Does anybody remember FREE dial up internet ?

J_B

matelodave said:

.................
Anyone remember CEEFAX and running it on a BBC microcomputer

Prestel anyone? 

B0bbyEwing

My earliest memory regards Internet is around 1997-1998 going in to Dixons, picking up a freeserve CD which allowed me to set the Internet up on my PC at home. 
P166 MMX
32GB RAM
2.1GB hard drive. 

Had the most powerful PC out of any of us at school at that time lol. 

MouldyOldDough

GB RAM?

That's incredible 

I think you probably mean 32Mb RAM ? 

 My first PC in 1995 had 4Mb RAM which I upgraded to 16Mb

Processor was 50Mhz - upgraded to 75Mhz with a piggy pack - I had forgotten about MMX though.

I only used fax for comms for a few years - internet was way too expensive and slow

B0bbyEwing

MouldyOldDough said:

GB RAM?

That's incredible 

I think you probably mean 32Mb RAM ? 

 My first PC in 1995 had 4Mb RAM which I upgraded to 16Mb

Processor was 50Mhz - upgraded to 75Mhz with a piggy pack - I had forgotten about MMX though.

I only used fax for comms for a few years - internet was way too expensive and slow

Oops you're right. It's because im obviously used to saying GB these days. 

32MB indeed it was. 

chunter

Chucked out a box containing about 100 56k pci modems last year. From stripped machines.

Went for recycling. 

If Trump had known, he probably would have threatened to invade me.

twopenny

I remember my first use which was exciting.
It was a training course, first computer programme and we were only allowed to use the internet once because it was so expensive.
Took ages for the modem to ramp up and we were allowed t10 mins.
Word Perfect 1.

And 0 points on the quiz. I'm very old 🫤

JaneDoeJohnDoe

Yes, Freeserve, Wannadoo, BT, AOL & the like!

MouldyOldDough

JaneDoeJohnDoe said:

Yes, Freeserve, Wannadoo, BT, AOL & the like!

No - genuinely "free" as in free calls and zero subscription costs

Andy_L

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002d1bv

"Toast - Freeserve

Why did Freeserve disappear so soon after becoming the UK's number one internet service provider? Sean Farrington charts its highs and lows with industry insiders."

25min of Radio from last month

Doshwaster

MouldyOldDough said:

GB RAM?

That's incredible 

I think you probably mean 32Mb RAM ? 

 My first PC in 1995 had 4Mb RAM which I upgraded to 16Mb

Processor was 50Mhz - upgraded to 75Mhz with a piggy pack - I had forgotten about MMX though.

I only used fax for comms for a few years - internet was way too expensive and slow

My first PC in 1993 was a 25 MHz, 4MB RAM and 120 MB hard disk. Cost £1200 which was my life savings at the time and nearly two months wages.

I wouldn't spend anything like £1200 on a computer these days 

Got my first modem in 1998 when I moved into my own flat (had house shared before that so it was impossible to use a modem) which was a 33k one as I couldn't afford the faster 56k model

I then spent a year working on the tech support line for Compuserve. Most of it involved saying "turn it off and on and try again".