I'm going to say '96, I know it was on a 486/50 with a 33.6Kb/s modem (at the time, the fastest available) running Win95.

I didn't really use it for much until around '98 though, when I discovered hardware forums and yahoo chat.

Quote from: matt5cott on March 27, 2011, 23:06:44 PM
Late 90s I think, diamond supraexpress 56k, was using freenetname I think it was, they offered 0800 dialup, would take sometimes 30/40 times to connect, rarely even more !

I remember when I started working I was using NTLs dialup and cranked a £100 internet phonebill   

Flipped between that and calling my mate up the roads house on diamond cable (then NTL, then Virgin Media) as it was free, we had 2 machines at mine, used to dial up his and play 3 player quake

My experience is very similar, I basically wanted net access to play Quake online, I think I started with a 28.8kbps on Freeserve (set connection retries to 99 and wait between retries to the lowest it would go 3 seconds or something )

I do remember before using Freeserve I was on some paid for dialup, I remember at least one £150 bill. Freeserve was amazing for the time really despite the trouble connecting because it was so oversubscribed.

Around 2000 I think I switched to Blueyonder cable, which was wonderful and actually probably the best ISP experience I've had thus far. Super low pings for Counterstrike gaming!

I think my first foray on the internet 'proper' was a 28.8kbps modem on AOL 3.0 back in 1995. I used to spend hours playing Multiplayer Battletech and Air Warrior on the Kesmai gaming service. The phone bills were never amusing, it was fantastic when they brought out the 0800 number to dial in on for a monthly fee a few years later. Despite how slow it all seems now it was still a lovely upgrade from browsing peoples BBS' on a 2400 baud modem.

I had an X-tream account when they started doing 0800 evenings. I remember sitting with my finger on the dial button waiting for the allotted time to tick over because if you didn't get dialled up within the first 2-5 minutes you wouldn't get in.

I also had a RedHotAnt account, I think they were the first to do 0800 access for a subscription, or at least one of the first. They went bang spectacularly about 18 months after they started out, a lot of people lost money but because I'd got in early I was only paying £20 a year so I still got a good deal.

Quote from: Mongoose on March 28, 2011, 11:47:31 AM
I had an X-tream account when they started doing 0800 evenings.

YES! X-TREAM! those guys are the 0800 ones I was thinking of, it kicked you off after 2 hours, I remember once I got connected and it didn't kick me off, left it on for 2 days 

Quote from: matt5cott on March 28, 2011, 12:37:08 PM

Quote from: Mongoose on March 28, 2011, 11:47:31 AM
I had an X-tream account when they started doing 0800 evenings.

YES! X-TREAM! those guys are the 0800 ones I was thinking of, it kicked you off after 2 hours, I remember once I got connected and it didn't kick me off, left it on for 2 days 

X-Tream i also used them

Quote from: Bacon on March 28, 2011, 12:54:40 PM

Quote from: matt5cott on March 28, 2011, 12:37:08 PM

Quote from: Mongoose on March 28, 2011, 11:47:31 AM
I had an X-tream account when they started doing 0800 evenings.

YES! X-TREAM! those guys are the 0800 ones I was thinking of, it kicked you off after 2 hours, I remember once I got connected and it didn't kick me off, left it on for 2 days 

X-Tream i also used them

Me too, by that time I was running that on ISDN, if I didn't mind cutting off the phone, I could get dual line ISDN and get a whopping 128k! Now that was quick

circa 1998 I did work experience at a local ISP. I remember being stunned at the raw speed available when accessing the ISP's leased line directly, I saw one of the engineers downloading 5 files at once, all at 30KB/s.

I think I got on in about 1998 or 1999 but cant remember what I used it for tbh, messing around on chat rooms and playing c&c red alert online probably.

Was using a 56k modem in a Cyrix DX66 system that I blew up trying to figure out how to overclock it after reading something on Tomshardware.
After that I got a Packard Bell celeron700Mhz system which is still going 

I cant remember who our first ISP was but I remember it was 1p/min after 7pm after that we went onto Freeserve off peak that was free after 7pm.

I remember buying a 128k isdn modem from ocuk thinking I could just plug it in and it would work with my phone line. 

edit: remembered my first ISP was LineOne.

I started on a 386 on a US Robotics 14.4 modem, which was behind the times. 
Everyone else was on 486's with 36.6's.
My dad then got BT Home Highway in early 1999.  I remember one ridiculous phone bill once when they went away and I realised you could bond the lines.

For two days straight I was cooking on Mountain Dew and Quake.  48 hours worth of double phonebills.

I remember the good old days of IRC, ICQ and Napster