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Stroll down memory lane with this 1996 instructional video on How to Internet

 3 years ago
source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/12/stroll-down-memory-lane-with-this-1996-instruction-video-on-how-to-internet/
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How far we've come —

Stroll down memory lane with this 1996 instructional video on How to Internet

Everything You Need to Know About... Introduction to the Internet is on the Internet Archive.

Jennifer Ouellette - 12/14/2020, 5:54 AM

  • The log-in screen for the much-reviled America Online (AOL).
  • Back in the days of dialup, actually "connecting to America Online" was Step 5 in the login process.
  • Welcome to a graphical eyesore.
  • You've got mail! That catchphrase (voiced by Elwood Edwards in the US) spawned a 1998 romantic comedy.
  • AOL added Usenet to its features in 1993, leading to the "Eternal September." But AOL hid "alt.aol-sucks" from its standard list of newsgroups.
  • Remember the Gopher protocol? It is still used by some enthusiasts.
  • By 1996, AOL had added Web Crawler to its toolkit.
  • NASA seems like an excellent site to visit in this demo.
  • Add NASA to your "favorite places"!
  • Accessing Microsoft files via FTP.
  • Always a good idea to scan for viruses before transmitting files.
  • A question for the ages.

The Internet Archive's extensive library is a veritable treasure trove of digital content, including media from now-defunct formats like VHS, with the goal of preserving our cultural heritage. Case in point: a 1996 video, Everything You Need to Know About... Introduction to the Internet (listed as 95021 in what one assumes is a series), was recently uploaded to the archive.

Even the minimal technical requirements to log on convey a sense of just how far we've come since then in terms of sheer computing power. Viewers needed a Macintosh or IBM (or IBM compatible) personal computer loaded with either Windows 3.11 or Windows 95; a modem capable of 14.4 transmission or higher; "at least" 8MB of RAM; and a minimum 500MB hard drive. (For comparison, the 2020 MacBook Pros come with 16GB, 32GB, or  64GB of onboard memory, and 1TB of hard drive storage, configurable to 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB.)

It's probably a good thing that we don't get any period sound effects, because the classic sound of a dialup modem connecting—ever so slowly—would no doubt evoke painful memories for those times one's connection kept dropping and one had to reconnect over and over again, just to send a few measly emails. Dialup access is still used in particularly rural or remote areas where broadband hasn't yet been installed, but it's approaching extinction: a 2013 Pew Survey found that just 3 percent of US adults still relied on dialup at that point.

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Promising to walk the viewer through this mysterious world of the Internet without resorting to technobabble, the video focuses on the big three service providers at the time: CompuServe, Prodigy, and the much-reviled America Online (AOL). Viewers are introduced to the various welcome screens within each service, followed by a walk-through of the login process and a tour of the primary tools available: most notably, electronic mail, newsgroups/Usenet, Web browsing, bookmarking features, chat features, and transmitting files via FTP.

Granted, it's not the most scintillating discussion, but despite the stilted narration and crude, grainy visuals, Everything You Need to Know About... Introduction to the Internet captures some key cultural elements of the early days of broad public use of the Internet. (I admit to feeling a twinge of nostalgia during the Usenet demos: I made several good friends for life in the 1990s via rec.martial-arts.) You can watch the full 30-minute video here, should you be so inclined.

  • Login screen for Prodigy, one of the other Big Three Internet providers in the 1990s.
  • Logging in for the first time did not always go smoothly.
  • Prodigy prided itself on its claim of being the first to use a graphical user interface, but this is not the most visually appealing welcome screen.
  • Basic email formatting hasn't changed all that much in essence.
  • Choose your Usenet newsgroup!
  • A parental control feature was meant to protect kids from all the "adult content."
  • Browsing the "W3" in Prodigy.
  • "Hot Lists" was Prodigy's version of bookmarking favorite sites.
  • The granddaddy of them all: CompuServe dominated the field in the 1980s and stayed dominant in the 1990s.
  • Charles A. Pudak would like to log in.
  • Welcome to CompuServe's Web Central.
  • Charles has mail!
  • Easy access to Usenet groups
  • You could still select NCSA Mosaic as your Web browser in 1996 (it was discontinued in 1997).
  • A menu of popular FTP sites to make things more user-friendly.

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