WWW, Web 2.0 and Web3: How and when did you first connect to the Internet?

This Sunday there is a little detour to the history of the Internet, from the World Wide Web (www) and the increasingly interactive web 2.0 to a possible Web3. This begs the question: How and when did you first connect to the Internet? Already in the 90s with a modem and from 2,400 to 38,400 kbit/s or only via ISDN?

The author of this Sunday question first connected to the Internet in 1996 at the age of 12 with an Elsa MicroLink 28.8TQV, a modem with a 28,800 bit/s downlink, using one of the then very popular CD-ROMs from AOL with 120 minutes used.

Parents took over minute prices of around 5 to 15 pfennigs, which were due after the free quota, and CD-ROMs with more free hours quickly followed.

When did you first connect to the Internet?

In the early 1990s, even sending email sometimes cost more, and in the 1970s and 1980s true IT specialists and pioneers still chose one. acoustic coupler in mailboxes and sent digital data over analog data lines.

But when did ComputerBase’s own readers first come online?

The first telephone modems, which represented a further development of the acoustic coupler, were expensive and fun, so that an Elsa Elsa MicroLink 2400M as a table model cost around 1,950 Deutschmarks in 1988.

Speeds increased from 2.4 kbit/s to 56.6 kbit/s and the author’s 28.8 k modem cost around DM 280-300 in 1996. Then ISDN came along, later also with channel doubling, silver bullet for Internet access, WWW, e-mail and Usenet.

How did you connect to the Internet for the first time?

With ADSL and later also with VDSL, users had several Mbit/s (initially 768 Kbit/s) on the downlink for the first time. At the same time, the era of Gbit/s has already begun, although not at the national level, but in companies and universities.

But what bandwidths were available to first-time ComputerBase readers?

What hardware was used when you first connected to the Internet?

It remains to be seen how the Internet will develop in the near future. Web3 is an idea for a new generation of the World Wide Web, based on blockchain and incorporating concepts such as decentralization and token-based economy.

This counterproposal to great tech The dominant Web 2.0 can already be seen today, but it has yet to prove its worth.

Participation is expressly desired

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Readers who have not yet participated in the last questions on Sunday can do so. Exciting discussions are still taking place on the ComputerBase forum, especially regarding the latest polls.

The last ten questions of Sunday

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