was 1993 i read about internet in a computer magazine, id just co purchased a pc with my dad and bought at 14.4 pci logic external modem for gasp $800.00 this was in Canada computer hardware in those days was very expensive.
in 1994 a small startup company in my home town just started up called Digital Ark they started offering 30 hours of internet for $50.00 per month was 2 dollar an our after then if went over.when we first got on one my buddies was at company seen the owner type in his login and password. so we tried it and shared if for a few weeks . the internet in those days was very basic there was no gui at all until later in year. when mosaic came out and netscape.
we were basically connecting to a unix box if you wanted to check your email had to use this program PINE
when i first officially got on this was march of 1995 i connected via windows 3.1 cause windows 95 didn't come out till august of 95. we using netscape by that time and connected via a SLIP Connection it was and old sometimes couldn't always connect right away either had to wait or try again.
we couldn't get american online lived in a small town so we had pay per use dialup internet until 2001 when Shaw@home came in.
There was literally no advertising online in those days. and irc was king but this was around time when mirc came out and it is still used today it was very buggy at first took a good year before got better to use more stable.
when just found internet and its a whole new world 30 hour a month wasn't going to cut it. i basically had to wait till weekend to get on and talk live on irc with all my friends i made used to frequent the channel #oldwarez on efnet
in that era. introduction in ftp back then was even ones called FSP but they didn't catch on and FTP was king.
usenet was popular then too for support groups or fido.net was popular at that time too. i was just coming off of the local bbs scene . and getting into warez scene some boards in that era used Telnet to connect to internet. since it was 90s there was no internet movies or video files just getting a picture in color was cool enough. did the anonymous ftp site trading on weekends where try find sites on internet with hidden pirate sections and then trade your site with someone else eventually get onto a elite site trading channel and get a decent list and find some cool dos games to download this was very popular service during 95 to 97. they also had fserves and dcc bots offering up files too. funny enough its 2018 and dcc bots are still alive hidden away some odd place on irc. until things became organized in 97 and warez groups newer ones started to form, there was already established groups then just that was in BBS era and was an adjustment to private ftp sites. but thats another story at another time.
anyone else have similar stories when first got internet access please share them?