20 ms·

I vividly remember my dad buying that internet in a box thing in the 90s. What a ridiculous product.

_hyn3 5y ago
I don't think it was ridiculous, except perhaps for the name, but non-tech people back then didn't even really know what the Internet was. It probably didn't seem far-fetched, since most (all?) products were basically tangible things that could fit into a box, and it probably bridged the gap. In that box was a browser and list of dial-up POPs and designed to compete with AOL, which offered AOL's version of the Internet and was peppering the country with free floppies (and later CD-ROM's). Other than AOL, most people in the country could only do dial-up to gain access to the World Wide Web (it sounds so quaint when you write it out now!). Juno did this even better -- for free, with ads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Online_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Online_Services Shockingly, they're still doing it today! I had no idea there was a market for free dial-up internet in 2021! That is so cool. https://www.juno.com/free https://www.juno.com/free A lucky few within a certain distance from their CLEC's CO could get DSL or would spring $800/mo (or a lot more!) for a 1.5Megabit/s T1. I think it was around the late 90's that Time Warner and a few other cable companies started testing out high-speed cable. So, to me, the Internet-In-A-Box product was a cool thing that didn't last that long because most people migrated from dial-up to broadband as quickly as they were able. I wonder, though, why it died so quickly while Juno is still around 20-something years later! Freemium is a better business model?
banana_giraffe 5y ago
I worked for the division of CompuServe responsible for that. I even have "Internet In a Box For Kids" still in the shrink-wrap on a shelf behind me. I keep it in case I ever need to bootstrap the Internet after a disaster. That division had some .. uh .. interesting sales ideas. One of the ones I remember painfully was an attempt to cross-promote our sign-up disks with a heavy metal band. Disks were given out for free at concerts. The net result, to be expected, I suppose, was an impressive number of confused fans calling up support and asking when the next concert was.

I don't think it was ridiculous, except perhaps for the name, but non-tech people back then didn't even really know what the Internet was. It probably didn't seem far-fetched, since most (all?) products were basically tangible things that could fit into a box, and it probably bridged the gap. In that box was a browser and list of dial-up POPs and designed to compete with AOL, which offered AOL's version of the Internet and was peppering the country with free floppies (and later CD-ROM's). Other than AOL, most people in the country could only do dial-up to gain access to the World Wide Web (it sounds so quaint when you write it out now!). Juno did this even better -- for free, with ads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Online_Services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Online_Services Shockingly, they're still doing it today! I had no idea there was a market for free dial-up internet in 2021! That is so cool. https://www.juno.com/free https://www.juno.com/free A lucky few within a certain distance from their CLEC's CO could get DSL or would spring $800/mo (or a lot more!) for a 1.5Megabit/s T1. I think it was around the late 90's that Time Warner and a few other cable companies started testing out high-speed cable. So, to me, the Internet-In-A-Box product was a cool thing that didn't last that long because most people migrated from dial-up to broadband as quickly as they were able. I wonder, though, why it died so quickly while Juno is still around 20-something years later! Freemium is a better business model?

banana_giraffe 5y ago

I worked for the division of CompuServe responsible for that. I even have "Internet In a Box For Kids" still in the shrink-wrap on a shelf behind me. I keep it in case I ever need to bootstrap the Internet after a disaster. That division had some .. uh .. interesting sales ideas. One of the ones I remember painfully was an attempt to cross-promote our sign-up disks with a heavy metal band. Disks were given out for free at concerts. The net result, to be expected, I suppose, was an impressive number of confused fans calling up support and asking when the next concert was.