World Wide Web made its public debut 35 years ago today

[Hardline]

"GET OFF THE INTERNET, I NEED TO USE THE PHONE."

https://home.cern/world-wide-web-35/

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I would get so pissed off when a fellow worker would logon to the system to check his email while I was FTPing programs to the state server.

 

[Cowboys5217]

I go back far enough to have logged on to a Commodore 64 BBS with a 1200 baud modem.

 

[Reality]

The web protocol was released in 1991 but didn't really start to gain mainstream traction until 1994.

I launched an ISP company back then and most of the web browser software was still in pre-release versions.

I convinced my bosses to let me run it inside their office and gave them free 24/7 direct access to the internet in exchange.

It originally had 16 dial-up 33.6k modems/lines with a fractional T1 direct backbone connection.

When the 56k standard was approved, the modems supported firmware updates to 56k.

Most of my company's customers were using it for email, ftp, irc, newsgroups and gopher.

 

[rags747]

Absolute best invention in my lifetime, AI a close second for now!

 

[Khartun]

"GET OFF THE INTERNET, I NEED TO USE THE PHONE."

https://home.cern/world-wide-web-35/

They say you can't hear a picture.

 

[Runwildboys]

The web protocol was released in 1991 but didn't really start to gain mainstream traction until 1994.

I launched an ISP company back then and most of the web browser software was still in pre-release versions.

I convinced my bosses to let me run it inside their office and gave them free 24/7 direct access to the internet in exchange.

It originally had 16 dial-up 33.6k modems/lines with a fractional T1 direct backbone connection.

When the 56k standard was approved, the modems supported firmware updates to 56k.

Most of my company's customers were using it for email, ftp, irc, newsgroups and gopher.

And 32 years later, I still have no idea what you just said.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Thank you Al Gore!

 

[darthseinfeld]

The web protocol was released in 1991 but didn't really start to gain mainstream traction until 1994.

I launched an ISP company back then and most of the web browser software was still in pre-release versions.

I convinced my bosses to let me run it inside their office and gave them free 24/7 direct access to the internet in exchange.

It originally had 16 dial-up 33.6k modems/lines with a fractional T1 direct backbone connection.

When the 56k standard was approved, the modems supported firmware updates to 56k.

Most of my company's customers were using it for email, ftp, irc, newsgroups and gopher.

I still remember the 10 hour free internet disks lol

 

[Reality]

I still have no idea what you just said.

That’s exactly what I heard constantly 32 years ago!

 

[Vtwin]

Very first thing I tried to find the very first time I accessed this new-fangled internet was The Sporting News to see the Cowboys team report. The second thing I searched for was Cowboys news which led me a certain Dallas newspaper where I found my first discussion forum.

This would have been around 95-96

 

[Runwildboys]

That’s exactly what I heard constantly 32 years ago!

Really? Do I know you???

 

[gtb1943]

god I remembered how pathetically slow dial up modems were

I remember back then that the pages loaded text first so I would stop the load once the words appeared; as all I wanted to do was read
now of course they make sure everything BUT the text loads first; ads above all else.

 

[Reality]

That’s exactly what I heard constantly 32 years ago!

I used to laugh about it even then, but I had to explain to a lot of people who didn't have computers what the internet was, convince them they needed to be on it as users, so I could convince them their companies needed to be on it, so I could ultimately tell them direct digital (always on) internet access.

So I had to convince them to buy a computer if they didn't have one, buy a modem if they didn't have one, and then tie up their normally-used-for-voice landline phone line, so they could connect to the internet that was mostly text-based at that time.

On top of that, operating systems like Windows and MacOS, did not support TCP/IP-based networking or dial-up support and Linux was so far from supported and reliable that even most tech people avoided it for real UNIX.

So I had to also convince people to buy software packages like:
https://arstechnica.com/information...net-time-capsule-internet-in-a-box-for-win95/

I mainly went after tech people and companies initially who needed email support but for the first year it was mostly still text-based so it was hard convincing them that the slow, but graphical AOL they were using was inferior to being on the real internet, especially when AOL integrated internet browsing into their AOL software.

 

[Reality]

god I remembered how pathetically slow dial up modems were

I remember back then that the pages loaded text first so I would stop the load once the words appeared; as all I wanted to do was read
now of course they make sure everything BUT the text loads first; ads above all else.

Yeah, and the worst part was disconnections either through normal line/connection problems or someone else picking up the phone in another room and trying to dial it.

 

[zrinkill]

Thank you Al Gore!

 

[darthseinfeld]

Very first thing I tried to find the very first time I accessed this new-fangled internet was The Sporting News to see the Cowboys team report. The second thing I searched for was Cowboys news which led me a certain Dallas newspaper where I found my first discussion forum.

This would have been around 95-96

SN had a great fantasy football and baseball cap league. That was my first foray into digital fantasy sports

 

[nobody]

god I remembered how pathetically slow dial up modems were

I remember back then that the pages loaded text first so I would stop the load once the words appeared; as all I wanted to do was read
now of course they make sure everything BUT the text loads first; ads above all else.

I remember (on BBS's) going from 300, to 1200, to 2400, to 14.4, then 33.6 and finally to 56k before going to DSL and beyond. Each time, I was awed at how much faster it was. Now I'm sitting at 550 Mbps down and 550 Mbps up. I'd probably pull all of my hair out going back to 300 baud.

 

[rags747]

I like the sound that the Dial Up connection used to make, it’s a sound that you will never forget!

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Does anybody remember using....

Netscape Navigator browser.
ICQ instant messenger
Early java based chat rooms like on Excite
Warez sites like FOSI