90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president • Hacker News Board

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#31

Post by xxpor » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #7

Hah yeah I remember my dad getting an e-mail like that back in like 1996. We were paying for an unlimited connection, and then they tried to tell us that if we wanted to be connected for more than 4 hours/day, we'd have to upgrade to a business account that was like 4x the price. My dad told them to pound sand and we switched ISPs. Pretty sure between 1995 and 1997, we switched dialup ISPs like 4 times because each t…

At least switching ISPs back then meant essentially signing up for an account and changing phone numbers. Now there's all this physical infra to deal with, yuck :)

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#32

Post by zooFox » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

Back in the day (early 2000s), my classmate had a plan that had a limited bandwidth. That also meant there was a dashboard that you could use to monitor the usage. My classmate clearly didn't like it, because his parents could see when he was playing RuneScape. I had unlimited plan and had no monitoring in place.

So I suggested him he could exceed the limit through downloading some [i]stuff[/i]. Knowing him, he went overboard and racked up a good bill. Think of someone's earnings of working for half a year, full time, at the minimal wage at the time.

ISP didn't budge but they eventually found a way to upgrade to an unlimited plan and drop the bill for going over. Two happy kids...

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#33

Post by ceautery » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC

This is the first time I've seen a WorldsAway reference outside of my friend group of former CompuServe employees.

I remember during that time first switching over to cable internet, and how my provider was adamant that you not run a web server, and their tech support would drop you like a hot potato if you mentioned that you used a router. Such a different world.

That was a fun article, thanks for posting!

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#34

Post by bdcravens » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

I did dial-up ISP support in the late 1990s. We did regularly end connections for those who were on long hours, but didn't stop them from reconnecting.

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#35

Post by INTPenis » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:16 PM UTC

I was a little bastard in the late 90s, a script kiddie who executed anything I could find. Ran very obnoxious port scans against everything online.

Eventually I got a letter from my ISP and it was a thick binder with "netiquette". How to behave online. And a letter saying basically "we see everything you're doing, cut it out". They probably had complaints on the abuse address of my home IP, since I was a total moron.

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#36

Post by gs17 » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:22 PM UTC

DanAtC wrote: post #17

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #7

Hah yeah I remember my dad getting an e-mail like that back in like 1996. We were paying for an unlimited connection, and then they tried to tell us that if we wanted to be connected for more than 4 hours/day, we'd have to upgrade to a business account that was like 4x the price. My dad told them to pound sand and we switched ISPs. Pretty sure between 1995 and 1997, we switched dialup ISPs like 4 times because each t…

Except now you're limited to 2 TB/mo with no alternatives.

I wish, here my only option is Xfinity with 1.2 TB per month.

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#37

Post by pluijzer » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:25 PM UTC

neom wrote: post #3

Before freeserv existed in the UK we didn't have a flat rate and a 800 number you could call into, you dialed a local number and paid by the minute, mum limited me to 2 hours a day and the she would take the RJ9 cable to enforce it. One afternoon at lunch break at school I went down to the local elections store and used 2 days worth of lunch money to buy a secret RJ9. After mum went to bed I'd sneak out my cable and…

I feel you. Already quite some years into the age of DSL I was hospitalized. I needed to stay there for a couple of weeks and had my parents bring my laptop. There was no WiFi or anything. Then I that my laptop had a dial-up socket and also say the telephone on my night table. I introduced the two and managed to get online for the rest of my stay. I used it sparsely because I knew it would cost money.

When fired from the hospital my mother was very happy I survived everything but she looked also very angry. I was very confused. Only found out later that the phone line was really at a premium and racked up, converted, a 2000 euro bill.

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#38

Post by brycewray » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:28 PM UTC

Another saver of long-ago emails here, going back to my initial Internet use in December, 1995, with what then was gte.net. My first modem achieved 14.4Kbps at best, but only if it wasn't raining; for some reason, speeds dropped dramatically when the outside phone lines got wet. Thought I was in tall cotton when I got a 33.6Kbps modem. Even then, it still took over two hours to download each new version of whichever browser I was using at the time, and I’d have to wait until fairly late on Sunday night so neither wife nor daughter would need to use the phone.

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#39

Post by bitwize » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:31 PM UTC

My wife was once on irc for so long her ISP contacted her and asked if she was trying to run a server.

Worked out well in the end I guess, I met her on irc 25 years ago.

As for me, well, when I was on dialup I had a brutally effective means to keep connection times short: an irate dad yelling "Get off the damn line! I need to use the phone!"

Re: 90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

#40

Post by locusofself » Fri, Jul 21, 2023, 4:34 PM UTC

INTPenis wrote: post #35

I was a little bastard in the late 90s, a script kiddie who executed anything I could find. Ran very obnoxious port scans against everything online. Eventually I got a letter from my ISP and it was a thick binder with "netiquette". How to behave online. And a letter saying basically "we see everything you're doing, cut it out". They probably had complaints on the abuse address of my home IP, since I was a total moron…

I was totally the same. Got several phone calls and had my ISP service terminated when I was 13-14. Portscanned and war-dialed everything. Went to defcon when I was 16.

I got my first job at a local ISP after the owner busted me for running "John the Ripper" password cracker against his system that I had a shell account on.

As completely careless and reckless as I was, this kind of interest in hacking was my saving graces in terms of employability, because I failed out of highschool and never went to college. I work at a FAANG, miraculously.