Bit of fun - first ISPs

[Tony1044]

Out of interest, what was everyone's first and second ISP? Proper "internet" ones, not the forerunners.

Around 1996 I started with AOL (I didn't know any better) on their dialup.

My first DSL product was Nildram. 512 whole kbps. They were fantastic until they were bought out (can't remember who it was)

Vodafone business fibre these days - 72Mbps and I usually hit the mid 60's which isn't at all bad for here.

 

[ubuysa]

My first online access was to Compuserve. It was at that time an isolated bulletin board system with no connections to anything else.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Out of interest, what was everyone's first and second ISP? Proper "internet" ones, not the forerunners.

Around 1996 I started with AOL (I didn't know any better) on their dialup.

My first DSL product was Nildram. 512 whole kbps. They were fantastic until they were bought out (can't remember who it was)

Vodafone business fibre these days - 72Mbps and I usually hit the mid 60's which isn't at all bad for here.

I was on AOL around the same time in ‘96, with my first windows ‘95 PC which I think was from - was it TinyPC who went bust not long afterwards?

 

[Stephen M]

Did not start until very late 90s as had email in office. Was an HP machine with Windows ME and used Freeserve, have never changed as they became Orange then EE. Had a couple of issues over the years but found them very good and twice they admitted it was totally their fault and gave me a rebate.

 

[PeppaPigKilla]

First was also AOL on dial, msn messenger days. My second was ntlworld and that was for 2Mbps connection that I upgraded to 20Mbs for £40 a month.

Im moved between providers over the years and now im with Virgin with 1 Gbps where i get sync rate of 1140 downstream and 36 upstream

 

[SpyderTracks]

First was also AOL on dial, msn messenger days. My second was ntlworld and that was for 2Mbps connection that I upgraded to 20Mbs for £40 a month.

Im moved between providers over the years and now im with Virgin with 1 Gbps where i get sync rate of 1140 downstream and 36 upstream

Man, I adored MSN messenger, Microsoft really missed the boat with that one!

P.S... I want your 1Gbps!!!

 

[PeppaPigKilla]

Man, I adored MSN messenger, Microsoft really missed the boat with that one!

P.S... I want your 1Gbps!!!

I miss being able to make my friends msg chat windows shake.

The speed has become great for these massive patches we seem to be getting now in most games, I do wish for a higher upload speed though, is it needed? nope, do I want it? yes

 

[SpyderTracks]

I miss being able to make my friends msg chat windows shake.

The speed has become great for these massive patches we seem to be getting now in most games, I do wish for a higher upload speed though, is it needed? nope, do I want it? yes

My upload is 9mbps on a good day

 

[Tony1044]

My down/up is 72/20 and cabled I see about 65/19 which isn't too bad.

During this lockdown I've had to be a bif draconian with the kids so YouTube (but not YouTube for schools) is blocked on the youngest's laptop, TVs and his phone. One of the beauties of my MAPS subscription is 5 EMS and Intune licenses so his phone is always connected back here via VPN. Total control. (Hes only 12)

I've also had to QoS the network and limit the bandwidth their consoles were using. Pings and in game isn't affected but downloads are capped at 20Mbps.

I'd love FTTP though.

 

[SpyderTracks]

My down/up is 72/20 and cabled I see about 65/19 which isn't too bad.

During this lockdown I've had to be a bif draconian with the kids so YouTube (but not YouTube for schools) is blocked on the youngest's laptop, TVs and his phone. One of the beauties of my MAPS subscription is 5 EMS and Intune licenses so his phone is always connected back here via VPN. Total control. (Hes only 12)

I've also had to QoS the network and limit the bandwidth their consoles were using. Pings and in game isn't affected but downloads are capped at 20Mbps.

I'd love FTTP though.

I've desperately tried to educate my sister on the importance of security on their kids devices, but she just doesn't listen. They can access anything they want, and they do on a daily basis.

I had to wipe one of our tablets because they'd installed some incredibly dodgy hack for minecraft which essentially gave admin access to whoever was at the other end. Just crazy.

If I had kids, I would take that kind of security just as seriously as you do, it's imperative in this day and age.

Luckily I'm blessed with a neverending supply of singledom, much more convenient, and I get to buy my toys!

 

[Tony1044]

Honestly you wouldn't believe the volume of speculative attacks on the WAN interface of my firewall.

It's literally tens of thousands a day. Clearly automated. Most are simple port probes. 95% originate from China and Russia so I just geoblock those entire countries now.

I dont store credit card info on phones or consoles either. If the kids want a game or anything I buy a voucher from cdkeys or amazon then send them the code.

The way I see it is if they want the freedom of phones etc then the tradeoff is I control the devices and I can look at any of them at request. Want privacy? Pay for your own

I am more paranoid than your average person but I've worked in places where you have to lock turnex off phones in safes in a faraday cage. We knew 16 years ago that cameras and microphones could be remotely activated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Honestly you wouldn't believe the volume of speculative attacks on the WAN interface of my firewall.

It's literally tens of thousands a day. Clearly automated. Most are simple port probes. 95% originate from China and Russia so I just geoblock those entire countries now.

I dont store credit card info on phones or consoles either. If the kids want a game or anything I buy a voucher from cdkeys or amazon then send them the code.

The way I see it is if they want the freedom of phones etc then the tradeoff is I control the devices and I can look at any of them at request. Want privacy? Pay for your own

I am more paranoid than your average person but I've worked in places where you have to lock turnex off phones in safes in a faraday cage. We knew 16 years ago that cameras and microphones could be remotely activated.

It's like all this madness with people rushing to Zoom and Houseparty.... a friend tried to get me to join some webchats with a few people, luckily I researched it a bit.... why oh why are people using these things without checking them out first, it's madness! People just flock to whatever is popular without a care in the world for if it's safe or not.

There needs to be some serious uptake in basic security education to the masses.

 

[Stephen M]

I have always been suspicious about messaging software and stuff like that. Totally refuse to have anything to do with the likes of Facer and Twitbook or any other anti-social media.

Agree with Spydertracks about needing security education, although looking at a lot of politicians they would probably employ Mark Zuckerberg or a few bods from Google to do it.

Lock down has not diminished my general cynicism.

 

[Tony1044]

I remember having the conversation with my eldest son about "just because you delete a post or a picture doesn't mean the likes of FB do" and he was having a tough time wrapping his head around it, because it was gone from his screen, so it must be gone, right?

Then that massive dump of Snapchat pics appeared and I could use it as a perfect example: if all of those pictures really were self-deleting, how come tens of thousands have just landed on the internet...?

My dad was actually one of the worst. He used to train electrical engineers for a living so far from a daft guy but I'd go to his house and he'd complain the internet was slow or some such thing and inevitably half of his browser screen was obscured behind search bars. He had never downloaded anything of course...

My close friends and I use Signal for messaging or Teams for work-related/video stuff. As much as I loathe it, I do have WhatsApp because my eldest Son and ex-wife use it and no amount of trying has got them to ditch it.