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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 28 2017, @09:02PM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday June 28 2017, @09:02PM (#532641) Journal

    Heh, I remember using AOL before it had a web client!

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  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday July 03 2017, @04:19PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday July 03 2017, @04:19PM (#534473) Journal

    Indeed. I remember the competition between CompuServe and AOL, once the two had largely killed off the smaller BBSs and the distinction between an Online Service Provider (OSP) and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) actually being important. OSPs sometimes provided some Internet access (AOL and CompuServe email was bridged with Internet email, for example, though you were all {some number}@compuserve.com), but didn't give you a TCP/IP endpoint and so you had to access Internet things via a gateway. I don't remember exactly when AOL switched to TCP/IP, but it was quite late.

    I think I got my first MODEM around 1993 or 1994 (2400 baud, replaced with a 14,400 kb/s one a bit later). I used Windows 3.1, Trumpet Winsock for the TCP/IP stack, Mosaic then NetScape 1.0 for web browsing, and Eudora for email. I was a relative newbie, and I've been online (for various definitions) for 25 years. It's not very surprising that most people ticked the last option.

    Even if you only count the Internet as online, rather than some prior networks, the first commercial ISP was in 1989 late, so people could have been online for almost 28 years without needing any special access. The Internet has existed in a form recognisable today since 1982 (earlier ARPANet instances ran different protocols) and was accessible from universities and a few other places back then, so 35 years seems quite plausible.

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    sudo mod me up