[MarkL]

My first Internet access was back around 1985 or so, using dial-up access from NY to CA through "the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link," The WELL.

I used to be fairly active on the C programming language news group, and I have the distinction of having been told by Dennis Ritchie that I was completely wrong in a post I made! :-)

Mark

[ExCTCitizen]

My first connection was with my C64. I thought it was hi tech...

[cynwoody]

My first Internet access was back around 1985 or so, using dial-up access from NY to CA through "the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link," The WELL.

I thought the WELL was just a famous bulletin board system (BBS), accessible via dial-up, but not connected to the internet, at least not until long after 1985.

The WELL was similar to CompuServe, which got started in 1969 as a provider of dial-up time-sharing service (on the DEC PDP-10). In 1989, CompuServe was the first of the dial-up services to offer internet access, but the connectivity was limited to providing access to internet email addresses.

It wasn't until 1991, when the NSF lifted restrictions on commercial use, that the internet was opened up to the public.

1991

T3 bandwidth is 44.7Mb/s.