Pre-internet networks; I'm missing (at least) one

[Spider-TW]

A question for old time computer users to help me replace some brain cells that have apparently been lost for any number of reasons since then...

In discussing some information that I had originally found on FIDONET, I was remembering the old dial-up networks like Prodigy, AOL, and ... something else ( ) that was a large network. I think they merged with AOL in their last days and maybe it started with an "E", but it was one word, not "E-". I used it for a year or two and ... HEY, IT CAME BACK!

COMPUSERVE. So it ended with an "E"

Well, out of curiosity, are there any former FIDONET users around here?

[bornl33t]

my dad still has and uses his compuserve email address......

[skife]

lol FIDONET

i started using the internet in 1995 or 1996, i don't go that far back. i remember the switch from 36.6kb/s to 56.6 kb/s and holy hell was it fast.

[Spider-TW]

Well, I did say former user.

I had no idea there were still compuserve servers still around. I don't get free subscription offers in all of my software boxes anymore. I guess I don't get boxes anymore either.

FIDONET was pretty cool for free and open nationwide messaging. Free and ad-free too!

I see 56k dialup warnings on picture threads still. Anyone know if dialup is still getting wide use in places? I used to have it a while back and could watch the statistics on it, but I haven't seen any in years.

[punkncat]

Actually there is still quite a bit of dial up use around where I live. My mom lives a few miles down the street and was unable to get DSL until a few months ago.

It was such a pain in the butt to update and dl programs that I would commonly just bring her PC's to my house and do it here.

[d4m4don3]

wow, total flash back to the days when I was optimizing my modem initialization strings for optimal communication speeds

I miss those days sometimes, most of the local's used to meet once a month <sigh>

[Spider-TW]

Yeah. If it weren't for "enhanced content" I would have stayed on dial-up a lot longer. Pictures, especially ads, and pop-ups pretty much smacked down the bandwidth. A small picture is worth a thousand words, 10kb. A high-res insurance ad is worth about a penny to the site owner and 100kb of my bandwidth.