Subj : Re: Internet Availability
To   : poindexter FORTRAN
From : calcmandan
Date : Wed Nov 20 2024 15:50:15

On 13 Nov 2024, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...
 
 pF> -=> Mortar wrote to Nightfox <=-
 pF> 
 pF>  Mo> It would probably be more accurate to say "publicly aware" as the Net
 pF>  Mo> was accessible years earlier.  For the most part, if the average pers
 pF>  Mo> wanted access, you had to go to a college/university or high-end
 pF>  Mo> library as connections were rather expensive at the time.
 pF> 
 pF>  I worked for a company that was in Albany, CA - next to Berkeley, home
 pF>  to UC Berkeley. We bought a connection into UCB's network in 1993-1994,
 pF>  $6000/year for a 56K leased line!
 pF> 
 pF>  We were transferring mostly text email, IRC and news articles at that
 pF>  point, for 70-80 people - and it worked.
 pF> 
 pF>  I think that was about when the commercial restrictions on the NSFnet
 pF>  backbone went away.

I was stationed in Alameda from 94-96 and often went to Berkeley to look for women to date. I would go to Cafe Strada, i think, which had a computer that gave access to sfnet for, i think, a quarter for ten minutes of bbs time. I'd go in with a stack of quarters and chat, play games, read the message areas, and goof off. Almost forgot about that until you mentioned your leased line.

What's a shell account?

 pF> 
 pF>  I didn't get a shell account until 1996 or so.
 pF> 
 pF>  > hadn't heard of the internet at the time, and I'm sure very few people 
 pF>  > at the time, so I don't think the internet was really a thing for most
 pF>  > people at the time.
 pF> 
 pF>  Mo> Quite true.  It wouldn't be until 1993, when Windows 3.11 was release
 pF>  Mo> that most people would take their first steps into the online world,
 pF>  Mo> thanks to improvements to the Windows networking subsystem, making
 pF>  Mo> services like Compuserve, America Online and Prodigy viable.
 pF> 
 pF>  3.11 was a watershed moment. Having to set up packet drivers and the
 pF>  windows "shim" with 3.1 was a pain. When we rolled out 3.11. being able
 pF>  to configure networking through a control panel was nice.
 pF> 
 pF>  I had a tech support team that decided to do everything they could do
 pF>  with it - they set up a Microsoft Mail post office, used the mail and
 pF>  schedule apps, used Chat and WinPopup internally for collaboration, and
 pF>  set up a file share for the group.
 pF> 
 pF>  We used Eudora and WinVN for mail and news - I can still hear that
 pF>  Eudora new mail sound in my head.
 pF> 
 pF> 
 pF> 
 pF> 
 pF> 
 pF>   But it
 pF>  Mo> was in 1995 that the Iternet really took off.  Online services now
 pF>  Mo> provided gateways to the Internet, as well as dedicated ISPs started 
 pF>  Mo> pop up, and thanks to DSL, you could use your current modem if you
 pF>  Mo> didn't have cable.  It was a wonderous time. --- SBBSecho 3.21-Linux
 pF>  Mo>  * Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (46:1/194)
 pF>  
 pF> --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
 pF>  * Origin: realitycheckbbs.org -- yesterday's tech today (46:1/115)

.... Coffee: because adulting is hard

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (46:10/131)

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