I remember using a local BBS for a bit when we first got a computer with a modem in about 97 I think.
Then we went to Virgin not long after that for normal dial up, and after a few months of that got offered AOL (don't mock) 0800 trial, unlimited access via an 0800 number at a time when no one else offered it*, I think it was about a year or two later that NTL cabled our street and offered a similar offer which we took up (along with a dedicated phone line).
Then when they started offering cable modems in our area we jumped at it (from memory something like £100 install, £150 for a 3com CMX) and got a blistering 512k
We're still with NTL (now VM, so sort of full circle
), but at 120MB for less than we used to pay for AOL and a dedicated phone line.
I remember cursing sites that used more than a few pictures as they took an age to load, cackling when I consistently achieved a 52k connection and 100ms ping on Wireplay with my old external modem on the newly installed NTL line, and getting accused of being a speed hacker in UO because my 13ms ping to the EU servers was insane at the time
I also remember finding out you could order stuff online and getting really excited at being able to order things like videos without having to hunt for a local store that had them in stock, and no longer having to pay a pound a disc to get patches/mods to games from a mail order shareware company.
*For some reason for about 5 years I kept getting odd stuff free/cheap, I suspect it may have been because at the time I had about 3 or 4 computer mags on subscription, and somehow got on some marketing list (I think I got Forbes mag free for about 4 years).
Then we went to Virgin not long after that for normal dial up, and after a few months of that got offered AOL (don't mock) 0800 trial, unlimited access via an 0800 number at a time when no one else offered it*, I think it was about a year or two later that NTL cabled our street and offered a similar offer which we took up (along with a dedicated phone line).
Then when they started offering cable modems in our area we jumped at it (from memory something like £100 install, £150 for a 3com CMX) and got a blistering 512k
We're still with NTL (now VM, so sort of full circle
), but at 120MB for less than we used to pay for AOL and a dedicated phone line.I remember cursing sites that used more than a few pictures as they took an age to load, cackling when I consistently achieved a 52k connection and 100ms ping on Wireplay with my old external modem on the newly installed NTL line, and getting accused of being a speed hacker in UO because my 13ms ping to the EU servers was insane at the time
I also remember finding out you could order stuff online and getting really excited at being able to order things like videos without having to hunt for a local store that had them in stock, and no longer having to pay a pound a disc to get patches/mods to games from a mail order shareware company.
*For some reason for about 5 years I kept getting odd stuff free/cheap, I suspect it may have been because at the time I had about 3 or 4 computer mags on subscription, and somehow got on some marketing list (I think I got Forbes mag free for about 4 years).
