Yeah... that was how I found out about most of that stuff back then... I was doing that with Windows 2K and an early cable modem (like 5Mbps/512Kbps level)
Of course, that was before the company that it was through blew up a section of downtown. I know all about living on forums and chatrooms (I was a fixture in the SpyWareInfo room and board until they closed)
Until I played one of the Carmen games from 1995 with Lynn Thigpen, and I found a note left behind from one of her agents, I didn't realize that Carmen pays her people too Lol