[matwood]

My first programming job while in college (circa '98 or so) was at a small custom software dev shop, and they had an ISDN line. I would bring in my personal desktop to play quake online and download updates.

My next job was at a much bigger company who happened to have a data center in my home town. They had something like 70-100 T1s (T3?) coming into the building. Keep in mind they were used for both the phone system and data. I remember the older network people talking about the PITA it was get them all put down and how the local phone company said whatever was there was maxed. We were also spread across 2 buildings separated by a parking lot with a fiber connection between the buildings. The stuff I got to play with was pretty cool. Even though the company had a big parent, the DC was in a smallish town and mostly a free for all for the tech hires. My badge let me into anything. No way would that be allowed today.

I was also a beta tester when Comcast first rolled out cable internet in my town - that changed everything.

The lust for more speed was real (before that it was more RAM lol). Now I have 1gb u/d fiber and never think about link speed.