What's your Internet history?

14 replies · 5,305 views · Started 28 June 2002

AtmaWeapon 28 Jun 2002, 14:44

I've been thinking about this post for a while. What you do is you post your entire internet history, or what you can remember of it. Just talk about places you would frequent, old screen names, old friends, and so forth. Post links where applicable. It should be interesting, and maybe everyone will learn about some new sites or something.

My father bought our first computer towards the end of 1996. Our first ISP was AOL, and we were very unsatisfied with it, so we switched to a local provider. I spent a long time just visiting sites. Back then, the internet was not as fun; Flash didn't exist, Java was almost non-existant, JavaScript wasn't around, no broadband, and so forth. I spent a little time in the WBS chat network, with the screen name BobaFett13, because I was a Star Wars fanatic and 13 years old. After about 3 months or so, I found Jonathan Wildman's Star Wars Chat Room. The very first URL was at compuserve, it later moved to xoom, got kicked off xoom, and I don't exactly remember where it moved after that. For all I know it doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, I took the screen name BobaFett, because beseen, the chat room provider, didn't care about registered nicks. I made many friends in that chat room. I later changed my screen name to BobaFett,JEDI to distinguish myself from about a dozen other people using BobaFett as their screen name. Some screen names of people I remember are (I've shortened some, because I no longer remember exact spellings): St47; Noluu; Starkiller; Lelila,HUNTER; Miith; and JonW. Lelila I remember particularly; she was Starkiller's next door neighbor, and I saw her only once in the chat but had a big crush on her. I spent weeks looking for her after that one time. 😞 That chat room taught me many things about the internet. I got ICQ after learning what it was, and I still have the same UIN 6123748. Anyway, in about 1998, sometime when I was in 8th grade, I got severely grounded from the internet for about a year. During this time, the web site was kicked off of xoom because of a joke javascript that closed your browser window without permission. I arrived in the midst of the chaos. I chatted for about 5 or 6 months, but got grounded again for about a year. By the time I returned, the chat had changed so drastically that I didn't recognize it. I just found the site again, but be warned. If you browse the website itself, there are LOTS of popup windows and bad MIDI music. Here's the chat URL: http://lavender.fortunecity.com/casablanca/95/chat3.htm . I still go back every now and then to see if anyone recognizes me, but apparently all my friends have moved on and I've lost touch with them. 😞

I didn't have much to do on the internet once the Star Wars Chat was over. The internet became a tool to me; I used it to do research, and find cheat codes. Which brings us to December 1999, when my search for cheat codes brought me to http://www.cmgsccc.com, the Game Shark Code Creators' Club. I joined their forums, and was glad to finally have another good place to socialize online. I took the name bobafettjedi, keeping my personality alive. Friends from the GSCCC forums I remember are: Darkuser, PsychoDiablo2, Majin Vegeta, Zach, Kader, Alkaiser, and a few others whose screen names have slipped my mind at the moment (sorry guys!). I was a Knight of the UBB, an organization with no real purpose but a signature line, and I know there were at least 12 knights, and they were friends too, but that was a long time ago.

I left GSCCC after a large argument that ripped the board apart. One of the members, Darkuser, ran an emulation and warez site called Darkuser's World, and got a UBB. Viper_Byte, an admin at GSCCC, got pissed off because he said DU copied the GSCCC board with different colors. While I admit the forum topics were similar, I agree with DU's point that a gaming site at the time was very likely going to have an N64 section, a PSX section, and a Game Boy section, the three that Viper_Byte was most agitated at. Anyway, Darkuser invited me to his forums, and it kind of reminds me of some of the mass exoduses we have at AGN, because it seemed to me all the oldbies from GSCCC moved to DUW. The forums were fun, until the server crash. The provider found out about the warez and shut down the site. After a quick move (same provider, no warez this time), the forums lived on, with maybe 3 or 4 less members. Then another server switch due to slow service, and a few less members. Another server switch, less members, etc. Currently, the forums are still active, but even I have grown tired of the constant server switches. The only really active members there now are Darkuser, Zach, Kader, pd2, crime, Twizted7 (sp?), Dark_Holy, and some others that'll rape me because I forgot their screen names. pd2, man, if you're reading this, DROP ME A LINE!!! I haven't heard from you in a while!

Anyway, in the midst of the server problems at DUW, a friend at school showed me Zelda Classic. I thought it was cool, and every day we played it in class. I think it was version 1.84. On February 14, 2000 I registered at AGN. I took the screen name AtmaWeapon, since I felt bobafettjedi needed to be retired and my personality had changed a lot since bobafettjedi's days. I was also more of a Final Fantasy fanatic than a Star Wars fanatic. More and more, I would post at AGN and not at DUW. During one of the Great Server Crashes at AGN, I took pd2's advice and joined the forums at http://www.goosehead.com . It was an OK forum, just too big for it's own good. AGN came back up, and I left goosehead. Friends from AGN are too long for me to list, and I'd be sure to leave some of you out. Somewhere during this time I got AIM, and took the screen name nopaeWamtA since AtmaWeapon was taken already.

And that long spill is my internet history. I hope maybe someone else takes the time to post out their history... LOL

Toolie 28 Jun 2002, 15:14

1994 - Got some old tandy
1995 - Connected with AOL
1996 - Connected with new local ISP Clarity Connect
1997 - Got new computer
1998 - Got new computer, made websites and junk
1999 - Got new computer, played SC alot
2000 - Got new computer, started UO and posting on SDMB
2001 - Started posting on AG, stopped UO
2002 - Stopped posting on AG, cut my own online time drastically

Elemental Knight 28 Jun 2002, 15:27

The first computer I ever used was an old Apple that my mother rented from my Elementary school, so I could play games like Numberman over summer break. After that, it wasn't until 4th grade that we got our first 'real' computer, and we used my mom's dial-up connection that she got (free, minus phone fees) from work. I didn't use the internet much then, because there wasn't a reason to. No one I knew had an E-Mail adress, and besides, I could talk to them at recess anyhow.

In sixth grade, I became part of an "experimental" group at my Middle school to work with computers and grab news stories off of the 'net, which we then told our classes. The group was scrapped after a few months, and the teacher (Mr. Underwood) left at the end of that year. The next year, we had a substitute (the real new teacher was on maternity leave), and one of our assignments was to sign up an E-Mail account at Yahoo!. I didn't think I needed one, but what they hey, and I signed up with the address I'm still using today.

About a year or so after that, I got involved in a game called "Space Empires III", made by Malfador Machinations. It was fun - you could make your own shipsets, even (my first encounter with Spriting). My best friend is the one who introduced me to it, and he also introduced me to a group known as The Borg Collective, which has since gone under. I didn't stick around long, though, as the games we played with each other were tedious (involving E-Mailing the saved games back and forth).

By that time, I was into PokeMon like evrey other kid on the planet of the time. I found a site called The Alliance Network (When I was there, it was the Team Rocket Network), where there was a set-up to play PokeMon TCG over a chatroom. I beat the pants off of the owner of the site, as he was (pretty much) the only one who regularly showed. I wrote fanfics (which are still around somewhere, and won a few awards!) won medals galore, and after we switched up to a hacked version of Apprentice, I was still regularly winning. After so many wins, I just kinda faded out.

Then, I found ZC and came here. My online personality ("Elemental Knight"😉 has evolved, but hasn't really changed since I first solidified it with that E-Mail account.

King Link 28 Jun 2002, 15:40

I first got my new compie a few years ago, a few months later, got the internet. Hooked up and my friend ZeroX directed me here. I started posting on AGN in Jan. 2001. Then started my website Zelda Gateway, which promptly shut down thanks to Homestead and I couldn't move the pages. Started ZeldaNET then with Kratheous, paullyo6 with help from Overlord and DJ in September or November and early August. ZeldaNET turned into Zelda-Gaming.com. Afterwards, I re-opened Zelda Portal, an older site of mine and started to mold it into a decent, well-liked website. Zelda-Gaming shuts down and myself, Kratheous, paullyo6, ZeldaFreak and another friend named Gatekeeper re-start Zelda-Gaming as the Zelda Gaming Network, a network for Zelda websites.

obi 28 Jun 2002, 15:57

THis story begins in the heath of a trerrible storm, actually it doesn't. My story begins in a small school in southern England, Hampshire.back then, I think in 1998, our school only had one PC connected to the I-net and it was first come, first serve. I never got a chance to use it as I was always beatne there but one day, I was first. When I first steped up to the console, I was asked if I knew how to use the I-net, my response, "No". Thus my turn ended. The next school year, all of the PC's in my schools PC room (about 30) had acess to the I-net. My chance had come once again. This time, I was ready, I had used the I-net on my bro's PC a few times before.

My first stop was Infoseek, or Go.com, the place sucks now but back then It was as good as google is now. I had E-mail there as [email][email protected][/email], I think. But that no-longer exsists to a multitude of reasons .

I had chosen Obzak as my I-net name but I always prefered Dark Master, but that was too flashy for e-mail. Many people used Yahoo and the like but I used Go.com. It helped me find many roms as I entered the word of emulation. My school had many precausions to prevent downloading, and everyone I had managed to foil, I was downloading roms at school and playing them on my old P120. Very fun.
I had gotten much experience in PC in my school, it was not a lesson we did, but more of a past time. They had 3 win 95/98 machines not connected to the I-net. I would use those in my extra lessons as I did not do R.E. due to a request from my parents and my skills grew.
As time went by, I fell deeper into the world of emulation, I began to touch on the snes and payed Classics such as FF6 and LttP. We only had a NES at home so this was an all new experience. 😊
Then, after watching my brother, I touched on Google, and I inadvertently introduced my school to it i.e. Saving links and Favourites to Google.com when I wasn't supposed to and then other people finding it and using it. I also changed my E-mail from go.com to hotmail as go.com ent down. Everyone I knew had either hotmail or yahoo, I didn't like yahoo as it never found what I wanted so I chose hotmail.
On my crappy PC though, I had a little Jewel, it was found on the cover CD of some old PC mag, Zeldaclassic. A fungame which over took the latter of my summer holidays as I built quests on ver 1.84. I never actually though about it having such a large Fanbase, all I knew was it was made by some guy named Phantom menace and 'published' by Aramageddn Games.
I noticed a little box saying to check the hompage for updates, so I did, I also downloaded version 1.9 in school , brought it home, and had even more fun. 😃. I had also descocvered AGN and the such and began downloading quests, the first of which was ALTADD, a great game which helped me build my skill.

Then one day, I got a new PC, wow, great i though. I installed the XP supposedly the best windows, doubt it, win 98 was the best, noproblems, but my sound only worked in XP and it was fun. Disaster. Zquest doesn't work in XP, I panic, a bit. I had almost finished one quest and just started another. The player worked fine so I still played more quests.
I decided, as a subtitute, to join these so called 'forums' and see If I could find a fix for my poor little zquest. sure enough, I put ZC behind me after a while, most of the quest I found were just the first quest, looking abit different. Boring, I decided to become more active on these here forums at school and at home if I could.

I decided to choose as my name, Darkmaster and my login name as obzak - Back then in UBB you could do that. But alas, DarkMaster was taken, and the thing stuck me with obzak, I was not too happy, but still content. After a few posts I decided to take action, I made a thread about me name dilema. It was suggested that I make a new user, so I did, again, Darkmaster as my Screen name, and this time though, obi as my login, but I forgot that DM was taken, I got obi, and I decided, why the heck not.

So there you have it, after hacking my school PC's, infecting them, unwillingly with virusses, the saga of Obi Khan, pauses, slightly, here, at this Interlectuall fanbase, know as AGN.

That is my story, in little detail....🙄

Raichu86 28 Jun 2002, 16:11

I'm just going to be brief compared to some of the others. :lol:

2000: I first started posting at message boards. I posted at a crappy Pokemon one, and went on to a bigger one (TPM). It was a nice board, but it went to hell and I stopped posting.
2001: I had an ezboard. I ran it until CSC gold came and then moved to iKonBoard. A lot of learning durning this time. In August I came to Armageddon Games to post quests, but not for anything else.
2002: After being banned from TPM during a time of not posting, I cut off everybody from my past. Got a new screen name and told it to nobody I knew from TPM. AGN is my home now. 😊

This is the best board I've ever been to. I hope it doesn't go to hell like TPM did. 😞

vegeta1215 28 Jun 2002, 16:34

Too long to tell...but, I'll summarize.

Computers and OS/s:
-Dell 486 / Windows 3.1
-Compaq 133 mgahrtz pentium / Windows 95
-Custom built 200 mgahrtz k6 / Windows 98
-Dell 450 mgahrtz pentium3 / Windows 98

Up till that point, all the computers we had were shared by my family. Then I got my own comp from school, 523 k6-2 / Windows 98

Then I put Win2k on the custom comp and p3 dell at home. And put Mandrake Linux on my computer.

Oh yeah, and my Dad bought a laptop, with Win98 on it, which wwe switched to Win2k, then back again.

For internet we had Prodigy (waaay back when), then AOL, then Netzero, then Freelane, then Netzero ($9.95 a month), then Verizon DSL, and Delmarva Online for our summer place (I'm using right now)

I've had AOL email, Netzero email, Excite email, Yahoo email, ZC email.

I could go on, but my fingers hurt. Lets just say I've done alot online.

RYC 28 Jun 2002, 16:52

My memory is shot so I will do my best. In 97 we got AOL 3.0, very crappy. My main memory from there was getting into the punter/warez scene that dies out when either 4.0/5.0 came out. I found it somewhat humorous that AOL said they were going to stop making new versions when they made 4.0, those bullshitters. I did nothing of significance online after that, that I can remember. Eventually got broadband which I still have and can't understand why anyone still has dial-up. Nothing really after that except now I am heavily into politics as a Communist and have met many people from state-government here in Florida and met one of Martin Luther Kings Jr's closest coleagues, I think the last or one of the last alive, he is going to be 81 in October. He gave a very entertaining speach for a campaign kick off for a guy named Tony Hill. Well thats about it, I do plan to meet Castro sometime within the next few years by the way.

NerdWarrior 28 Jun 2002, 17:00

I was a wandering newbie for a long while...until I discovered Zelda Classic last year. From there I faded in and out of AGN, while AGN was down in Nov./Dec., I hung out at GameFAQs. Also, I hung out at GU for a little in April. There ya go.
(97)

vegeta1215 28 Jun 2002, 17:06

Yeah, I can't really remember what websites I frequently visited before I joined AGN.

lol, today, my going online doesn't involve much, generally it goes:

-Sign on
-Get on AIM
-Check my email
-Go to AGN (and AGN chat)

😃

The Silent Assassin 28 Jun 2002, 18:32

I was first introduced the the Internet in 1991 when we visited my friends in New York, and they had something called "America Online".

My dad got it for me when we came back, and I was an AOL junkie for the time being. I was ThePro2342, and all I did was go to Nintendo chat rooms and talk. About 1993, I started an AOL club called WEGMA (World Elite Gaming Member's Association). At the time, you got 1MB of web space as on AOL member. I quickly exceed that with my club (due note AOL had a web building aid that made it a joke to make kiddie looking pages, I did not know HTML then). Well, a friend of mine taught me how to hack into other member's web space and use it. We stuck to members who didn't use their space, to not get caught.

Well, I got caught, and was banned from AOL...well, indefinately. My parents found out because AOL notifed the account holder, and the internet was gone for me until 1995. I rejoined AOL as ThePro001. At this point Nintendo Power Source was on AOL. I got involved in their Interactive Stories, like Blood of the Chozo and The Hyrulean Adventure. I spent time in their bulletin boards (BBS) talking about games and what not.

In 1996, I stumbled onto ZHQ. This was probably the start of my Zelda Craze. We also got a new computer, and I used Prodigy's free membership trial to surf the net. So, I stuck between ZHQ and NPS for that time.

Then in 1997, NPS went offline at AOL and onto the net. The Nintendo BBS opened, and I went there. At the time, I was big into StarFox, and that's where I hung out. A group of the first members there and I...we joined up and we stuck together. When lame newbs would come in and talk trash, we'd flame them out.

It was really childish, but I built up a good rep there, so much even NOADAN (Dan Owsen) frequently responded to my posts. Then this kid named RYANGAUNT came along, and spammed left and right and caused trouble. Thanks to him, the forum was shut down in the end of 1998. My days at Nintendo were done.

But, a couple of us, from the SF 64 forum, formed The Lylat Alliance. A Yahoo club that was invite only. I aslo was a member of the Cornerian Elite Force (CEF) formed by a guy named Frankenroc. Anyway, StarFoxAlph and Penguinio ran that. Then Mike (SFA) got a gf, Flia, and the fights started. FJMcCloud is probably the only member I still talked to after I left there, but he recently became messed up, too. The forums went beserk, fights erupted, it was a hell lot worse than anything here at AGN ever, and bam...somebod pulled the plug and deleted the forums...

I did find out a few months ago they're back...and the CEF...but like 2 people I know are still there...I got the same reception as PM got here when I went back for a day...but...it's not the same...and I sort of feel what PM felt...it's not your place to be there anymore.

So, luck would have it Mr. Niels T Hooft, founder of ZHQ, left. I had been a long time contributor to them, and he went to create some RPG site. Conrad took over, and hired me. I did the Music for the site, and then wrote articles. It was then I met Master of Hyrule, and outside of ZHQ, we'd massively talk about the Zelda storyline.

Go figure, out of everyone there, I was a newbie in the land of Zelda. Even our Warlock was a staff member there! Anyway, I learned the ropes of the Zelda games...Conrad showed me how to master Zelda 1. Rod taught me the lowdown on anything and everything ALttP. Master of Hyrule taught me the storyline of everything...even beyond the games.

I was then hired as the Zelda 5 (OoT) guru when I beat it 100 times, and even beat it without dying or getting hit in front of a Nintendo rep in Dallas during a meeting with them from winning a contest earlier that year. But 1999 was ending...2000 rolled around...Niels came back...and ZHQ died. It was dying anyway, but Niels' return sealed the deal. He had a talk with me, I realized what a PoS he was, and quit on the spot. My last words were "under you, ZHQ will die". As my saying goes, Karma, Bitch.

I then freelanced. I worked for Zelda Infinite and ZeldaGames for awhile, and even got published back on Nintendo Power Source. I spent the year on my own, researching Zelda, and just studying it. ZHQ paid off in some ways, the Dallas MOrning News Entertainment/Tech team knew of it, knew I was a staff, and my address listed there was local. They contacted me to see if I was legit, proved my identity, and got to do tons of interviews with them about the upcoming PS2/GBA/X-BOX/GCN, etc.

Anyway...A friend of mine a Zelda Infinite then asked me about Zelda Classic...had I heard of it? I told him I had, and back at ZHQ, we did a feature on it. But when I went to check it out, the site was down, nothing was around. We all thought it got closed by Nintendo.

Well, it was nearing the start of my senior year, and I found AGN thanks to my friend, who said it was back up. I went to the ZC page, not AGN at first, got the program, fell in love with the promise of an editor after seeing the demo quest and BS quest, and even spoke with PM a bunch about doing whatever I could.

He directed me to the forums. AGN forums, that is. I really didn't like the idea of another forum, and I stuck to the ZC section only at first, not caring about the other stuff. But, after much work and a few months at AGN in the ZC forums, I was made a mod of ZC. That was the start of me "expanding" out. PM left, and ZC was now going anywhere. So I went into other forums.

After I guess...much work and stuff...and showing my maturity...I somehow got an admin spot. I still don't know what I did...I just go it. I will admit that. I mean, maybe working with the news in the summer...maybe that was the reason? Anyway, I was a head honcho.

But, I guess I started to tick people off then. I made a LoZ forum, because we had a rush of newbs only one-posting for game play help on Zelda (for ZC). So, I made the forum to solve this, and unclog up Quest Announcement/Discussion. However, when they newbs onslaught stopped, the forum became obsolete. Anyway, apparently I didn't have "permission" to do this...but I thought I was an admin. I don't really remember much of my "modding" stuff...while as a mod/admin...I just remember the last.

A guy named Beaverboy...he managed to evade all the bans I placed, so I just deleted his account, and he stopped. But somebody in the forums got mad at me, and started to flame me. So, I got pissed. I instituted a "zero tolerance" policy...and it really made people mad. My one friend at AGN offline...he got pissed at me...and well...I was going to ban him (because he was spamming), but I accidentally logged in my IP. I thought I could undo it...but BAM! TSA was banned! After a talk with War Lord (who I was told was gonna de-admin me anyway because I wasn't needed), I came back as a member.

I vowed not to be a staff again...it got so hectic....it wasn't worth it.

Oh yeah, during this time...I took over the 3rd Quest Contest...OH WHAT A STORY...

Nightmare and Dark Nation decided to hold a 3rd Quest contest. See, DN had recently been hired to work on ZC, and the updates were pumping out again. I then got back into ZC. I was a mod at this time. Anyway, I went gung ho on this thing, and well...in the end...the judges all folded! People wanted to know who won, and thus I decided to throw out my entry, and judge myself.

I spent hours, countless hours playing the entries. In the end, Alpha won. Probably sealed his fate as the Zelda Classic Guru (for the time...I really think since then...others have surpassed him). Glenn, who thought he should have won (AND WAS JUST A MEMBER THEN! I WAS HIGHER THAN HIM! w00t!) complained thoroughly. Well, whatever...he had too many violations, that's why he lossed.

On an egotistical note, I had 15 other people play my entry, and they all thought it should have won. Probably...would have led me on a different path...but after my stay here at AGN...it's not needed...I've been given enough attention as it is.

Anyway...I was tired out...now just a member again...I was ready to move on. Then GB became "famous". And well, I decided it was fun. Made a lot of enemies, made some friends. It was the start of my "descent" into AGN oblivion.

Then came the thing about Cyclone. I saw his sig...I read everything here. It had "The 11th Top Poster". BEFORE THEN, I never even NOTICED post count that much (I was a newbie...then became a mod/admin...didn't matter). I ventured into the "top poster" page, noticed I was ahead of him, and I was 11.

So I made a topic about it. Something clicked...we had a small competition for awhile...I ended out on top...and then everyone started to yell at me because it was "un-TSA like" and that I didn't need to be doing this. Even Glenn, now a Senior Mod, told me to back down or I might get in trouble.

First time I ever heard of "getting banned' for posting too much. Guess nobody had seen it before. Last fall, I went beserk, got like 5000 something posts.

But, it was just getting old. Then I got a new PC, and ZC was incompatible with my OS (Win2000Prof, no DOS). I was ready to move on. In Janauary, I announced I was leaving.

4 and a half weeks later, I returned because many people asked me to. Told me AGN was boring. Well, I decided to put on a show. I would give them one last thing...a person who would hit 10K...something only fabled about.

Well, I was on track...you all know this part of course, and then the prune occurred. I went from 8600 to 2900. After a bunch of bitching, SB found a way to fix it thanks to a suggestion from BJ, and I went back to 7900.

The Silent Assassin 28 Jun 2002, 18:33

Anyway, I technically hit 10K a month ago, but the count says otherwise. And I intend to stay at AGN till I get 10K. If nothing really interesting happens after that, I'm really going to move on. I have plans to revive ZHQ...but hey...that's the future. I'll tell you about some other time.

Dracula 28 Jun 2002, 18:37

You better revive ZHQ... That was my favorite website before it collapsed... Then cam AGN 😊 Little did I know how related the two were...

NerdWarrior 28 Jun 2002, 18:38

Oh yeah! I used to play SST and T-Robots, before I found out about AGN...that's what I knew I forgot...
Bad TSA...bad bad....

Menokh 28 Jun 2002, 19:30

It's not nearly as long a story as with some of you.

Spring 1995- I had a project to do in 4th grade. I went to the local library and asked for help, and was told they had a computer lab with access to the internet. I had no clue how to use it at the time, but the librarian taught me. It was Windows NT 3.1 with Netscape.

Mid Fall of 1995- I was now in 5th grade, and my teacher took us to the computer lab for the first time. These computers were different, and not all had internet access. They were old Mac IIIC's(OS 7 I think) with 14.4k modems on the connected ones. I can't remember the browser. Needless to say I used these for all of 5th grade, and used the ones in the local library for research sometimes.

Early Fall of 1996- I entered 6th grade and it was in a different building. The computers were the same kind of macs with the same OS, so I felt right at home on them. But in the school library they had some of those All in one Macs(the predecessor to the IMAC, incredible at the time). I stil used the NT computers at the library outside of school. I was in this building right thruogh 8th grade(which ended in June of 1999).

September 1999- I entered 9th grade, High School. There wasn't a Mac in sight, and I had no idea how to use these computers. They were Dell Optiplexes with Windows NT 4 and a high speed internet and network. There was actually a choice of browser on most of these, either IE of Netcape. Right through 9th grade and part of 10th these and the now dying computer lab at the library and LordMagus's computers were my access to the net.

August 2000- I finnaly got internet access at home! It was through my Dreamcast and Cape Internet. I couldn't print though.

December 2000- I was well into 10th grade. My Dad got my a new computer for Christmas. It was a Dell Optiplex GX100 with a 56k modem. I stopped using the Dreamcast for net access and started using Windows 98.

February 2001- we were supposed to get Verizon DSL. It wouldn't connect though. So we called and went through all sorts of hellish 'customer service'. By the time we gave up, it was May of 2001 and I had been using AOL for a month.

May 2001- we went with Cable through AT&T. It worked much faster than I expected. I signed up here near the end of that month. I had been into Zelda Classic since March of 2001, thanks to LordMagus. this was also the same month I began to experiment with Linux.

Today I use the same Dell computer, but with Windows ME and Mandrake Linux. I have the same cable modem, but now it is networked to my dad's comp as well.