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Comment by riceart | Hacker News Reader

> This is not correct for access open to the general public. The first commercial ISP in Utah, Xmission, was founded in 1993. Yes, many of us had internet access through the University of Utah before that (Pete Ashdown, the founder, had worked at Evans & Sutherland, which had quite good internet connectivity).

> 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.

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It wasn't "way after" in Utah. Xmission turned on in October 1993. They grew a lot in 1994 but most people in the valley still did not have internet access yet. By 1996 the situation was very different - but 94 was still early in the Utah Internet days. The growth in Internet adoption was so rapid during those 3 years that the difference just between 94 and 95 was quite large.

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.

Ok not “way” after - really splitting hairs here. Point still stands public commercial dialup internet was available pretty much everywhere. Call them early adopters or whatever - but the internet already had established communities well before 1994.

> 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.

50k had access if they wanted it. Most didn't use it. I'm confused why you don't believe me that internet penetration in the salt lake valley was very limited in 1994 - I was there, I ran an internet service provider, and prior to that, I co-ran the largest multi-line BBS in salt lake. I'd been doing dial up for a long time.

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'm confused why you don't believe me that internet penetration in the salt lake valley was very limited in 1994

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.

My first dialup was to BBS's in the early 80s using a Novation AppleCat[1] and I think I was using The Source[2] around the same time, which eventually got swallowed by CompuServe[3]. To access The Source you dialed in to Telenet[4] first and then connected from there.

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:

https://youtu.be/sgYkpk9nJnE

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