My wife bought our 1st computer Dec 23,1991, and it was bought to " "talk" to other computers. As a real estate agent living 20 minutes from her office,it was bought so she could link to the Cincinnati [Real Estate Broker's] Multiple Listings Service computer 25-30 miles away, and to link to similar computers. And that 1st computer came with a free month of Prodigy software installed [similar to today's A.O.L.]. And it came with Windows 3.0 which meant it came with a small communications program called 'Terminal" installed. That 1st month, about all I could do was play 'Solitare" and explore "Prodigy" and just before the month was up,I found the section of Prodigy devoted to 'party-line" on-line genealogy queries. And answered a Justice querie in Jan,1992, which answer was seen,and replied to by 2 that I talk to today. Anyway, your own computer has a communications program as part of Windows now called "Hyper-terminal." "START" > "PROGRAMS" > "ACCESORIES" > "HYPER-TERMINAL' You can adjust 'HYPER-TERMINAL" so that it can dial, and then connect [handshake] with another computer, over Ma Bell's phone line. However,if that other computer is outside the area you normally make toll free calls ,you will pay MaBell toll fees. Even so, at off hours for Ma Bell tolls, we often called,quickly, long distance for short periods. A number I've called often over the years from my Hyper-Terminal was the Cincinnati Library's computer network. 1-513-369-3200 with baud rate set at 9600 and 8,no,1 as other settings. Since I'm local, it was 369-3200 or to turn off 'call waiting" *703693200 I'm sure the library has a web page today. Anyway,on it's Cincinnati and it's N Ky newspaper abstracts databases, one can check for the date of an obit, and sometimes abstracts of articles on a person,or event. You can also see if the library has a certain book from your own computer. But the Cincinnati lbrary has limited phone lines and modems attached to it's computer. At times,they are all busy. There was a network linking the big colleges and corporations, an that became,with modifications, the Internet. There was a 2nd national network called 'FIDONET' linking people's personal computers. Cruder,and slower,Fidonet reduced Ma Bell tolls by having 1 personal computer in each Ma Bell phone area acting as 'Hub" to collect messages from the other local computers,and once a day place a long distace call passing them on. It might take several days for the 'echo" messages to cross the country. Slow,but cheap. 3rd were personal computer bullition board programs. My own old computer was set up, nights,to recieve calls from genealogists-mostly Greater Cincinnati,-who could read and research the genealogy on my computer,or download same, or up-load data to me. A 4am lightning strike fried that computer. I must walk my Great Dane. But 1st, I PAID A SMALL fee to another Bullition board in e Cincinnati,that had many cd-rom players and cd-roms available for downloading. And who provided my 1st Fidonet,and then Internet link. Must go.