The old internet

Anteayer · 10-04-2019 1:30pm

That was a common issue all over the world but cropped up quite a bit in rural areas and sometimes in older parts of cities where there was a shortage of copper pairs.

Modems were designed to work on very standardised analogue lines but in some places phone companies digitally multiplexed multiple lines onto a single pair of wires using sampling and time slots. There were also rural systems using radio links that may have had odd compression technology that the modem wasn't expecting.

It worked flawlessly for voice but 'high speed' modems couldn't operate over it and would reduce speed do very low levels.

Telecom Éireann used plenty of devices from PairGain Inc. to do that in the UK BT called it DACS, both were a curse for modems.

You'll find similar issues if you try to run a modem over VoIP voice connections. The 56k modems are expecting a digital switch using TDM technology or a purely analogue connection on older tech like crossbar exchanges, but instead they're getting VoIP with audio characteristic which sounds great to your ear but don't work for a modem. So the connection either goes very slowly or becomes unstable and drops.

Basically the voice networks were never designed to carry fast data.

I remember when images used to load like you were watching a fax coming in though. Either line by line or gradually getting clearer as the data came in

Feisar · 10-04-2019 1:49pm

kowloon wrote: »

Played Quake online with the people who started Boards. Remember the Low Ping Bastards having the advantage while the rest of us suffered the lag supreme.

Low Ping Bastards!!!! Takes me back.

Grayson · 10-04-2019 1:53pm

kowloon wrote: »

Played Quake online with the people who started Boards. Remember the Low Ping Bastards having the advantage while the rest of us suffered the lag supreme.

Same. That's the only reason I'm a member here.

I worked in an internet cafe that was a hangout for quake players. Some even came from abroad and played there.

Fionn · 10-04-2019 2:01pm

back in the mid 80's, having been an early adapter, I persuaded the boss where I worked to get a PC, because it would increase productivity, we eventually got a 8086 made by Epson it had a Black & Amber screen, and ran Lotus 123 and Ami Pro in DOS lightening fast!! It had the four and a quarter inch floppies too.
I'm not sure if it ever increased productivity, but I remember getting stuff done a lot faster and then longer coffee breaks to play solitaire/chess on the PC.
Following that i recall a IBM 286 that had the operating system burned onto the CMOS chip, It also came with 'Microsoft Windows 2' on three and a half inch floppies should you wish to install and upgrade as required.
Fun times......

o1s1n · 10-04-2019 2:05pm

Kids these days, they'll never know of lag in FPS games.

I used to play a lot of Half Life DM on the Valve servers around 2000 on 56k dialup.

You'd have to allow for the lag by trailing your shots slightly ahead of the person you were shooting.

So by the time you pinged the server the person you were shooting at had caught up to where you shot.

Streetlamp · 10-04-2019 2:47pm

remember when you googled something you got information on the topic whereas now all you get is business websites.

branie2 · 10-04-2019 3:07pm

Yahoo was the leading search engine until Google came along

FanadMan · 11-04-2019 1:12am

Fionn wrote: »

back in the mid 80's, having been an early adapter, I persuaded the boss where I worked to get a PC, because it would increase productivity, we eventually got a 8086 made by Epson it had a Black & Amber screen, and ran Lotus 123 and Ami Pro in DOS lightening fast!! It had the four and a quarter inch floppies too.
I'm not sure if it ever increased productivity, but I remember getting stuff done a lot faster and then longer coffee breaks to play solitaire/chess on the PC.
Following that i recall a IBM 286 that had the operating system burned onto the CMOS chip, It also came with 'Microsoft Windows 2' on three and a half inch floppies should you wish to install and upgrade as required.
Fun times......

Five and a quarter inch!

My first machine was a Philips P3105 - 4Mhz....turbo boost to 5Mhz, 720k RAM and 10Mb hdd running DOS 3.2. Was also black/amber display until I was given a proper colour CGA monitor......such a change in gaming lol

Still have the original disks - DOS 3.2, 3.3 and 4.0

ohnonotgmail · 11-04-2019 8:16am

FanadMan wrote: »

Five and a quarter inch!

My first machine was a Philips P3105 - 4Mhz....turbo boost to 5Mhz, 720k RAM and 10Mb hdd running DOS 3.2. Was also black/amber display until I was given a proper colour CGA monitor......such a change in gaming lol

Still have the original disks - DOS 3.2, 3.3 and 4.0

A hdd?? Posh.

Mister Vain · 11-04-2019 10:05am

I remember a time when uploading a photo of yourself online was an incredibly vain thing to do.

Charles Babbage · 11-04-2019 10:12am

DublinWriter · 11-04-2019 12:12pm

Internet Eireann...they were the ones with the 64kps outward Internet connection.

Imagine 100's of users sharing that? It was unusable towards the bitter end.

Hotblack Desiato · 11-04-2019 12:22pm

I wonder how that "lifetime" deal worked out...

11-04-2019 2:56pm

Certain computer science degree students at the time did boast that they had the privilege of being granted personal webspace on the student course Web by the university or Regional Technical College (what they were called before 'Institute of Technology '.
Oh, and this was accessible across the Internet.

Hotblack Desiato · 11-04-2019 10:51pm

I didn't go to DCU but a few mates of mine had web space on redbrick.dcu.ie

Whehey! · 11-04-2019 11:10pm

Encarta 98

Ulysses Gaze · 11-04-2019 11:36pm

Microsoft Cinemania...

Hotblack Desiato · 12-04-2019 9:14am

Microsoft BOB.

It was crap, but yer wan that wrote it was morketing manager got the ride off Bill Gates... Cha-Ching!

ohnonotgmail · 12-04-2019 9:45am

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Microsoft BOB.

It was crap, but yer wan that wrote it was morketing manager got the ride off Bill Gates... Cha-Ching!

I never realised his wife was involved in this. It all makes sense now.

Charles Babbage · 12-04-2019 9:52am

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I wonder how that "lifetime" deal worked out...

They went bust. They hadn't a good financial model and weren't collecting their fees, which meant they couldn't upgrade their kit, and hence the slow service so people wouldn't pay their fees....

12-04-2019 9:59am

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I didn't go to DCU but a few mates of mine had web space on redbrick.dcu.ie

In the same era in other colleges and rtc's, some of the brightest computer science graduates were even given their own branch of a college website, where their friends could set up webspace: In place of http://www you would have http://coolspace.college.ie (madeup name)

EDIT: You can go look for those old webs on waybackmachine.org if you have time to waste

sheesh · 12-04-2019 11:04pm

Grayson wrote: »

I'll see your angelfire and raise you playing a MUD over telnet.

Jesus I'm old.

oooh!

stefanovich · 13-04-2019 10:44am

Redirecting people to NIMP for giggles.

Using a public computer when suddenly you have a million popups announce that you were looking at gay porn.

Bogwoppit · 14-04-2019 3:49am

Ratemyface.com some middle aged woman in the US started emailing me nudes after I put up my pic, early 00’s, emails took a long time to load but they were worth it (she was pretty rough).

My first email account was @postmaster.co.uk Stopped using it after they tried to charge me £10/month for the privilege of having an email address.

Rotten.com

14-04-2019 6:49am

_Brian wrote: »

I remember spending lots of time chatting in the “Virtual Irish Pub” when working nights mid 90’s

Me too. It was great, very original. And all the Yank women thinking Irishmen were the bee's knees. Paddynet at the same time was great craic, with happy memories of the fish slapping.

Mirc Chat was very popular and again it was full of American women thinking any eejit with an Irish accent was attractive. They used to have regular meetups too; I went to one in the Mercantile in 1998 but Mac Turcaill's was a more regular venue. Irish Abroad, which is still going, was also busy at the time. ICQ was a more personal and functionally attractive version of Mirc Chat (which was more group orientated). The first website I ever visited was Excite!, which had a very active discussion forum at the time. Possibly the biggest on the internet in those days.

Never, ever, ever forget internet contention between 6pm and 8pm as workers came home and tried to connect. The bastards. In the process undermining every weirdo geeky teenage nerd in Ireland who was in control of the imternet all day until these interlopers started to challenge them. Poor parents having to put up with that shíte from their teenagers who had melt downs when they realised they didn't own the internet. But not as poor as they were when they got that £200 bill from Telecom Éireann/Eircom, the bastards, at the end of the month for such superb service. And at the same time we all had to endure the Eircom shares promotion blitz on tv encouraging people to buy into this "advanced technology" company.
Buy shares in Eircom? I will like fúck, Mary O Rourke!

Edgware · 14-04-2019 8:03am

Sure the internet is great. They have it on computers now and everything

Woke Hogan · 14-04-2019 8:28am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Me too. It was great, very original. And all the Yank women thinking Irishmen were the bee's knees. Paddynet at the same time was great craic, with happy memories of the fish slapping.

Mirc Chat was very popular and again it was full of American women thinking any eejit with an Irish accent was attractive. They used to have regular meetups too; I went to one in the Mercantile in 1998 but Mac Turcaill's was a more regular venue. Irish Abroad, which is still going, was also busy at the time. ICQ was a more personal and functionally attractive version of Mirc Chat (which was more group orientated). The first website I ever visited was Excite!, which had a very active discussion forum at the time. Possibly the biggest on the internet in those days.

Never, ever, ever forget internet contention between 6pm and 8pm as workers came home and tried to connect. The bastards. In the process undermining every weirdo geeky teenage nerd in Ireland who was in control of the imternet all day until these interlopers started to challenge them. Poor parents having to put up with that shíte from their teenagers who had melt downs when they realised they didn't own the internet. But not as poor as they were when they got that £200 bill from Telecom Éireann/Eircom, the bastards, at the end of the month for such superb service. And at the same time we all had to endure the Eircom shares promotion blitz on tv encouraging people to buy into this "advanced technology" company.
Buy shares in Eircom? I will like fúck, Mary O Rourke!

This is very difficult to follow.

764dak · 14-04-2019 8:32am

branie2 wrote: »

Yahoo was the leading search engine until Google came along

I started using the internet regularly in 2000 and didn't even use Google until 2004.

Ger Roe · 14-04-2019 12:01pm

eircom.net email addresses ....

One of the originals, if someone is still using it, they most likely were one of the early dial up web explorers. 'Eircom' was the national (only) Irish telecom provider in the early internet days, following a re-brand in the 80's from the original 'Telecom Eireann' designation (under direction of The Department of Posts and Telegraphs, or P&T)

Standard Toaster · 14-04-2019 8:15pm

Still buffering.....

Fionn · 19-04-2019 8:00am

Microsoft NetMeeting anyone?

Stratvs · 19-04-2019 8:01am

Ger Roe wrote: »

eircom.net email addresses ....

One of the originals, if someone is still using it, they most likely were one of the early dial up web explorers. 'Eircom' was the national (only) Irish telecom provider in the early internet days, following a re-brand in the 80's from the original 'Telecom Eireann' designation (under direction of The Department of Posts and Telegraphs, or P&T)

Not only is my email @eircom.net but I’ve my own name (first last all one word) with no 1,2,3 or 56 after it.

OU812 · 19-04-2019 9:24am

Stratvs wrote: »

Not only is my email @eircom.net but I’ve my own name (first last all one word) with no 1,2,3 or 56 after it.

I have that with gmail AND hotmail. I’m on the net a kinda long time

RasTa · 19-04-2019 9:49am

Being the standard ping for online

branie2 · 19-04-2019 12:57pm

A confession here

One time when I was searching the net with the term "quicksand", I came across some sites with fictional stories about women who were "turned on" by mud and quicksand, especially when they were sinking in the stuff.

Mena Mitty · 19-04-2019 1:41pm

I remember being sent a link in an email for a Deviant's dictionary for a laugh...I wasn't laughing if I remember rightly, it was tears in my eyes from how innocent I was and I thought how the world was a very sick place.

Capt'n Midnight · 19-04-2019 6:10pm

Fionn wrote: »

Microsoft NetMeeting anyone?

and getting people to run conf.exe

ozmo · 19-04-2019 8:22pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

and getting people to run conf.exe

Telling a chat room that alt+f4 would give them mod access- then seeing them all disconnect ... lol. Bonus if you could get them do a ctrl+alt+del -as on older windows it would actually reboot the whole pc

whiskeyman · 19-04-2019 8:38pm

Convincing your parents that all the neighbours and even cousins down the country had the internet, and we'd learn so many new things if we got it...

Then the first thing you'd search for was porn!

Firefox11 · 19-04-2019 8:42pm

The Internet???.....pfft.....I was using BBS, Telnet and Fidonet long before you were born!!

Anteayer · 20-04-2019 8:46pm

Ger Roe wrote: »

eircom.net email addresses ....

One of the originals, if someone is still using it, they most likely were one of the early dial up web explorers. 'Eircom' was the national (only) Irish telecom provider in the early internet days, following a re-brand in the 80's from the original 'Telecom Eireann' designation (under direction of The Department of Posts and Telegraphs, or P&T)

Weren't they originally @tinet.ie

Also Telecom Éireann wasn't the first ISP here. They only launched an ISP service when the net was fairly well established.

There's were a few very early ones like Eirenet but, Ireland Online "IOL" was probably the first one to get mass market attention and then Indigo.

IOL ended up owned by An Post and then BT Ireland while Indigo was bought by Telecom Éireann.

I always thought Indigo was actually a better name than Tinet or Eircom. You could easily have rebranded TE as Indigo.

Telecom Éireann also tried to get into digital publishing in the early days with a subsidiary called Rondomondo and a search engine called Doras both of which were shut down in 2001.

It took a while for those old telcos to realise that they are just dumb pipes and didn't have the competencies to be content creators.

The J Stands for Jay · 21-04-2019 8:28am

OU812 wrote: »

I have that with gmail AND hotmail. I’m on the net a kinda long time

Don't you have rocketmail? n00b

Ger Roe · 23-04-2019 9:26am

Mr.S wrote: »

Where they not still issued until the changeover to Eir?

Not sure when they stopped, but seeing as I still use one, I am glad that they at least keep the service going through all the ownership changes over the years. .... or maybe they have forgotten that it still exists.

Around these parts, (North Wicklow) there are many people still on @eircom.net addresses, as the early dial up from the national telco was the only option for most 'rural' people at the time.

Nowdays we have fiber to cabinet as a connection source and a selection of ISP's to choose from... very 21st century, although we are still a way from having cable provider options since 'the piped' TV revolution never reached these parts.

nuac · 01-11-2019 12:32am

ozmo wrote: »

I remember Ireland on line - using mozilla browser (before firefox) off a floppy disk.
Only sites of any interest were Nasa and star trek and news groups.
Altavista was the search engine...

IOL were pioneers. Was about their 300th member. Very distinctive tone when logging on.
Being online outside weekends was expensive. Telix was the log in programme. I came in a collection of floppies
Usenet and BB boards, early Email
The first Law database I found was UCC. When I was onto an educational listserve or similar from the USA, some hacker put on a crude message.
I uploaded a copy of Bunreacht na h-Éireann from that Cork database and sent it to the hacker saying it was an Irish curse. No reply
Cannot remember name of my first modem, but it cost £800.
Speed was a blistering 300 Baud out and 800 Baud in ( or maybe the other way around)
Eheu fugaces. Am now explaining to grandchildren that our phones back then could not take photos, nor run games or other software.

B.A._Baracus · 01-11-2019 3:19am

I miss the old days of the internet.
For me my first experience of the net was using the Sega Dreamcast to connect online probably around 2000. Seriously that games console was amazing!

But I miss the days of randomly visiting angelfire and Geocities websites. I guess they morphed into blogs today. You could argue that YouTube has taken over so much as well.

limnam · 01-11-2019 7:33am

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I miss the old days of the internet.
For me my first experience of the net was using the Sega Dreamcast to connect online probably around 2000. Seriously that games console was amazing!

But I miss the days of randomly visiting angelfire and Geocities websites. I guess they morphed into blogs today. You could argue that YouTube has taken over so much as well.

Have at it

https://www.geocitiesarchive.org/default.aspx

01-11-2019 10:15am

The Old Internet.

Full of badly coded jerry - built personal homepages. 75% of the time launched with great announcements and plans, only never to see another update ever again, and often with utterly redicoulous GIF IMAGES saying "Under Construction, check back later" - the one that come to mind here is the dancing placards.

Sites for such monstrosities include XOOM, TRIPOD, homepage.eircom.net

maccored · 01-11-2019 10:31am

the web and the internet has always been full of fools. Its just they have to be less tech savvy now with smart phones so more of them are online. theres always been idiots

Hotblack Desiato · 01-11-2019 12:06pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Full of badly coded jerry - built personal homepages. 75% of the time launched with great announcements and plans, only never to see another update ever again, and often with utterly redicoulous GIF IMAGES saying "Under Construction, check back later" - the one that come to mind here is the dancing placards.

Don't forget the impressively low number on the "hit counter"

Hotblack Desiato · 01-11-2019 12:08pm

maccored wrote: »

the web and the internet has always been full of fools. Its just they have to be less tech savvy now with smart phones so more of them are online. theres always been idiots

There were some utter whack jobs on Usenet even back when only academic institutions and major US tech/defence firms had access. (I had read-only access to it in college in 1990-91)
Vicious and prolonged flame wars, trolling, group invasions, cyberstalking, doxxing, trying to get people fired, etc. are nothing new.

The old internet

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