Site Info

Online Connection is my contribution to the Internet community. Its purpose is to compare the major commercial online services and national Internet service providers.

History

Online Connection didn't appear out of nowhere and on the web over night. It was first a text-only BBS posting on MSN during August 1995. I was beta testing MSN for free along with a preview copy of Windows 95. A few weeks before it went public, MSN released information on what the pricing plans would be. Many beta testers seemed to be outraged that cheaper plans were not available.

I couldn't understand why these people could be so angry. After I did all the math and created a chart comparing the other three online services, MSN was clearly the most affordable one.

I gathered my information and began posting "MSN Pricing Information" which was later named "Online Service Pricing Info" to the MSN Members BBS. People began to realize that MSN was a very affordable service and that it was a great deal to have had the opportunity to test the service for free over the summer.

After getting a heavy dose of online use over the summer through the free MSN, I was addicted. At the beginning of September, I said good bye to my America Online account and hello to a local ISP. Getting 40 hours a month for $20 bucks was a steal compared to AOL. I still kept MSN around, though, because I liked the improvements it was implementing.

I continued to post "Online Service Pricing Info" to the MSN Members BBS and then to the alt.online-service.* newsgroups. With my new ISP account I was on the Web everyday and soon wondered if I could be a part of it. For a few weeks I learned everything I could about HTML. Soon I felt that the pages I made were ready to go public and on October 10, 1995 "Online Service Pricing Info" made its debut on the Web.

It didn't take long for the web page to be noticed. After a few months, national media had recognized "Online Service Pricing Info" and the hits were pouring in. I was pretty flattered that a 16-year-old was being recognized by The Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times, NetGuide, and Cnet among others.

"Online Service Pricing Info" was a good page, but the title just didn't fit any more. I had added comparisons of national ISPs as well as links to download the mentioned services' access software. So "Online Service Pricing Info" was renamed Jay Barker's Online Connection [I had to get my name in there somewhere ;-)] to better describe the continually growing web site and to give its creator a little credit.

In June of 1996, advertising made its first appearance at Online Connection. This action was taken in order to preserve Online Connection as a free resource for all Internet users.

During the summer of 1996, Online Connection grew with the addition of new sections on the Online Services and National ISPs pages. The two pages grew so big that they were split into multiple pages with what was formerly a section on each new page.

In September 1996, I bought a domain, Barkers.org, and moved Online Connection to its new home on the Internet. Since domain names can be moved to different hosts without too much difficulty, Online Connection will stay permanently at this URL: http://www.barkers.org/online/

Online Connection celebrated its first anniversary in October 1996. It has grown from one page to over 25 pages in just a year.

In September 1997, Online Connection expanded to cover 13 different services instead of only 8. The design was updated to include frames, style sheets, and Dynamic HTML to enhance the appearance and navigation of the site.

In August 1998, Online Connection consisted of 41 pages covering 12 national ISPs and online services.

In April 2000, frames were removed from the site. The design of the site uses Server-Side Includes to put common elements on each page. Online Connection consisted of 37 pages covering 8 national ISPs and online services. The decrease in services was due to mergers and acquisitions.

Author

Online Connection was created by and is fully maintained by Jay Barker.

Since August 1995, I have used a local Internet provider that charges $20 per month. I have also used America Online, CompuServe, and the Microsoft Network during the past few years.