What was your very first internet provider?

[TheGoofster]

My first email provider was Juno. If you remember it offered free email to whoever wanted to sign up. I had a Juno account for quite a few years.
I didn't actually start going on-line though, until America On Hold (I mean Line) started offerering unlimited access for just 19.99.
I can still remember how incredible the internet seemed when we first got it. Access to anything in the world in just a few keystrokes.
My kids are growing up with the internet available to them (very, very regulated by me of course), but they won't be able to imagine a world where you couldn't find what you wanted by sitting in front of your computer. They have trouble believing me when I tell them that we used to have to go to a place called a library to find a lot of information.
The internet has come a long way (both good and bad) since I first signed up over a dozen years ago, but I still remember hearing that noise of connecting to AOL (followed by You've Got Mail), just like it was yesterday.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

We had Prodigy! I can not remember anything about how it worked LOL. I also remember when I first got married my DH used to work weekends and I was by myself a lot. As soon as he left I would plug in the phone cord to the back of the computer and get online. He would get a busy signal for hours because I would be on reading the AOL Disney boards!!

 

[bicker]

My first Internet provider, back in 1986, was my employer. I didn't actually pay for Internet or email until 1993. That was Execunet, I think, though by then I had a Compuserve account too (but I didn't use it for email or Internet).

 

[Hedy]

Delphi.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

I've had AOL since the fist version came out.

 

[cherylp3]

prodigy

 

[MushyMushy]

AOL, in 1993, where I met my DH.

 

[MosMom]

Yeah, ours was Prodigy.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

AOL - I still use them.

 

[imadisneyholic]

Mindspring. I still have an email account with them.

 

[disneysnowflake]

I had a Webtv since 1997. It worked good at the time, but by 2000 it couldn't load most pages because of the graphics. I haven't used my Webtv since 2000.

 

[sewer]

I used a "back door" at New York state university (won't mention the name) through Cleveland FreeNet for e-mail.

 

[Towncrier]

Stratos (and later MegsInet). I also was able to login to a dialup router at my place of employment. Eventually I signed up for Adelphia Powerlink (cable modem) which has since migrated over to Time-Warner (roadrunner). Somehow I managed to avoid Cleveland FreeNet.

 

[grinningghost]

Compuserve, then AOL, then Buffnet.

We've had Adelphia high speed internet for years now and I can't ever imagine going back to dial-up.

 

[helenabear]

Compuserve here. I don't even remember when we started, but I know it was mid 80s.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We started out with WebTV around 1997 or 1998. I remember starting to plan our WDW vacation and finding the DIS using WebTV. One of the few websites I knew was www.disney.com so I somehow came up with the novel idea to plan a vacation. I stumbled on the DIS in a search and the rest is history.

When we upgraded to a PC, we tried various free ISP's, you know the CD-ROM's you could pick up at Walmart. Remember Kmarts Bluelight.com? I can't think of which ones we tried, but I do recall banners and such across the screen.

The first contracted service was AT&T then we switched to EarthLink and used it for a few years until comcast high-speed finally came to town. It seemed like everyone else had cable internet available but us, and it took even longer for DSL to become available. We've been with cable internet four at least four years now.

 

[minnieandme]

If I remember correctly I think I had AOL

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

AOL...back when everyone had it.

 

[BethR]

AOL for the first month. Then BellAtlantic (now Verizon) ever since. We went on-line in 1998.

 

[Towncrier]

How could I have forgotten Compu$erve. I guess it was because I didn't really access the internet through their service.