5 ms·

I think it was 1992 when my dad showed me how to dial into Compuserve. We might have had a 9600 baud modem that tied up the phone line and cost an astronomical

by anonu 3y ago

I think it was 1992 when my dad showed me how to dial into Compuserve. We might have had a 9600 baud modem that tied up the phone line and cost an astronomical amount per minute. I recall bringing up a weather map of the US. I had no clue what to do with that information. But I was hooked.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
m4jor 3y ago
I used to live in Germany (dad was a military contractor). We had a computer with dialup but it was insanely expensive to use there at the time and only my parents could use it. Well one day they left me home alone and I got curious so I connected and stayed online for probably 8-9 hours before they got home. It was a blast. I too was also hooked immediately. I sure got a shock when my parents came into my room a month later to ask if I had been on the computer without them because we had a huge bill haha.
chrisco255 3y ago
Yeah I ran up a multi hundred dollar internet bill when I was 9 and my parents cancelled AOL for a couple years until they came out with unlimited plans.
- sneak 3y ago
  They had free trial offers for 10 hours (at first) so I was sneak, then sneak{1,..,14} or something on there. Eventually I managed to shoulder surf the login for the PPP connection to a local ISP used at my school, then I had unlimited. Thankfully I had enough sense at 13 or 14 to ATDT*67,,1xxxxxxxxxx so that they couldn't identify who it was without actually sending a subpoena/warrant to the telco (which they didn't do). In any case the school paid a flat rate for unlimited usage, so my being connected all night didn't cost anyone anything. They yelled at me a lot though because it was pretty obvious who was using dozens of hours of dialin every month, given that the school's list of suspects was one item long.
  - brewtide 3y ago
    I took borrowed a school account to a local ISP. Saving the setting file onto a disk and rummaging through it with ResEdit to my young surprise brought me the text I was looking for! Unlike you, I didn't have enough foresight to attempt to block the dialing in number .. at all. But I had internet for most of the school year until, as per your story, it relatively came crashing down one day. Same justifications of "borrowing" the account as well -- I wasn't using it during the school day itself, I was at school -- and it seemed so silly to waste such services for 2/3rd's of a day! A Stern talking to and that was that... Imaging what would happen now!
  - yomlica8 3y ago
    > They yelled at me a lot though because it was pretty obvious who was using dozens of hours of dialin every month, given that the school's list of suspects was one item long. Not sure why they didn't change the password. I was assuming they just never noticed the usage.
kmoser 3y ago
I remember getting trial accounts that had a limited number of hours, but if they ran out while you were still connected you didn't get booted off; you just couldn't connect the next time you dialed in. So I would log on near the end of my time limit and spend all night downloading files, well past what would have been the normal account expiration time.
rojeee 3y ago
Oh gosh. I remember my parents hiding my keyboard and mouse after my Dad received a £500 phone bill one month. This was in 1999. We were on pay per minute dial-up in the UK and I was obsessed with playing a game called Team Fortress Classic, a mod for Half-Life. Even with ping times of 200ms it was still really playable! We only had one phone line and the downside of this for my parents was that no-one could call the house phone - engaged tone. Remember, this is before widespread mobile phones. The downside for me was that any time someone picked up a phone in the house - like my sister to call her stupid boyfriend - all they heard was modem noise and it sometimes ended up in the modem hanging up the connection mid game... Infuriating! Luckily I had a spare keyboard and mouse in my cupboard, which I promptly set up to the bemusement of my parents. They were very patient...
- yomlica8 3y ago
  > We only had one phone line and the downside of this for my parents was that no-one could call the house phone - engaged tone. I bought this little box on ebay that monitored for the call waiting signal while dialup was connected and then let the call ring through. If I was quick I could get starcraft to reconnect when a telemarketer interrupted. It was a lot cheaper than a second phone line!

by anonu 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

m4jor 3y ago

I used to live in Germany (dad was a military contractor). We had a computer with dialup but it was insanely expensive to use there at the time and only my parents could use it. Well one day they left me home alone and I got curious so I connected and stayed online for probably 8-9 hours before they got home. It was a blast. I too was also hooked immediately. I sure got a shock when my parents came into my room a month later to ask if I had been on the computer without them because we had a huge bill haha.

chrisco255 3y ago

Yeah I ran up a multi hundred dollar internet bill when I was 9 and my parents cancelled AOL for a couple years until they came out with unlimited plans.

sneak 3y ago
They had free trial offers for 10 hours (at first) so I was sneak, then sneak{1,..,14} or something on there. Eventually I managed to shoulder surf the login for the PPP connection to a local ISP used at my school, then I had unlimited. Thankfully I had enough sense at 13 or 14 to ATDT*67,,1xxxxxxxxxx so that they couldn't identify who it was without actually sending a subpoena/warrant to the telco (which they didn't do). In any case the school paid a flat rate for unlimited usage, so my being connected all night didn't cost anyone anything. They yelled at me a lot though because it was pretty obvious who was using dozens of hours of dialin every month, given that the school's list of suspects was one item long.
- brewtide 3y ago
  I took borrowed a school account to a local ISP. Saving the setting file onto a disk and rummaging through it with ResEdit to my young surprise brought me the text I was looking for! Unlike you, I didn't have enough foresight to attempt to block the dialing in number .. at all. But I had internet for most of the school year until, as per your story, it relatively came crashing down one day. Same justifications of "borrowing" the account as well -- I wasn't using it during the school day itself, I was at school -- and it seemed so silly to waste such services for 2/3rd's of a day! A Stern talking to and that was that... Imaging what would happen now!
- yomlica8 3y ago
  > They yelled at me a lot though because it was pretty obvious who was using dozens of hours of dialin every month, given that the school's list of suspects was one item long. Not sure why they didn't change the password. I was assuming they just never noticed the usage.

kmoser 3y ago

I remember getting trial accounts that had a limited number of hours, but if they ran out while you were still connected you didn't get booted off; you just couldn't connect the next time you dialed in. So I would log on near the end of my time limit and spend all night downloading files, well past what would have been the normal account expiration time.

rojeee 3y ago

Oh gosh. I remember my parents hiding my keyboard and mouse after my Dad received a £500 phone bill one month. This was in 1999. We were on pay per minute dial-up in the UK and I was obsessed with playing a game called Team Fortress Classic, a mod for Half-Life. Even with ping times of 200ms it was still really playable! We only had one phone line and the downside of this for my parents was that no-one could call the house phone - engaged tone. Remember, this is before widespread mobile phones. The downside for me was that any time someone picked up a phone in the house - like my sister to call her stupid boyfriend - all they heard was modem noise and it sometimes ended up in the modem hanging up the connection mid game... Infuriating! Luckily I had a spare keyboard and mouse in my cupboard, which I promptly set up to the bemusement of my parents. They were very patient...

yomlica8 3y ago
> We only had one phone line and the downside of this for my parents was that no-one could call the house phone - engaged tone. I bought this little box on ebay that monitored for the call waiting signal while dialup was connected and then let the call ring through. If I was quick I could get starcraft to reconnect when a telemarketer interrupted. It was a lot cheaper than a second phone line!