[GLLUG] Free Juno/NetZero Accounts

[Michael Rudas]

Benjamin Cathey wrote:

> Chick Tower wrote (edited):

>> Subject: [GLLUG] Free Juno/NetZero Accounts

>> My current dial-up ISP, VTISP, has no phone support and offers tech
>> support only via e-mail.  Therefore, I wanted a secondary ISP that I
>> could use to contact VTISP in the case of not being able to use VTISP.
>> I had seen ads claiming that Juno and NetZero (essentially the same
>> company, but different brands) offered ten free hours a month, so I
>> visited Juno's website.

> WOW - Juno.  I remember that from when I was a pre-teen.  That and Prodigy and
> what was the other one - Compusomething or . . . Well it started with a C.
> I was busy using KA9Q to figure out how to get into MSU's internet via dialup
> (and use gopher!) and my dad signed us up for Prodigy or Juno - I know we
> used them both but don't remember the order.

Pre-Internet-for-all (1983-88), there were several nation-wide
"information services"-- the best-known was Compuserve-- but there was
also Genie (GE), Prodigy (IBM and Sears), and QuantumLink (now AOL).
QuantumLink was interesting, because they started out as a Commodore
64-only service-- it wasn't until later that they added IBM
PC-compatible support (then changed their name).  Juno came MUCH
later, circa 1996.

Of course there were MANY local BBSs, including about 20 local to me
in the Detroit area in the late '80s and early '90s.  Many supported
the FIDONet mail service-- later, there was a FIDO-to-Internet bridge
that could pass messages both ways.  This was long before the World
Wide Web, but Gopher and Archie were just becoming active.

I'm not sure what happened to Genie, but Compuserve lingers on as part
of AOL and remnants of Prodigy still exist within the AT&T network.
My first contact with emoticons was on a QuantumLink chat at the Atari
ST rollout at the summer CES in June 1985; that was where I also saw
my first CD-ROM and drive.

-- Mikey