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by js2 1105 days ago
My first dialup was to BBS's in the early 80s using a Novation AppleCat[1] and I think I was using The Source[2] around the same time, which eventually got swallowed by CompuServe[3]. To access The Source you dialed in to Telenet[4] first and then connected from there.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novation_CAT#The_Apple-CAT_II

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_(online_service)

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenet

I think my first Internet access was through Prodigy[5]. The Wikipedia says this wouldn't have been till 1994[6], but I remember it being a few years earlier since by 1994 I would have been using AOL.

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)#Conve...

My first significant Internet access was at U.F. in 1995. While at U.F. I was also the sole system administrator for a small ISP in Gainesville. Two PCs running Slackware, a Livingston PortMaster with a dozen Hayes modems attached and a T1 for uplink.

My family also piloted something called Viewtron in the early 80s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewtron

AT&T marketing video for Viewtron:

https://youtu.be/sgYkpk9nJnE