I think it was 1996.
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Same here.
Same, bought Netscape Navigator on floppy disks because I didn't know how to download it
Edit: not at home, but I recall in 1994 downloading Wayne's World and Ren & Stimpy clips with Gopher on the university network. Good times.
I still have clear memories of trying to download the huuuuuuge 20MB install and a phone call ruining it when it was almost done. All that time, wasted. I think of that every time my phone is now downloading apps updates that are around 90MB in a few seconds.
I miss the excitement of going 14.4>28.8>36.6k baud and 2x>4x>8x CD ROM drives where each update was very noticeable. Nowadays I do the majority of my computer stuff on my phone, so a bit of the magic is gone.
Before the internet, we had FidoNet (BBS).
I think I started using the Internet with AOL and then MSN.
Roughly 1996, we would dial up though the local college
1994 ish
BBS before that
Shit. Mid nineties somewhere? Though I'd had a chance to fuck around before that
2005 for me. But then when I moved out I didn’t have regular access until 2010 then I had an another internet hiatus until 2012.
Back in those days, you really had to put effort into having access to it.
Somewhere around ~2008, i was around 15 that time. Had to steal wifi from the neighbors. Placed wifi antenna on the roof through roof window and had a long wire running across the house to my room.
If weather was bad i couldn't get internet connection and every spring i had to dig the antenna out from the snow when it fell off the roof.
Got normalish internet when I got 18 and joined mobile carrier myself, that was limited to 2GB per month before speed was capped to 100kbs. That was around ~2011
1997
Possibly as soon as 1985 through Q-Link, though I don't recall it until 88 or 89 - so I'm not sure when my folks first got in.
Me personally, around 1990.
1995/1996 with a PowerMac 6100 and a 33.3k modem and Compuserve.
Probably around 2015-2016, my dad gave me a profile on his macbook to play with.
1991 or so by local university dialup that had a backdoor. People on local BBS clued me in.
After that backdoor was closed, a handful of student accounts kept me online until a local ISP launched.
We got dial-up in 1998 and ADSL in 2001. VDSL in 2012 and now waiting for fiber to become available in my street.