The internet

[Trickyvee]

Re: The internet

6PM. Logging on time. A nation listening to the modem squeal and whine while it was establishing a connection. Everyone jumping on screwing up what little bandwidth was available so that everything moved at an even slower crawl. Those were exiting times.

It's hard to think that in less than a decade we went from that to looking at internet on our phones on 3G networks.

The other day I was half listening to a TV show from the 1990's and they had somebody using dial up Internet with the familiar connecting sound. Weirdly, for a few seconds I couldn't place the sound but knew I recognised it then it dawned on me.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: The internet

I was a hold-out. I had old-fashioned dialup until 2011 when the Internet was so optimized beyond the capability of my old 1999 vintage computer.

[themilkman]

Re: The internet

[darren]

Re: The internet

ah yes the sound of dial up milkman.
hard to believe how things have changed over the last 10 yrs.
internet on phones etc.

[battyrat]

Re: The internet

I did not start to use the internet untill I got a home pc sometime abt 7 years ago.One of the first things I done was to visit a childrens tv site followed by E-bay.I suppose cartoons were more important then fast cars...and still are,lol.

[philipdalton]

Re: The internet

Most people probably didn't have the Internet at home in the days when your 'phone bill went up every time you used it, apart from a few millionaires perhaps, and others who greatly restricted its use.

[darren]

Re: The internet

it was around 2000 we got it.
it was a packard bell computer.

pretty sure it had dial up.

[philipdalton]

Re: The internet

You only have to pay the line rental for using it now and you can use it as much as you like without it adding to your phone bill. In the local libraries round where I live you can use it for up to an hour a day without paying anything at all.
As an aspiring writer it comes in especially handy for me as I can send my work to agents without the expense of sending it through the post.
However, I bought a new notebook from Argos for £300 the other day and found to my dismay that there was no Microsoft Office installed on it, which meant it couldn't open the contents of my USB stick, so I'm still holding onto my old computers.

[Sly]

Re: The internet

Get OpenOffice.

[ayrshireman]

Re: The internet

Sept 1997.

Probably porn, lol.

[Beach Life]

Re: The internet

Think we had our first computer back in 2000. It was that dial up system and via BT Broadband package which you could only use certain amount of hours per month. I can still hear that noise in my head now I don't miss the dial up.

While I am on the subject of the internet can anyone reccommend a tablet pc (for my mum) for reading books, looking at internet, watching films. I was thinking of Amazon Fire or ipad mini. Anyone please PM me if you can help would be much appreciated. I would prefer the windows run tablets but I don't think they do them in a 7 - 8 inch size. Preferably a tablet that is not hard to use for my novice mum!

[themilkman]

Re: The internet

First computer in 2000 and it was a Packard Bell..........signed up to internet access with 'freeserve'.

[memoman]

Re: The internet

Get OpenOffice.

I use open office it is free open source and compatable with the microsoft equivilent and you can also convert your documents to pdf files.It has all the sections like office.I don't like the modern versions of office.They have changed it for the worse like they have in windows 8.Open office is worth grabbing. http://www.openoffice.org/

[memoman]

Re: The internet

First computer in 2000 and it was a Packard Bell..........signed up to internet access with 'freeserve'.

I signed up with them in 1999 i had a Packard Bell also.