How old is the internet as we know it? (In other words, ARPAnet does not count)....?

Question

I'm talking about e-mail, web-pages etc. In what year did this all become available to the public?

Answer 1

I first used a true TCP/IP Internet account in late 1994 while in Alaska. I can remember being in the garage in the winter. It was Imaginet out of Fairbanks. Prior to that I was hooked on BBS's for two years down in Anchorage. All the great game demos were available for download on BBS. There were over 50 BBS's then in Anchorage. America Online was one of the first BBS's to have a graphical interface but it was not the internet then.

I was in central america in the late 80's with a tandy 1000 IBM compatable, and in 90 and 91 got sent to Persian gulf. So it was not until 1992 that I settled back down into the world in Alaska and got going with BBS's.

If TCP/IP Internet was available earlier in 1992 or 93 while I was in anchorage, I would surely have signed up for it then unless it was outrageously expensive. So I do not think it was widely available then. Although by the time in late 1994 I was signed up, there was a crap load of people already doing the CHAT thing. Its funny, in 1994 people would send an email and eagerly wait in front of the computer for a response like email was magic.

Residential Internet access at that time was via 2400, 9600 bps telephone modems, I upgraded later to 14k.

Imaginet had a rather small rack of modems supported by a folding lunch table at the time. They paid about $3000 a month to the telephone company for access. You would get busy signals at a busy time.

In 1997 I moved to Jacksonville and worked for AOL. They had full Internet access by that time yet it was not perfect and had 1,040 known issues that would crash computers. They had just done the major marketing push that they were not technically prepared for and the modems were busy most of the time. It was not until 1998 that AOL finally got enough modems in place to reduce the busy signals. Lots of folks got $400 phone bills then for access numbers that were long distance. I cannot remember if broadband was out by then. I do know that AOL had its "Bring your own Access" then were you could access a TCP/IP account and tunnel to the AOL servers for access to their glorified BBS content.

In 1993 1.0 of mosaic was released and I think that helped alot of folks to get online by the end of 1994. A graphical interface is what was needed to get the internet accepted into the general population. Had AOL developed its graphical interface and merged its servers with TCP/IP from the beginning, the internet might have a different history.

Answer 2

I was doing emails, visiting web-pages, meeting people with similar interests, enjoying various hobbies, on Easylink (Western Union internetworking) in 1982, in Omaha while stationed with SAC in the USAF.

When I arrived there, it had been going on, with a monthly use fee of $25.00, for at least one year. I used a Heathkit H-89, that I built. Did NOT connect with ARPA Net! But, DID connect worldwide!

Answer 3

i think that there was internet in the 80's for really big companies but you couldn't surf the internet like we do. it was more like making commands and sending small messages to other computers in there businesses.
but it was released late 1995 early 1996

Answer 4

1996

Answer 5

I was using it in more or less its present day form in 1994 at college.

Answer 6

the mid 90's.