Did you ever use a BBS?

[Submeg]

I cant ever remember when I first used the net...

[Stephen Coates]

I think i first used a BBS about 2 months ago. It was a telnet one though.

Never connected to one over the telephone with a modem though.

First used the internet properly when i got my PC in 1999. I had seen the internet being used via CompuServe on a PowerBook. Not sure whether I actually used it though.

[Puni/Void]

I was never hooked on BBS's, as I preferred swapping (mail-trading) instead. Have tried a few of them in the past though, can't deny that. That must have been in 1995, 1996 or around that time.

[v85rawdeal]

I didnt get to use anything like the internet at school or at any of the training courses I was on. It wasnt until 1994 I got to go online, because a friend of mine said I could come round and use his PC for the internet... Oh the luxury of dial-up, giving you time to get a drink whilst loading each webpage.

[TiredOfLife]

Never did use BBS
Surprising really as lot othe the early demos were available this way.
Was into demos in a big way.
Use to pick them up at computer markets and off magasine disks.

[AlexJ]

I didn't get onto the internet until it's second coming in 1998 (when the subscription was lifted and only charge was for call time). Since then of course with broadband, it's reversed so it's now there is a subscription again, but no call charges.

[Harrison]

During the dialup years I remember having to be carefully and needing to check the call logs to see how much I had spent each night to make sure I didn't spend too much.

Using Demon Internet they provided a utility called Turnpike that logged all your dialup activity. You could add the call costings into the program so it would automatically add up all of the costs based on the times of day (peak and off peak charges) and the length of the called and would give you quite an accurate estimate of the amount you had spent on call charges.

Then every three months when my parents phone bill came in I would have to pay them for my usage so I used to keep a jar by the computer and add the amount I had spent to it each week so I knew I had enough to pay for the bill.

I remember the day I heard about BT Surftime, which for a set monthly fee allowed unlimited evening and weekends dialup. Demon quickly added the ability to use surftime into their accounts so I signed up and no longer had to worry about per minute billings. And I think BT got the costs wrong because others I knew were definitely paying £15 a month for surftime, whereas I was only paying £15 every three months.

But even with surftime that was quite expensive as I was paying for my Demon dialup account and for the BT surftime addition to my phone connection. It also meant that I couldn't really use the internet in the daytime as I had to still pay per minute until the evenings or the weekend. It meant I tended to stay up longer at night to use it.

I'm so glad Broadband has taken over. So much easier, although with bandwidth capping now in place on most UK ISPs it has taken a step backwards for many, now restricting them during peak daytime and evening periods, which isn't going to ever unleash the full potential that broadband is still being marketed to have. How can you have video over IP if it means using your bandwidth cap up in a couple of hours (especially if the content was in HD!)? They definitely need to sort out and get rid of bandwidth capping soon or they will hurt their own industry.