I think for me it was probably about 1995 or so. Back then most people didn't use it and its continued growth still wasn't a certain thing but I'd guess that's about the time most people heard about it for the first time.

I think for me it was probably about 1995 or so. Back then most people didn't use it and its continued growth still wasn't a certain thing but I'd guess that's about the time most people heard about it for the first time.

Yeah, I think that's about right. For me it was about then when I first heard about e-mail and reading about how the internet works. (I actually didn't start using it myself until three years later.)

I would say about the early to mid 1990's and that's when we got our first computer, then we got the internet around 1996.

I first heard about the term modem around 1992 and probably heard of e-mail in 1994 (though not 100% sure) since being a child always fascinates the mind, but I definitely didn't hear the word Internet (along with a Web URL) until around the summer of 1995, especially ahead of the launch of Windows 95 which basically meant that the Internet was here to stay due to its easy capability to browse. It does make me feel a bit old knowing that 2015 will mean that I've known the Web for 20 years now, though. I first used the Internet in the fall of 1996 in middle school. I've never looked at history before and after those periods the same since before then, a landline telephone was the "techiest" idea in terms of spreading ideas, with a Xerox machine a close second. I still think of 1995 as closer to the present than to 1990 in terms of feel for this reason.

I first heard of the internet back in 1996, but I only was able to go on it at schools.  When we got a computer in early 1997, we had AOL.  We used to use up the AOL online trial and usually get a new one with the login information.  As a computer programmer today, I am glad that security got MUCH better over the years. 

My first online game was Diablo, but I was never really into it.  I was really into Civilization 3 when it came out, especially the Play the World edition as I used to play the Carthingians the entire time.  I really got into City of Heroes in 2006 too...

I first heard about it in 1996. 

First heard of it around 1995.  We had dial-up from about 1995-1999 and got cable internet somewhere around 1999-2000.  Don't know the exact dates.

We had dial-up from about 1995-1999 and got cable internet somewhere around 1999-2000.

I remember when our family got dial-up in the early 90's then after that we switched to faster internet service.

I can't remember :o
But I remember when we got internet at home,
around 99/00 and singing along with the dial up.

Around 1996/97. I didn't know exactly for what you can exactly to with it before 1998 though. I don't think I have used it myself before late 1999.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

remember the good old days of the internet?

Definitely in 1995.

I have first heard about E-Mailing ca. 1997. I used to write classic letters back then and some day, my sister told me about a thing called "E-Mail". I have asked her if it is possible to print E-Mails, because it was very important for me to have something physical. I don't think I liked the concept first, because I really liked the stamps on classic letters.

I have first heard about E-Mailing ca. 1997. I used to write classic letters back then and some day, my sister told me about a thing called "E-Mail". I have asked her if it is possible to print E-Mails, because it was very important for me to have something physical. I don't think I liked the concept first, because I really liked the stamps on classic letters.


I heard about e-mailing in the late 1990's and it was possible to print them and review them later. But, nothing beats old classic letters with a stamp.

I may have first heard of AOL in 1995.

I first heard about the internet in 1994 or so in some offhanded way.  When I was in sixth grade in 1996 I first used Yahoo in the classroom computer. Over the coming years I use my mom's email account; I did not get my own email account until I was in freshman in college in 2003.

I think I first used the internet in late 1999, but I was only 8 and I can't remember when I first HEARD of the internet.

I remember getting the internet and back then I never knew or our Family didn't know what an e-mail was and that was almost 20 years ago.

1988

That's not a typo.  Nineteen EIGHTY-eight.  So, yeah, I used the Internet about 10 years before I ever even heard of Starbucks, before I ever heard of Seinfeld, or Friends.  This was before the first web browser and I think even before the World Wide Web itself was invented.  I first used a web browser (a beta version of NCSA Mosaic) around February or March of 1993.



I think for me it was probably about 1995 or so. Back then most people didn't use it and its continued growth still wasn't a certain thing but I'd guess that's about the time most people heard about it for the first time.


Oh, yeah.  I remember there was a time when many people weren't even sure if TCP/IP was going to be the protocol of the future, or if it would be OSI  (DECnet), or X.25 or something else entirely.  Also, UNIX (ATT vs BSD) vs VMS vs Windows vs MacOS  vs etc.  CISC vs RISC.  KDE vs Gnome vs CDE vs etc.  Emacs vs vi vs EVE.  Sun vs IBM vs DEC vs NeXt vs HP vs SGI vs ....  All those religious wars seem so quaint now as well as a bit nostalgic.  In retrospect, it should've been obvious to everyone that Windows would win the desktop OS wars, but back then many people thought there were viable alternatives to "Wintel".

I remember how you built programs from source code and all the headaches with Makefiles choking on all the various flavors of UNIX.  It was an electronic Tower of Babel.  That's why I was impressed with Mosaic: it compiled cleanly on my first try; I even got it working on VMS.

1988

That's not a typo.  Nineteen EIGHTY-eight.  So, yeah, I used the Internet about 10 years before I ever even heard of Starbucks, before I ever heard of Seinfeld, or Friends.  This was before the first web browser and I think even before the World Wide Web itself was invented.  I first used a web browser (a beta version of NCSA Mosaic) around February or March of 1993.


Web was invented in March 1989 (on paper) or October-December 1990 (was coded then), depending on how you look at it, so indeed.  :o

1996.

First time I used the Internet was on a friend of my dad's computer, around the tail end of 1995. He had a Packard Bell DX486 computer, rocking a 33Mhz processor, and a whopping 140MB hard drive.  I think it had Windows 3.1 on it. For a while, I thought Yahoo was the Internet. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was mearly a search engine.

Around 1997, I started writing webpages, (the old fashioned way, with HTML, and eventually in JavaScript), using the library computer with a blazing fast Pentium II processor and Windows 95 installed.

My family got our own PC in 1999. It was an HP with Windows 98, and a whopping 2GB hard drive. I remember Diablo coming out, and the slew of games that followed.

Today, I ironically don't use a PC at home. My iPhone has more processing power than the last computer I bought in 2007.

I imagine in another 10 years, I'll be getting online with a contact lens version of Google Glass, interfacing via Bluetooth with an iteration of the iPhone that will trump the current model by at least 10-fold.

I imagine in another 10 years, I'll be getting online with a contact lens version of Google Glass, interfacing via Bluetooth with an iteration of the iPhone that will trump the current model by at least 10-fold.

A lot of people these days are using Google Glass.

It's all a blur but I think 1998 or 1999. I was only 3 and 4 then. I think I still remember calling it "intranet" as a child.

I really can't remember exactly. I believe it was around 94 or 95. We got our first internet connection in 99 or 2000 with a 56k dial up modem.

It was this day January 1st in 1983, The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

It was this day January 1st in 1983, The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.


Did it have many features back then?  ???

Did it have many features back then?  ???


File Transfer Protocol and e-mail already existed then, I think USENET too, which wasn't much different from today's Internet forums. Back in 1983 there were probably (at most) just a few thousand people using the Internet though.

File Transfer Protocol and e-mail already existed then, I think USENET too, which wasn't much different from today's Internet forums. Back in 1983 there were probably (at most) just a few thousand people using the Internet though.


too bad Facebook, Instagram and Twitter didn't exist back in the 80's.

1995-1996. I used to get those AOL free trial discs in the mail all the time and paid no mind to them. My dad eventually got dial up for his job in 1999.

1995-1996. I used to get those AOL free trial discs in the mail all the time and paid no mind to them. My dad eventually got dial up for his job in 1999.


I used to get those too, sometimes they'd put those discs in some magazines.

I used to get those too, sometimes they'd put those discs in some magazines.
AOL were criticised for its earlier incarnation as a “walled garden” community and service provider, AOL received criticism for its community policies, terms of service, and customer service. Prior to 2006, AOL was known for its direct mailing of CD-ROMs and 3½" floppy disks containing its software and viruses. The disks were distributed in large numbers; at one point, half of the CDs manufactured worldwide had AOL logos on them. The marketing tactic was criticized for its environmental cost, and AOL CDs were recognized as PCWorld’s most annoying tech product.

1995-1996. I used to get those AOL free trial discs in the mail all the time and paid no mind to them. My dad eventually got dial up for his job in 1999.
We got those over here in Germany as well. I think I got dozens of them...annoying as hell. 8-P

We got those over here in Germany as well. I think I got dozens of them...annoying as hell. 8-P


Why were they annoying?

Why were they annoying?
Because we wanted a different provider and had to constantly dispose of the CDs.

I was in elementary school when I first heard of it because a girl brought up that some of the library computers had internet. I didn't know what that really was or think of it at all. When I first saw how it was used was at a friend's apartment when her brother was on it showing us what games he was playing or what he was messing with. I first used internet in jr. high when we had a computer class and part of that dealt with getting online and learning how to search. Our first service when we finally did get a computer was with the company it came from. Dial up and limited hours.  >:(

We got our first computer in 1999. We had AOL dial up until 2005 or 2006, which is around the time that broadband became the norm (in the UK at least). I don't remember when exactly we got internet, sometime in the early 2000s I would presume. It was still only found in a minority of homes here until the 2004/2005 by which point it had penetrated the majority of households (but only just). Yeah, we were behind the US, but so was every developed country at the time.

I really can't remember exactly. I believe it was around 94 or 95. We got our first internet connection in 99 or 2000 with a 56k dial up modem.

Intranet is a real concept that involves hooking multiple computer up to each other via a network.

We got our first computer in 1999. We had AOL dial up until 2005 or 2006, which is around the time that broadband became the norm (in the UK at least). I don't remember when exactly we got internet, sometime in the early 2000s I would presume. It was still only found in a minority of homes here until the 2004/2005 by which point it had penetrated the majority of households (but only just). Yeah, we were behind the US, but so was every developed country at the time.

Dial-up was still widely used (especially as a back-up) here in Canada as late as 2008. Broadband wasn't really the norm which is why we got alot of commercials in 2007 telling people to switch. Apparently in the US, Dial-up was at 10%(down from 34% in 2000), now its 2%.

Intranet is a real concept that involves hooking multiple computer up to each other via a network.

Where is it used?

Where is it used?


It's used in companies I think; also for security reasons (to share secret documents).

It's used in companies I think; also for security reasons (to share secret documents).
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was one of the world's first operational packet switching networks, the first network to implement TCP/IP, and was the main progenitor of what was to become the global Internet. The network was initially funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later DARPA) within the U.S. Department of Defense for use by its projects at universities and research laboratories in the US. The packet switching of the ARPANET, together with TCP/IP, would form the backbone of how the Internet works. The packet switching was based on concepts and designs by American engineer Paul Baran, Welsh scientist Donald Davies and Lawrence Roberts of the Lincoln Laboratory. The TCP/IP communication protocols were developed for ARPANET by computer scientists Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf, and also incorporated some designs from Louis Pouzin.

But that was in the 1960's.