Did you ever use a BBS?

[Harrison]

With everyone now using the Internet and taking it for granted, it can sometimes be hard to believe that it has only been around in the current WWW browser based form since the release of Mosaic back in 1993. Before this the internet was a text based format that mainly consisted of users directly connecting to specific services, rather than being about to easily access, browse and search everywhere online as we can today.

Before the WWW based internet, did you use any online services? And especially BBS services? And even more interestingly, did you ever use them on an Amiga?

I personally never used a BBS on the Amiga as I didn't own my first modem until I purchased a new PC in 1998.

Before that I had used some BBS services in school connected from an Acorn BBC Master in the 1980's. I think they were mainly BBC school related services we connected to but I cannot remember. And I had connected and used a few BBS services from my friends house as his day had an early PC with a modem which we were sometimes allowed to use. I remember we connected to some gaming related BBS services that we got addresses for from magazines. A couple were general 8 16 bit gaming related and I do remember one being Atari ST and Amiga based. Not sure what they actually were called though.

After that I used the internet first the first time at college in the early 90's on a Mac and then at university. It was great having access from the beginning of the browser based internet revolution as I saw it evolve first hand.

[Demon Cleaner]

I had a friend who used a modem to get games from some cracker groups, as he also was deeply envolved. But of course his parents took him the modem off, or restricted (they tried at least) its use. Back then it took almost an hour to get the copy of one amiga disk.

The first time I got in contact with the internet, was in a local shop, and then when I started to work where I am now in 1996. Since then I've been using it all day.

[Merlin]

Holy crap, now you are taking me back, 'boxing' your way onto the old BBS' at 9600 on a Hayes modem then eventually at up to 38400 with a US Robotics sportster... and all the old articles on blueboxing, blackboxing and roxboxing.

I have forgotten most of the old BBS names now, it's been too long...

Merlin

[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.