Formed in 1969, CompuServe went through many corporation transitions, involving companies and people as diverse as H&R Block, Radio Shack, the Associated Press and Mark Cuban.
Created originally with PDP-8s and PDP-15s as front-end routers as a means of dial-up interconnection for businesses, they started renting off-hours access to hobbyists and stuff sort of just grew from there.
Great write-up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe
I used TapCI$ to minimize dial-up time, reading and responding offline and connecting only long enough to send and receive. 76400,2503 was the number I used during the FoxForum heyday, but I had used, and lost, a three-digit number in the way-back-when.
I seem to remember that dial-up access was through one of several different networks. Some were modem banks in the back warehouse-storage areas in Sears Roebuck stores.
On Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 10:55 PM Kurt @ Gmail kurthwendt@gmail.com wrote:
Was that REALLY the cost for CompuServe? Yikes!
I was there at the beginning - I did CompuServe & Prodigy and even dabbled in AOL Online briefly - which, years later - all non-computer literate people used AOL - and I knew to stay away. I did a little bit of the Early BBS systems. And, I was doing online banking with Chemical bank via modem & later as Chase Online via true internet (when they bought over Chemical & MannyHanny) - so, I was doing online banking before most common folks.
Yeah - the days of Modems - what FUN!!!
Funny side story. Its the reason when I was married - that my wife (now Ex) - INSISTED I get my own phone line - because I was doing the modem stuff - and people could not call in!
:-)
Fun times indeed...
-K
On 4/23/2022 1:03 PM, Ted Roche wrote:
Who's ever going to need more than 256 Kbps?
Puts my .42bis modem all to shame.
And, at $22.95/hour for CompuServe, this will be a real time saver!
On Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 11:09 AM Paul Newton paul.newton.hudl@gmail.com wrote:
From an ISP in Kenya ca. 2005
What are the cost implications?
They are so minimal, you won't believe it! For as little as US$ 200 per month you can get yourself a leased line of 64Kbps uplink and 256Kbps downlink.
Paul Newton
[excessive quoting removed by server]