who was the first SA isp?

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shadow_man

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Someone is trying to tell me iafrica, I doubt that as I remember icon, netactive etc around the same time. Anyone have a timeline of the early isps?
 
There were a couple of early commercial ISPs which started offering SLIP connections including NIS (Network Information Services/nis.za) and Compustat (which later became Internet Africa if memory serves me correctly)
 
Got Telkom for the (analog) line in 1992, with WOL as the ISP.
Speed was in the region of 32kbps.
 
All the universities in South Africa were the first ISP's, or at least they were the first entities in South Africa to have the internet as we know it.
 
crackersa said:
even before the military?
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The military in the USA created the internet with DARPA, but I don't think the military in South Africa ever had anything to do with the internet. The apartheid government would have been too paranoid to use it.
 
Must've been Telkom.

Copy & paste:
The first South African IP address was granted to Rhodes University in 1988.[citation needed] By November 1991, South African universities were connected through UNINET to the internet. Commercial internet access for businesses and private use began in late 1993. The African National Congress, the ruling party in the Parliament, launched its website, anc.org.za, in 1997, making it one of the first African political organizations to establish a presence on the World Wide Web.[1]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_South_Africa#History_of_the_internet_in_South_Africa
 
My first exposure to the commercial Internet in SA was when 3 guys straight out of Wits rented a small 2 room office in the building next to us. They had a stack US Robotics modems on the one desk and a Cisco 2500 router (with a 64Kbps Diginet link overseas) on another.

They called themselves The Internet Solution, and the rest is history. Not sure of the exact dates, but to my recollection they per-dated Telkom's SAIX by 6-12 months.
 
I was subscriber 0013 to Internet Africa in 1993. It was done with MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and telnet and a 1200 baud modem. From 1988 to about 1995 I ran a BBS and ended up having a 14400 modem and a gigantic 155mb hard disc
 
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I recall a Service/company called Uninet. They provided some form of access to a *nix server.

The CSIR provided Compuserve - cost an arm and a leg.

"Proper" internet came from Icon/IS (Ronnie & Co), and also one of the Gerada brothers, he had a whole bunch of routers here in Northcliff somewhere. This later became MWeb.

First internet connection had to be set up Windows 3.11 (the so called network version) using SLIP - what a nightmare.

Before that, there was also the BBS's. They basically provided access to Public domain software. Theses ran on 300 kbps, later 1200, 2400, and then 56000. ISDN was also an option.
Famous names here were "The Catalyst" with servers in CT (Mark), PE(Henk) and JHB (Tjaart - ;<)) . There were a whole bunch of them - can't recall them all.

Later with the Fido network, one was able to send emails to people in other parts of the world. I think this was the first 'public' link to internet email.

Memory lane.......
 
chrisc4290 said:
I was subscriber 0013 to Internet Africa in 1993. It was done with MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and telnet and a 1200 baud modem. From 1988 to about 1995 I ran a BBS and ended up having a 14400 modem and a gigantic 155mb hard disc
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Which one was it? Also ran one for a few years back then. Perhaps pm me the reply, our names and numbers are now out there.
 
Aqua_lung said:
Nostalgia.. :love:
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We can always go back :p

Here is the ISPA.org.za webpage from '96 with main members:

http://web.archive.org/web/19961222090717/http://www.ispa.org.za/

The Internet Solution (IS), UUNet Internet Africa, Global One, PIX, Global Internet Access(GIA), LeClub Internet Access (LIA), Interlink, Planet Pinnacle and GEM Internet Company

Aah, I must have started with PIX because my email back then was @pixie.co.za

Oh who can forget their first time :D

Edit: Check the banner and petition! :D :D Some things never change lol
 
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