My first ‘job’ was going around to professors houses and setting up their modems and trumpet windsock so they could connect to the internet through the university’s modem pool. I was 12 and my dad came with me, the professors would reach out to him to get me to set up their internet. Hilarious!
Using the old floppynet
My ISP provided shell access via dialup to download a starter pack, Winsock, Mosaic, etc. All via lsz/zmodem.
I rarely used floppies, we did most trading via BBSs or even direct dial. Telix was in my autoexec I used it so much.