How long have you been on the internet?

[b5blue]

  Looking back how long have you been using the internet? Busy and mostly broke raising 3 kids single handed it was about 8 years ago my son came home with an old Compac P.C. and the kids started begging for internet service. I added internet to my home phone service and let them have at it. Having friends who had spent 100's on AOL service and each new Radio Shack computer I'd figured it was mostly a money pit. It wasn't until I came home complaining I couldn't find wiper arms for the Charger that I finally went on line. At my son's insistence, he was certain we could find them on eBay. Service was basic and the computer so slow I could literally go make a cup of coffee and drink most of it while a picture loaded.
They were right though, I spent about 2-3 hours to find wipers, sign up to eBay and order them. Still jaded I assumed I needed to be on high alert as I'd just given PayPal an all access pass to my bank account and given some swindler almost 100.00 for something I'd never see. Amazingly the parts arrived and fit so I could drive in the rain with 2 wipers instead of one! Soon after I bought a new 800.00 laptop for the kids to share. (In case I needed more parts!)       

[TruckDriver]

Since 2000 or almost 16 years. First computer was a desktop H.P.  and it came new from Walmart and had Windows XP.

I been on this site more/less going back to the original owner since 2002/2003 I believe.

[myk]

Been downloading pictures of kittens and balloons since '99...

[Chad L. Magee]

My first experience with the internet happened when I was 11 years old (1984) at a computer camp hosted by a local community college.  It did not have much on it then.  One of my rich cousins had just bought a new home computer system that year, mostly to play games on.  (Remember true floppy disks?)  My high school got the internet installed in 1987 on one computer.  I occasionally watched the AP wire releases and remember when the Lockerbie airplane bombing flashed across the wires during a computer class.  I was in college when emailing others became a means of communication.  Still had to learn Fortran-77 for Kansas State engineering classes, even though it was basically a dead computer language by then (1993-5)... 

[el dub]

when did 286's come out?

[skip68]

About 20years for the wife.  We got a desktop in late 95.  Lisa used it.  I didn't start really going online until around 02-03.    So about 13-14 years. 

[HPP]

I was participating in a company intranet back around 1987.  I can still recall participating in forums during the 1st Gulf War and talking to members in Israel who would describe sirens and explosions, and then 15 minutes later seeing it broadcast on CNN.

[red72chrgr]

Before Windows 95 came out for sure. My wife and I as OTR drivers hauled 95 from San Jose Ca. to Miami Fl. before the release of win95. I remember being given a computer by my then BIL in 82 or 84, can't remember exactly.Seems I recall the name T-100, Radio Shack maybe? Oh well, I can't keep up with things now as far as computers things change so fast.

[HANDM]

I mastered the code for early pc's, tandy (radio shack) and commodore 64 back when they were new and so was I...

From there in the mid eighties it was bulletin board service or BBS which was kinda internet like

Then around 96 or so we had prodigy and from there windows.....

[68CoronetRT]

First went online around 97'(12 years old) or so. Started gaming online around 98-99. Been on ever since.

[John_Kunkel]

'95 for me, AOL charged by the hour so my online time was limited.

[hemi71x]

Guess it's been 15 years for this old man now.

All my friends back then were telling me "Jim, we have to get you into a computer"

Then one day, on the spur of the moment, i got up off my ass, and went up to a Gateway store, and they set me up with a computer.

Now, i wouldn't know what to do without one.

Got a desktop, and a couple of laptops. 

Never had any training with one, just learned as i went along.

[DeltaV]

1994 at The Boeing Company.
1971 during high school...connecting to a Math/Science Center across town via telephone cradle on a Western Union telegraph machine. Well, OK it wasn't www, but it was cool!

[Dino]

Ever since Al Gore invented it.  

It was probably '96 or '97.  I bought my '68 in '95, spent most of my time in the UK that year and some of '96, settled down on the continent late that year and got dialup not long after.  I was on that for a few months until cable internet became available in my area.  Ironically when I moved to Michigan in '07 I was back on dialup until we finally got high speed satelite (relatively) in my area only a few years ago.

[Lord Warlock]

First used internet in 1985 while in the Air Force, wasn't impressed using friends Apple IIC but was playing PC games on an apple IIc computer in mid 80s.  In early 90s I bought my first 386 25mhz computer, and eventually set up my own BBS using mustang software's Wildcat 5 software, had six phone lines to system, 5 in, 1 out to internet.  Internet went graphical soon afterward with people coding HTML 1.0, my BBS used html coded pages, I could do it back then, can't do it anymore.  When internet went to html and the public caught on (most using AOL) I was right there riding the wave of technology.  Loved being the first generation to exploit the internet...just wish I had gotten rich off of it.  Missed my chance when I chose not to invest in a local company that sold internet access, they later became huge and the major supplier in the city.  Really regret missing that opportunity to invest a few grand buying shares.