Before the internet was wide open, you had online services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and a bunch of local ISPs holding it down in the early-to-mid ‘90s. CompuServe was the OG—launched in the late ’70s, but by the ‘90s, it had forums, email, news, and even early internet access. Prodigy showed up in ‘88 with a slicker interface and tried to mix content with interactivity—stock quotes, weather, even online shopping. Both had their own walled gardens, kind of like training wheels for the internet. Around the same time, local ISPs started popping up everywhere, offering straight-up internet access, no fluff—just a TCP/IP stack, a dial-up number, and your Netscape browser. By the late ‘90s, these services either faded or got absorbed as the open web and broadband took over. But for anyone logging in at 14.4 kbps, this was the real beginning.