When a large hard drive was 500Mb and you'd never be able to fill it ...

When Netscape was THE browser ...

When it was cool to have a personal home page that had a ~ in the address ...

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, I've started to put some web site reviews from 1996 on a new blog - www.theyearis1996.blogspot.com.

It's still a work in progress but it's so interesting working through the web sites that were the 'talk of the town' when the net was still a new fangled thing for geeks.

I haven't started the Music section yet but that (and the fashions) are really the only thing I remember about the '90s. 

Hope it's ok to post this here.  I'm having fun just lurking around here.

I definitely recall the website Hampster dance as one of the first big sites...

Definately a simpler time in terms of graphic design that is really missing from many sites (I was hooked on Wikipedia for a couple years just to recall the simpler graphic design of most web pages, as well as before there was widespread commercialism). Most big name bands were just starting to get their own detailed web page that year, and Encarta and IMDb were probably the main informational sites to use at the time. Usenet was still the primary discussion board group; and "Chat Rooms" were definately bigger then compared to a standard message board today. Also, the word "cyberspace" was much more commonly used at the time. I myself first went online in 1996. Lots of Times New Roman/Arial font usage as opposed to the collage found today. The "Web Ring", before search engines became more sophisticated, was the primary way of viewing various topics of a particular subject. Plus, in 1996, most Internet URLs in general writing were still written out in full form (including the http:// at the beginning). It was definately a time of excitement that I haven't felt in a while (though Youtube came very close).

Netscape was an alternative to the Windows Internet Explorer then. 

Geocities and Angelfire existed along with Usenet(which is now a part of 'Google Groups').  Everybody I know has made websites, and ring to websites.  I used Netzero for my internet connection because it was free, despite the damn pop-ups appearing everywhere. 

MIRC was pretty popular during that time.  I logged in dalnet and chat for hours. 

I say the next age of Internet came to be in 2004 where everything changed.  Anyone agree?

I got AOL for the first time in '96....and also how excruciatingly slow each web page loaded on my computer.

I remeber hearing the word "Internet" for the first time in '96---yeah, I'm a little behind the times  :-\\ 

And later that year, I was introduced to the web and it was so exciting to have the world at my finger tips. The bad thing was that to be connected to the web at home (it wasn't so bad in the labs at school) was that I had to type in all these steps to get the computer connected to the modem!

I first jumped on the triple-dub bandwagon in January 1996 during my first year in college. Netscape was indeed still ruling the browser world, though the computer labs I was using at the time also had the Mosaic browsers on their desktops. I remember RealAudio sounding lo-fi in comparison to subsequent updates and what little online video content was available as being herky-jerky. You haven't seen out of sync audio/video until you've watched NBC Pro on a 100 Mhz machine. :-)
Personal web sites tended to be cluttered with animated gifs and other nonsense, but we thought it looked cool at the time. I was guilty of the same thing when I had a page on Angelfire.
Still, it was fun to have the world at your fingertips and to chat with folks around the world. I spent far too many hours online in those days. I suffered from online withdrawal while at home, because I could only access a Unix server from my parents place. :-)

I didn't even know what the World Wide Web was until 1997!  ;D

When AOL was "America Online".

I remember when 1996 was the year of the World Wide Web and it was new to pretty much everyone! All the entertaining TV series about the web and the future. It was so exciting!

When AOL was "America Online".

For me AOL was Always Off Line!

Also, Web 1.0 was the norm back then, meaning that websites were static, social media was very limited, you can't share posts online, and the website is mainly controlled by the creator so you'll have to restart your page in order to see new updates  ;D

Web 2.0 completely fixes that with a more interactive experience with social media sharing, videos, and more!

When AOL was "America Online".

I remember when 1996 was the year of the World Wide Web and it was new to pretty much everyone! All the entertaining TV series about the web and the future. It was so exciting!


This was the year when we first started using a computer, AOL was new to all of us.

I didn’t use AOL because I felt I would just be paying for a homepage to the same internet that I’d get otherwise.

Nowadays it seems like google is the everything search. But back then all different search engines would get you different things. In the late 90s I used Mamma because it searched a bunch of them at once.

I much preferred Web 1.0. It got you what you need and no more, yet you could find anything. Nowadays everything is so overrun and bogged down and I feel like the results are filtered as well.

When AOL was "America Online".

Wasn't that what the letters stood for?



I remember when 1996 was the year of the World Wide Web and it was new to pretty much everyone! All the entertaining TV series about the web and the future. It was so exciting!

Yep, back then it was the "in" thing, even though my household wasn't online yet. But I did use it once I got online at home in the early 2000s.

I still have an account today but I seldom use it. :-\\

Wasn't that what the letters stood for?


Yup. I remember the early days of AOL. When they had chat rooms.

Yup. I remember the early days of AOL. When they had chat rooms.

O0

I took part in AOL chat rooms for a while, during the early-mid 2000s. My mom actually introduced that concept to me; she first got an AOL account in 1999 (but used it solely at her office, since we weren't online at home yet), and any time I would see her on there, it looked like fun.

Yup. I remember the early days of AOL. When they had chat rooms.


I was a part of so many chat rooms back then.

When was the last time you heard a commercial say “or go to AOL Keyword x?” 2003?

I was a part of so many chat rooms back then.


I most often used the chat rooms by lycos, mirc, and the chat room provided by the local isp that the locals used. I met a lot of people from there.

I remember Compuserve. It took many minutes just for one picture to load, and my dad getting mad at getting the busy signal when he was trying to call home from work, and not to mention the horrible sounds of the dial up modem when connecting to it.

not to mention the horrible sounds of the dial up modem when connecting to it.


The AOL dial up sound was most annoying. ::)

When was the last time you heard a commercial say “or go to AOL Keyword x?” 2003?

I remember the "AOL keyword" ads! :D They are clearly obsolete now, lol.



The AOL dial up sound was most annoying. ::)

That too.

The AOL dial up sound was most annoying. ::)
Wasn't the dial up sound always pretty much the same regardless of the provider? It was the modem dialing and then doing the so called hand shake with the server.

Wasn't the dial up sound always pretty much the same regardless of the provider? It was the modem dialing and then doing the so called hand shake with the server.


Well, I never used any other internet service. It was always AOL.

I most often used the chat rooms by lycos, mirc, and the chat room provided by the local isp that the locals used. I met a lot of people from there.


I met a lot of online buddies too.

The AOL dial up sound was most annoying. ::)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28q5XVELywI

Wasn't the dial up sound always pretty much the same regardless of the provider? It was the modem dialing and then doing the so called hand shake with the server.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs

Well, I never used any other internet service. It was always AOL.


How was the loading time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs


I used dial up until a year ago. Mine sounded similar but the aol one here was indeed longer and more more annoying. You could also enter codes to silence all that noise.

I used many different modems and a few different dialup locations over the years and never did it sound quite as bad as that one in the video.

I remember that sequence too...sounds and all.

Not only that, during our first year or so of being online at home (this was in the early 2000s), all we had was dialup. So, anytime we were online, it would monopolize our landline, and no one could reach us on there. (People would need to call our cell phones instead.)

Earliest I remember using the internet was 1997. I do remember going into an Office Depot in 1995 or 1996 and they had a row of computers set up with a cool flight simulator and I'm pretty sure some were running Windows 95, but I had no idea how to use it or what it was about back then.

Come to think of it, I didn't actually start using the internet actively until '98. This was at school.

Come to think of it, I didn't actually start using the internet actively until '98. This was at school.


Yeah, my first time using the internet rather than just looking at it was in a computer class in fall 1997. I had used newer computers in fall 1995 or spring 1996 in a computer class, but that was more like just a typing and basic computer familiarity class (I spent most of it playing Sim Tower).

I used dial up until a year ago. Mine sounded similar but the aol one here was indeed longer and more more annoying. You could also enter codes to silence all that noise.

I used many different modems and a few different dialup locations over the years and never did it sound quite as bad as that one in the video.


Did you always have to wait till someone got off the phone to use the computer?

Did you always have to wait till someone got off the phone to use the computer?


I bought a second line dedicated to the internet. I did that when I moved into my first house too. Here it didn’t matter because the only landline calls I got were spam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28q5XVELywI


I distinctively remember my mom leaving her computer on at times in the living room and I’d be watching cartoons alone when all of a sudden she’d get a message  “you got mail”. Would scare the living hell out of me.

I bought a second line dedicated to the internet. I did that when I moved into my first house too. Here it didn’t matter because the only landline calls I got were spam.


Was it frustrating cause when I first started using a landline someone was on the phone and I had to wait till someone got off the phone after they had a phone call.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=28q5XVELywI
No sound for "You're now offline"?

Carlos had it at work in 1996. I didn't even have a computer in those days, just my old dinosaur of a word processor (that got me through my undergraduate, graduate, and wrote my first book). Everyone else in my family was on-line and they would send emails to Carlos for me.

It was in 2001 or 2002 when I finally got on-line. Yup, we used AOL and had dial-up. Then we went with a local company for the longest time-again with dial-up. I kept asking them when they were going to upgrade and they kept saying, "not in your area." But, if we lived about 10 miles down the road, that would have been a different story. One guy from the company told us we were better off going to Comcast. That cracked me up-but he was being VERY honest. So, we did and never looked back. I know Comcast is not supposed to be a good company but we have very good service and we are very happy with them.


Cat

My first internet plan I had, I got 30 MB of usage per month, and for every 1MB I went over, it cost $1.  No joke, this was a real plan, but back in those days, YouTube or streaming services weren't a thing, so using minimal data was quite easy to do, as long as you didn't try to download images, because that used a lot of data

"Welcome."  ;D

"Welcome."  ;D


"You've Got Mail".

"Welcome."  ;D

"You've Got Mail".

"Goodbye!"


The AOL webbrowser also had variants of the three greetings, some of which were uttered by famous people and fictional characters. You could even associate sound-effects with specific people who entered.

"Goodbye!"


The AOL webbrowser also had variants of the three greetings, some of which were uttered by famous people


One of whom was Donald Trump, by the way.

One of whom was Donald Trump, by the way.

I don't remember that, nor do I care to. 8-P

One of whom was Donald Trump, by the way.
Are they still recording available?

I used dial up until a year ago. Mine sounded similar but the aol one here was indeed longer and more more annoying. You could also enter codes to silence all that noise.

I used many different modems and a few different dialup locations over the years and never did it sound quite as bad as that one in the video.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you still use dialup up until 2019? Wasn't it beyond difficult to surf the web given how big page sizes are nowadays? Even loading Google search results I imagine would be impossibly slow.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you still use dialup up until 2019? Wasn't it beyond difficult to surf the web given how big page sizes are nowadays? Even loading Google search results I imagine would be impossibly slow.


It was impossible to do much. I ran with scripts, images, videos, animations off. I used it mainly for info, and sites such as this one did work. I am part of the large group of Michigan folks who don’t have access to broadband. Charter has the monopoly on the lines and they won’t expand service. Wireless isn’t available. Viasat wasn’t doing installs. Even at my old house which was in a HOA, I was too far out for DSL. I couldn’t afford a smartphone plan but even if I could, the service wasn’t strong enough. I pretty much did all my online stuff at work.

Finally last year after my kid was grown and the child support stopped, I got an I phone with a hotspot and pay dearly for it. Of course it only worked on the back of my couch and that was marginal. So I bought a cell phone antenna for like $400 and now I can get enough signal to do some things anywhere in the house. Still can’t watch movies or work from home and still sometimes lose signal but it’s way better than what I had.

Finally our electric company is taking the initiative to install their own network of fiber internet. It’s going to probably take another 10 years but I’m scheduled for service this fall. It will be a life changer.