> that was about as long [15 minutes] as it took to load one webpage with one image.
Very hyperbolic. A simple webpage with text would load in seconds on a 28.8k modem. A single image would usually be a 10s of kB in those days, so maybe some seconds, not even a minute.
(I helped create the third public ISP in Utah (ArosNet), in 1995).
V34 (28.8k) was only ratified in 1994, and many ISPs were still at 14.4 at that time. Many customers still used much slower modems - 9600 remained quite common.
The commercial Internet really only started taking off in 1993. Not by coincidence, that was the same year NCSA Mosaic was released.
From a UK perspective: my family got dual up in ‘94, there were lots of ISP options & it was basically impossible to buy anything slower than 28.8k new (at retail anyhow, I’m sure you could special order) as no-where stocked them. 28.8 took over fast.
I think the UK had lots pf ISPs at the time because without a local number to call it was VERY expensive rather than just kinda expensive. But that’s just a guess.
I think I had Internet access around 1984 or so, lived near a university (this was not in the US so must have been some early international connection). Before that we had BITNET (IBM's network) and uucp. My first networking from home experience was with a 300bps modem to an IBM mainframe using a terminal program I wrote myself on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was a pretty crappy half-duplex but pretty exciting as a kid.
A trip down memory lane...
> The commercial Internet really only started taking off in 1993.
1993 is before 1994.
I am very much scratching my head by how this contradicts anything I stated in a way that makes it not correct.
If a commercial ISP existed in 1993, then by 1994 plenty of regular people would have been getting internet access - without any special affiliation other than a credit card - ie mainstream. (Per your own comment “many had internet access before that”) - those affiliated were among the first to have internet access is a pretty reasonable interpretation and that was well before 1994 in all of the continental US.
And yes, many faculty, students, and staff at the U had access. But that was like 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million.
> 50,000 people in a metro area of a few million.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree on the interpretation of what “first families”. In the context I read that post it sounded like someone saying they were among literally the first few, not 50k to 100k when anyone with a credit card could order service. First families in my interpretation would be those that probably had access from their parent’s university shell account. This follows with the claim 15 minutes to load a single webpage - but unless you were on a shitty rural phone line running 2400bps it’s not like everyone’s dialup internet access at the time was that limited. Some had to put up with that but the tech in 1994 was not that primitive.
You may be assuming that your experience in a different location applies to Utah, but I think that you're really just shifted by a year. The GP almost certainly weren't actually one of the first families in the sense of dozens, but they could well have been first among people they knew in their area. 15 minutes is probably hyperbole.
I do believe you. Really have no dispute with any details you’re putting down.
I suppose the distinction I’m making is about the cohort of early adopters that had special (usually U access) from those using commercial ISPs or BBSes. That earliest cohort no matter how small it was a good bit earlier than 1994 and eternal September. I’ll grant my wording inadvertently exaggerating the penetration of availability in 1994, just saying the first households were probably getting dialup some years prior.
For me an EE prof managed get me a shell account in 1990 while in middle school. Even in rust belt US many friends just used AOL into 1994 and uptake of dialup ISPs was still slow, but that 1994 cohort was distinct.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novation_CAT#The_Apple-CAT_II
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_(online_service)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenet
I think my first Internet access was through Prodigy[5]. The Wikipedia says this wouldn't have been till 1994[6], but I remember it being a few years earlier since by 1994 I would have been using AOL.
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)#Conve...
My first significant Internet access was at U.F. in 1995. While at U.F. I was also the sole system administrator for a small ISP in Gainesville. Two PCs running Slackware, a Livingston PortMaster with a dozen Hayes modems attached and a T1 for uplink.
My family also piloted something called Viewtron in the early 80s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewtron
AT&T marketing video for Viewtron:
I'd argue it wasn't until 96/97 when "everyone" started using it and membership didn't quite peak with services like AOL until 2001.
The internet was still the land of the nerds until the early 2000's
The first dot com boom, sort of the genesis of fortunes that make this site exist was prior to the early 2000s.
The early 2000s was the bust period.
The Netscape IPO, in summer 1995, and also the release of Windows 95, really marks the "mainstream" period. Getting online with Trumpet Winsock and Windows 3.1 was a PITA.
Anyway, since when does the truth need to get in the way of a good story?
Not 15 minutes though.