In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

I started with CompuServe (an original pre-AOL account)

Likewise, and they are still around in some form: http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/menu/about... However, "The newest version of CompuServe, CompuServe 7.0" referred to on that page was launched in 2001!

Lol. From memory my account number was 100127,2643. I remember the excitement when they finally allowed us to pick a name for email address. I am not a number!

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Same here - my own dial-up connection to the internet was in '94, using Demon.

BT must have made a fortune from the dial-up call revenue in those days, I heard of people who spent hundreds on their phone bill back then just to connect to the internet.

I had a company phone line at home. For about a year I would dial into the New York CIS node because they had 19200 modems when the UK was only 9600. Ironically we were the first to get the next upgrade though.

In reply to a post by caley:

Best I ever achieved in conventional memory was using only 9k of the allotted 640k.

4DOS + QEMM helped me beat that. I seem to recall that 4DOS could move everything except 400 bytes into upper memory and swap bits of itself in and out.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Lol. From memory my account number was 100127,2643.

100272,3403. I rarely forget numbers. (or was it 3407??? )

Edited by kasg (Fri 29-Aug-14 16:30:38)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

4DOS + QEMM helped me beat that. I seem to recall that 4DOS could move everything except 400 bytes into upper memory and swap bits of itself in and out.

4DOS - fantastic product, one of the relatively few pieces of shareware I chose to pay for. Take Command appears to be its successor - http://jpsoft.com/.

Corrected for URL running into a full stop!

In reply to a post by kasg:

Likewise, and they are still around in some form: http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/menu/about... .

Sounds like CompuServe 7.0 is similar to AOL Desktop. Same walled-garden?

I remember QEMM. Didn't it stand for Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager or something like that? Never used it myself but still managed to get a magic 9k of conventional memory. Wished I given it a try though. How on earth did QEMM manage to load everything except 400 bytes into upper memory? That was the real magic I think.

In reply to a post by caley:

How on earth did QEMM manage to load everything except 400 bytes into upper memory? That was the real magic I think.

Wasn't it 0x400, ie 400 hex?

Iirc, the first kilobyte was used for DOS's vector tables and assorted buffers which you played with very much at your own risk

Edited by billford (Fri 29-Aug-14 17:26:37)

In reply to a post by caley:

I remember QEMM. Didn't it stand for Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager or something like that? Never used it myself but still managed to get a magic 9k of conventional memory. Wished I given it a try though. How on earth did QEMM manage to load everything except 400 bytes into upper memory? That was the real magic I think.

It wasn't QEMM doing that - it was 4DOS. That was a command.com replacement and one of its tricks was to free up a chunk of lower memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4DOS

Though it appears from here ( https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.msdo... ) that it was 4k, not 400 bytes. Still beats you though

Edit: Ooooh, I read a few replies down and someone is claiming 256 bytes if you relocated 4DOS into UMBs.

Edited by Andrue (Fri 29-Aug-14 18:14:13)

Wow how time goes by !
I remember having to pull plug on phone line to plug modem in generally peeing off rest of family.
DACS line too which gave problems when upgrading to "broadband" at half a meg.
After a year got 1meg and double the speed was fantastic.
Now on fibre 52/13 and still complaining !
edit...been with bt for ever it seems.

Edited by deleted (Fri 29-Aug-14 19:21:32)