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CompuServe charged more if you connected at a higher baud rate, like $12.80 per hour for 14.4k... I think - I haven't worked there for 22 years, so my memory is
by ceautery 8y ago
CompuServe charged more if you connected at a higher baud rate, like $12.80 per hour for 14.4k... I think - I haven't worked there for 22 years, so my memory is hazy.
There was also an ecosystem of apps to script connections to minimize time you spent online. You'd pick the forums you wanted to scrape new messages from, fetch them in one session, compose replies offline, and post the replies in a second session.
- dmix 8y agoThat's cool. Was there any data caps?
- pavlov 8y agoOn a 14.4kbps connection it took more than 10 minutes to transfer a megabyte, so the hourly billing rate was enough of a cap.
- ghaff 8y agoIt was the same thing on private BBS systems. There were a bunch of applications and scripts that basically let you go online, do your business as quickly as possible, and hang up. I remember I primarily used a system running PCBoard and Qmail was the software that let you do most things offline. ADDED:Private systems didn't (ever?) have a time charge. The bigger ones usually still offered some lines for free users but offered preferred access for subscribers.
- Sylamore 8y agoI remember Delphi had one called DIJ/Delphi Internet Jet, I want to say it actually did everything in QWK format but it's been so long I don't remember. I do remember using QWK to get a lot of stuff off of WWIV<->UUCP gateways and FidoNet. One of the things that kept me at the time on Delphi was 1) X-Files had a huge fanbase there and Chris Carter would regularly join the forums and 2) You could break out of the menus and get down to the VMS shell which is how I first learned something other than DOS/Windows. I still racked up massive phone bills even with the offline readers.