Today, most people access content on the Internet through graphical tools such as Internet Explorer, Outlook and various instant messagers. In 1993, GUI based Internet programs like Eudora (email), Fetch (FTP) and Ircle (IRC) existed for the Macintosh. However, dialed into a remote Unix server at a (now) glacially slow 2400 bps from a Windows 3.1 machine I didn't have access to such tools. What I did have was a black and white Unix console through which I could run various command line tools.

Connection to the Cairo account was through the Windows Terminal program; basic, black and white, but mostly functional.

My introduction to the online world came with the purchase of my first modem in 1993. I was in my second year of a science degree at the Australian National University in Canberra and had recently bought a new desktop computer, a 386SX33 PC. Around me academics and fellow students were getting student email addresses and using the same protocols as the Internet to connect and use the Unix systems. Wanting to be part of the action and log into the university from home I resolved to buy a modem.

I spent Easter with my Uncle and Aunt in Sydney, searching the classifieds for the cheapest deal on a modem. Eventually I found a 2400 baud modem on offer for $270 and headed off to West Ryde to take a look. The Maxi-M 2400 bps (9600bps fax) was not Austel approved (naughty me!), but it was much cheaper then the competition. I parted with the cash and brought it back to Canberra.

It is sometimes difficult to remember life without access to the Internet. In fact, it's now getting difficult even envisage the days of dialup connections, popular though they still are for most users. For over two-thirds of my life access to information meant hunting through the books on my bookshelf if I was lucky, but more likely waiting for our next trip to the library or hunting down the telephone number or mailing address of someone who might know the answer to a question. While there is still much information that is not publically available on the Internet, most online searches will at least give out the basic facts and provide pointers to further details.

We may not have been able to instantly satisfy our curiousity about the cast of a movie just watched or chat to strangers across the world, but we could certainly dream about it. Books such as David Brin's Earth and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game described global networks with newsgroups and email. When I first read those books I was stuck out in a rural area where intelligent discourse just wasn't part of life and I desperately wanted access to such tools. Perhaps the solution would have been bulletin boards (BBS's). However, nobody I knew even owned a modem, let alone frequented such places.

It is difficult for me to believe that I have been online for ten years now. The Internet itself has existed in one form or another for around 30 years, so I am not claiming any sort of records here. However, in the time that I have been online I have witnessed the Internet move away from the domain of education and research institutions into the commercial and public sphere. I have turned an interest that was once an obsession into a career. Finally I have found true love online.

Other pages exist to describe the technical history of the Internet. Instead, I will talk about 10 years of Internet history from a user's perspective and relate it's impact on my life.