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If anyone out there is like me, you spend your ENTIRE life in a Gmail web page. Today my life has come to an end. I tried to access my mail at my home office. For some stupid reason the Internet has been flakey for a while now - no luck. I power cycle my Netgear router and cable modem - still no luck. What the hell. I'm about to access my web server and other sites ... but no Gmail?? What in god's name is going on? It's hard to believe but as I type this its true - Gmail is down. May god have mercy on all of us and pray that the great Google technicians get it back up and running quickly. Until then I guess I'll have to find something else to do with my life.

America Online (AOL) 
 
In 1992 America Online was released for Windows 3.1 (DOS version was released a year prior). Myself and millions of other people all over the world received a AOL CD in the mail, I was blown away. Prodigy was great but AOL had more, not only did they have their own network (much like Prodigy) but it got your on the REAL Internet. Meaning once online you could use Internet Explorer and browse the new World Wide Web, play Quake, chat using irc. The possibilities literally were endless. AOL's success was enormus, at one point having 30 million subscribers world wide. At first they actually charged access by the hour, I remember getting an angry phone call from my Dad after I ran up a $150 AOL bill.  
 
The chat rooms were widely popular, I remember reading about how people formed real relationships and marriages through AOL chat rooms. I even remember a woman wanting to sue AOL because she was disconnected from a chat room while talking to a guy she was in love with, crazy!  
 
AOHELL 
 
With the rise of AOL along came the rise of AOHELL. AOHELL was released in 1994 by a hacker that calls himself 'DaChronic'. Something happened between AOL and DaChronic, evadently AOL would close his 'Hacker' chat rooms but not close offensive sexual chat rooms. DaChronic was so upset that he made this program to basically cause problems for AOL.  
 
AOHELL Features:

• Fake account creator 
  Would auto fill out their account creator with fake information (name, address, credit card info, etc). Basically users could use this fake account for a limited amount of time before AOL caught on and shut it off.
• AOL for Free 
  When AOL charged hourly fees they had some portions of AOL that actually did not cost any money, this would include areas where you would manage your account, help centers, etc. AOHELL would trick the software into letting you into these areas and then let you into chat rooms. Unforatuntely this doesn't result in you not being billed as I found out first hand :(
• IM / Email Bombs 
  Basically flooding an inbox or users IM box with junk until their 28.8bps connection would explode.

Anyway, you can imagine the havoc caused by this program and the copycats that soon followed. Anyone else remember this stuff? Coming up next a ISP that I left out, Imagination. This was a neat one that today there is nothing close. 

This is really more of a nostalgic post of remembering the older, first Internet Service Providers (ISPs). I'll but turning 28 this year, so I'm exactly old enough to have experienced computers both pre and post Internet. Back then things were very different than today. I was very fornunate to have a family that got me my first computer when I first eight. We'll get into all details of old computers another day, for now let us discus the Internet.

Well back then there was no Windows, I know thats crazy to think of a world with no Windows. I was using a IBM with MS-DOS and my family had just suscribed to Prodigy Online.

Prodigy Online

Prodigy Online was actually the second internet service provider and made its debut in 1991. CompuServe was the first provider and made their appearance in 1979, however it was much different and not directed torwards home users (no graphical interface). Of course this would be the begining of me using my Dad's phone line and the loud screaching modem noises. Thinking back Prodigy was a lot like AOL today, of course there was no such thing as 'web pages', but the software allowed you to access different parts of the Prodigy network, including forums (where I traded comic books online) and even games. I remember a very basic game where you were in some sort of a labrinyth and you had to try and get out. Each command would present a choice and the wrong choice would of course mean death. Prodigy also had weather, news, other boring features a kid would not be interested in. Well Prodigy was great no doubt about that, but times were changing it was almost 1994 and I was almost 14 and then came something no one was ready for, the World Wide Web.

Prodigy was too late on this front and before you know it Windows 3.1 was out and a rival competitor came along and crushed my beloved Prodigy, we all know them and now I hate them but it was 1994 then and welcome America Online.

To be continued? Yes I will continue.