[RKDinOKC]

Yep, was on Compuerve, AOL, eWorld, all the local BBSs and several other BBSs.

Ran into a guy on compuserve in the CB or chat rooms. Turned out he worked at the same place I did AND was a 3rd shift machinist like I was. Were friends until he passed a few years ago.

The most popular local BBSs were Milliways and N.O.R.A.D. Norad was the Oklahoma University BBS. Miliways was a Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy themed BBS that was the general chat area for the local Apple software collectors.

My first modem was a 300 baud Apple modem. To use it you had to open a terminal program and type commands to the modem. AT got the attention of the modem, D was dial, T was tone, P was pulse, etc. On the Apple modem if yo accidentally typed ET instead of AT it returned back "Phone Home."

AOL was the first service to have it's own interface for the modem commands and icons for all the various areas of the service.

Also had a program called Action Express. It let me automate doing all the on-line stuff. It would dial BBSs thru the night. When it connected to one it would upload any replies I had to messages, and download any new messages. I could then read and make my replies at my leisure then set it off going again. The BBSs were almost always busy.

My modem upgrade was a 9600 baud. Was interesting. Listing basic programs on the Apple II listed the text at 9600 buad. Ended up being able to read at 9600 buad.

300 baud is 0.0003 Mbps. 50 mbps internet today is 50,000,000 baud. 166,666 times faster than 300 baud.