Subj : Re: BBS Population, DWeb, Re_AOL
To   : Spectre
From : boraxman
Date : Thu Oct 20 2022 00:00:28

 Sp> These were early dialup days.. There were ISP CD's everywhere. As you
 Sp> mention most tried to either hide the dialup information and settings,
 Sp> making it more easily digestable for the masses, or involved some kind
 Sp> of compression or other jiggery pokery to make it at least appear
 Sp> faster. For what its worth Netspace actually started in life as a BBS
 Sp> run by a disabled kid. I forget what was "wrong" with him now...
 Sp> something physical but he's s'posed to be a bright spark.
 Sp> 

I joined up back in 2000, or 1999, and I got a CD with a dialer.  But the dialer didn't connect to a specific portal.  Many ISP's I recall did this.  Maybe because it was easier for people than configuring it in Windows.  I didn't use it that much because I moved to Linux soon after.

At the time, Netspace was quite good (always was actually).  It was recommended by a friend who switched to it from IBM I think.  The network wasn't that congested, which was the case with other ISP's such as Alphalink which although cheaper, were really, really slow during peak hours.

 Sp>  bo> Was the AOL back then different to Australia On Line today?
 Sp> 
 Sp> Yes... it was a subsidiary of AOL, I don't recall what happened to it or
 Sp> over what kind of time frame now.  Most of our early internet adopters
 Sp> were BBS users and the AOL package was to dumb and restrictive for them,
 Sp> at a time when there weren't enough new or "dumb" users in the market.
 Sp> 
 Sp> Australia Online today, is at least partially the remains of a company
 Sp> called ozonline. Oz was bought out by someone, and some years after AOL
 Sp> had thrown in the towel they adopted the Australia On Line moniker.  In
 Sp> short the two aren't really related at all.
 Sp> 
 Sp> Spec

I don't recall anyone ever using the Aussie AOL myself.  The Australia Online around today didn't seem to be related in any other way other than similarity of name.  I first accessed the Internet using a University account.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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