very late 1960's and early 1970's (look up "arpanet" on Wiki).

        Just an engineering student that was more inquisitive than just getting the required data sets from other universities for assigned projects.

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        • sillygirl77

          Oh wow 60's and 70's I will look that up sounds interesting thank you.

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    • Ummitsstillme

      Oh wow, Stanford?

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      • olderdude-xx

        University of Wisconsin - Madison.

        As part of some of our computer/engineering classes we had to get data sets from the University of Chicago and University of Minnesota. Madison had data sets that the other university students had to get for some of their projects as well.

        I learned how to find out what data and papers were available on different sites - and download them... in 1981/82.

        Look up "arpanet" on Wiki for the real history of the backbone of the internet.

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    • Pilum

      I want to hear the details of the second part

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      • olderdude-xx

        Here's what you need to know: Someone sitting on a node point (or able to attach to it) essentially can read in plain text anything that is not encrypted.

        Also, the simpler encryption is not that hard to break either (I'm not going to go into details on that).

        The internet was built for reliability - not security. It takes a lot of real work to make it secure.

        The concept of Internet Security is almost an oxymoron.

        There's some security these days with the most common software. But, you really have to work at really having secure communications - and privacy too.

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        • olderdude-xx

          Also, Look up "packet sniffers"

          DSL is often done in a ring arrangement and someone with a packet sniffer can read all the internet traffic from any other people on the ring.

          Other networks have other ways to access the data.

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  • Cuntsiclestick

    It was the year 2000. The school had just got new computers that could connect to the internet. I remember the browser was called Nestscape. The filter they used on it was called Bess and it's mascot was a dog. I really didn't like Bess. It blocked all of the flash game sites. XD

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  • Tingles18

    Around 1998. I played some Teletubbies games at that time. I was very small back then.

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  • 1WeirdGuy

    Around 96 I was only 6 years old and I taught myself how to read pretty good by going in AOL chats

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  • Somenormie

    I started using the internet in 2007 on a big chunky Windows Vista computer ( Which was a Dell Dimension computer can't remember which model it was ), even though I was still quite young I remember I would be supervised to use the internet and I was horrible at typing on a keyboard.

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    • Windows Vista, despite being unstable and terrible overall, was easily the most " beautiful " version of Windows so far, IMO.

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      • Boojum

        People dis Vista, but I don't have bad memories of it. I think they dis Me even more, but I don't remember hating it either. Maybe that's because the first version of Windows I used was 3.0, and everything since then has been at least a little step up.

        My recollection is that the main reason people got annoyed with earlier versions of Windows is that they were trying to run it on machines that couldn't really handle the demands of Windows. My impression is that partly because MS has invested a huge amount of time and energy maturing the platform so it handles problems much better and partly because hardware has sort of plateaued, such problems are much less common these days.

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  • i think around 2011 because my parents never let me use the computer but then I went to a friends house and used it. I thought it was weird and fun

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  • LloydAsher

    I remember my first computer class being in 1st grade. Teaching us how to use a computer. Which is probably not being taught anymore since most kids can use an iPad by the time they enter kindergarten.

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  • 1234tellmethatyoulovememore

    2006, playing yahoo computer games after school

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  • BleedingPain

    My first computer was a dell Laptop which ran windows XP in 2006. It was a hunk of junk compared to today, but it got me through a lot.

    Prior to that, my mother had a gateway desktop that I only used for cd-rom games.

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  • Dot123

    late 90's for educational only and 2000's for internet

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  • GuvnorsOtherWoman

    2007.

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  • charli.m

    1997

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  • megadriver

    1999, but dial-up in my hometown was so slow, I didn't have the patience for it. I knew very little English and had no idea how to use the internet properly.

    We got broadband in 2003 and that's when I started using the internet more. Primarily to download games and movies, sometimes to find info for homework, or a school project.

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  • SwickDinging

    I think it was 96. I found a chat room for a tv show that I really liked and I remember spending about 2 hours figuring out how to get into it. I had to create an email address to sign up for the chatroom.

    That whole story sounds ridiculous now. Funny how fast these things change.

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  • a-curious-bunny

    Idk when did thing thing come out? Sometime around their

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  • Ummitsstillme

    Early 90s. I used webcrawler when I was like 10. And Prodigy and Aol.

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  • bbrown95

    I don't remember the year. I would say I was first allowed on it during school anywhere from 2000-2002, maybe? I was allowed some more freedom on it probably during the mid-2000's or so.

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  • Trichfuzz

    Our family got the internet in 1998. I was 5 and search for images of “snakes” as there were my favorite animals of the time.

    I remember the unexpected results for that search lol.

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  • Boojum

    I'm fairly sure it was in 1990, but it could have been 1991. I do remember faffing around with various text-based tools looking for stuff and downloading it, and finding it a huge pain in the arse.

    I clearly remember the Mosaic browser, and I used Netscape Navigator for several years before joining the Internet Explorer herd.

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    • Ummitsstillme

      Boojum is the OG fapper, how long did it take to download pics of Tiffany Amber Thiesen in 91?!

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  • ThatOneGuyYouNeverWantToMeet

    Somewhere around 2006 or 2007.

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  • ellnell

    Im gonna go ahead and put my guess at 2005

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  • JellyBeanBandit

    Technically I started back around 2002, but it was on my brother's computer and I didn't really know how to use it and I only used it to find out cheats for video games. I only really started using it when I got my first laptop, which was in 2007.

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  • Meowypowers

    I dialed up with AOL

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