My first modem, 1987

[TNT]

Another thread reminded me of this... I'm rapidly approaching 20 years of being online.

May, 1987... I had a Tandy Color Computer III, which was actually a fairly nifty computer for the price.

One night I was at Radio Shack, and they had a 300 bps dumb modem on sale for $4.99, with a free hour of CompuServe (the internet not being available to the general public at that time). I said to the salesman, "I keep hearing about modems, but honestly, I'm clueless as to what they're used for." He explained it to me... how I could dial a phone number and connect my computer to another computer... while a lot of other people were doing the same thing. I still didn't quite get it, but what the heck? It was $4.99.

Later that night, I managed to get connected... and.... and what? It was neat, in a gee-whiz kind of way, but...

Then the service suggested that I might want to see if anyone I knew was also a member. Sure, why not? I typed in the name of my college sweetheart, the first genuine love of my life... someone I hadn't seen in years and was certain I'd never see again.

That weekend, I was in Cambridge, MA, standing in Harvard Square, eagerly waiting to see the incredibly lovely and wonderful A. once again.

And... there she was... we looked at each other... and we immediately realized there were very good reasons why we lost touch so long ago. But I digress.

It didn't matter... It was the moment I realized that being online was a very interesting idea, that might... just might... have potential. "You know," I said to her that night, "I've got a feeling this online stuff might be important. Not anytime soon, perhaps not for a long time, but someday... maybe."

[justZu]

I remember when we first got a modem. It seemed so weird to see my husband typing stuff and realize he was talking to actual people. I finally went online in 1994 and I've been spending too much time online ever since. :lol:

I like how CompuServe offered you a whole hour free. I remember way back when, tracking my time online so I wouldn't use up all the hours we had per month. :rolleyes:

[LostMyMind]

was that a cradle modem? I still have mine 300baud cradle modem. finding a phone that still will fit in that cradle is another issue. :lol:

[TNT]

was that a cradle modem?

Sort of... it was a phone and a modem built into one unit, but it worked pretty much the same way as a cradle modem.

Ah, yes... CompuServe. $6.00 an hour for 300 bps, $12.50 for 1200 or 2400 bps. When I hear people talk about the outrageous $40 a month for today's high speed internet, I'm amused.

My favorite online service of all time was PC-Pursuit from Sprint. They had a data network called Telenet (not to be confused with the internet service, "telnet"). For $20 a month, a user could dial in, hop on Telenet to a bunch of major cities, and then dial in locally to BBSs in that city. It was a giant pain in the butt, but it worked.

It was very cool at the time.

[Greenday]

May 1987...I wasn't even born yet. Mwahaha.

I do remember the days of the 56k. Compuserve, and then, holy crap, there was aol!

[MadMike]

While I had a computer back in the early 80's, I never had a modem until my first PC in '95. At had a 14.4 modem, which I updgraded to a "superfast" 56K modem two years later. Paid about $200 for the damn thing. Now you can find them for under $20. Go figure.

I put one in the computer I built a couple years ago, and I'm not even sure why.

[protege]

I put one in the computer I built a couple years ago, and I'm not even sure why.

I did that too...and I'm not sure why either. I guess I got used to having one--every machine I'd had, except for the CP/M one, had a modem of some sort.

I too remember the "old days." First modem we had was some sort of Hayes with the Apple III, and it seemed slow as hell, even then. Compuserve was the only place to go "online" then--didn't AOHell take them over?

[sp00by]

I didn't get he net until about '93/'94... but I remember I had this rather large notebook full of address's & URLS.... I didn't know about bookmarks. So I literally wrote everything down.

*blush*

[TNT]

Compuserve was the only place to go "online" then--didn't AOHell take them over?

Yup. Before then, CompuServe was owned by... H&R Block, the tax people. Quick... anybody remember the predecessors to AOL? (Quantum Link for Commodores, Promenade for the IBM PS/1, PC-Link for Tandy computers, among others. I'm like an encyclopedia of this stuff.)

Does anybody remember Prodigy, from IBM, Sears and (I think) CBS? They dumped billions into it. $9.95 a month for unlimited use (but email cost 25 cents to send). They managed the flat rate by having ads on every page and concentrating on shopping services. All the experts predicted quick failure... users would never tolerate ads and would never shop online. They were pretty much right, and Prodigy was a colossal failure in that particular incarnation.

Maybe that was a good thing... I'd hate to see what the W3 would be like if it was cluttered with ads and shopping. :roll:

[MadMike]

Does anybody remember Prodigy, from IBM, Sears and (I think) CBS?

That was the first service I used. It came pre-installed on my first PC, back when it still charged by the hour. Ran up quite a few bills on that. Then I discovered the internet, and started using it just for that. After a few months of sky-high bills, I found a flat-rate provider, which was a radical new concept at the time. I was quite happy with it, not having to worry about how long I was on, or sticker-shock when it came time to pay the bill.

Funny story -- after I had this a few months, a telemarketer called up, trying to sell me internet service for "the low price of $x per hour." I told him I already had unlimited services for only $18.95. It was kind of funny listening to him trying to figure out some way to "save" the sale, and then realizing he couldn't. :lol:

[TNT]

Then I discovered the internet, and started using it just for that. After a few months of sky-high bills, I found a flat-rate provider, which was a radical new concept at the time.

My first actual internet connection was a local outfit that provided remote access to an internet-connected Sun Sparcstation. It all Unix (Solaris) and all text-based... lynx, pine, tn... gopher, archie (veronica and jughead), etc. Ah, those really were the good old days.

It was great for awhile... the company had a whopping eight incoming phone lines, so no waiting. As the net rapidly grew in popularity, the lines started getting crowded. The provider kept promising more... but according to him, darn the luck, Verizon was just plain out of new lines. (No, he just didn't have any more money...)

[iradney]

I've been on the internet longer than any of my friends. I think we were one of the first houses to actually go onto the internet. Think that was just as I started highschool, so that would be 1994...
LOL

[Bright_Star]

The earliest that I ever saw anyone get online was in 1982! My step-brother got online using a TRS-80 computer that he bought at Radio Shack. & back then, the internet was nothing like it is now.
He would have to place the phone onto an external modem kind of like what Mathew Broderick's character does in that movie "War Games".
He used an online service that doesn't exist anymore.

[blas]

Holy balls of NOZ!

Are you telling me that the year that I made my entrance into the world, people were already chatting it up and looking up porn on the Interweb?

[TNT]

Holy balls of NOZ!

Are you telling me that the year that I made my entrance into the world, people were already chatting it up and looking up porn on the Interweb?

Not quite... the internet wasn't available to the public and Tim Berners-Lee wouldn't get around to developing the Web for a few more years.

We had chat... it was $6.00 an hour through CompuServe. I never got into that... too much money to be bored senseless by inane conversations with strangers. For less money, I could go to a local bar, be even more bored by inane conversations with my friends, and drink beer.

But we didn't have porn. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Unless you knew where to look.

[Andara Bledin]

Ahhh.. early connectivity.

My first dialup experience was in 1990, with a dumb terminal and a modem calling up BBSes.

Then, a few years later, my friends started with the Internet. A couple years after that, my work signed up, and I've had DSL service for the last 8 years.

But even back in the days of BBSes, you'd have porn. Of course, it would be ascii porn, but it was still porn.

Oh, yeah... the 56k modem we have cost us $8 at Fry's two weeks ago.

^-.-^

[Dips]

My Dad showed me the arpanet in the early 70s; he used it in his job at a military contractor. He and I both thought it was pretty cool that he could use a teletype to access a computer on the other side of the country. He didn't show me anything beyond basically saying "hello."

The first time we had a modem in our house was around 1975. My father used it when he started his company and needed to communicate with his partner's computer in another town.

The funniest bit was when he needed to cut noise, he would insert little circles he'd cut from file folders into the the cups where the handset went. He spent a great deal of time fussing over and calibrating these things.

It was alos forbidden to pick up the other phone extension because it would interrupt the connection and we'd get yelled at. Dad solved that problem by creating hanging signs he would place over all the other phones in the house advising us not to pick them up.