You got 4 out of 16!

Before the internet became an endless stream of social media, influencers, and algorithm-driven chaos, it was a lawless, glorious mess. If you were online in the late 90s or early 2000s, you experienced the internet at its weirdest, most creative, and most frustrating. You didn't just use the internet—you survived it.

This was an era when waiting for a page to load was an exercise in patience, and your biggest online battle wasn't against trolls—it was against your own family members trying to use the phone. The internet wasn't a polished, curated experience; it was raw, chaotic, and full of personality. Websites were built with passion (and questionable graphic design choices), chat rooms were the heart of social life, and digital piracy was so common that you probably caught more viruses from Limewire than your old family PC could handle.

If you remember playing Neopets, trying to guess someone's MSN status message mood, or hearing the unmistakable "uh-oh!" of an ICQ notification, this 90s internet quiz is for you.

The Internet Before Smartphones Took Over

Back then, there were no app push notifications, no endless doomscrolling, and no social media algorithms deciding what you should see. You had to actively search for entertainment. If you wanted to watch a funny video, you didn't scroll TikTok—you probably waited 45 minutes for a RealPlayer stream to buffer, only for it to crash halfway through.

Here's what made the early internet unforgettable:

• Dial-up Internet: The beep-boop-screech of a dial-up modem was the soundtrack of early online life. If someone picked up the landline, your internet session was over.
• Search Engines Before Google Ruled Everything: Yahoo, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves were your go-to sources, even if they led you to some very questionable websites.
• Webrings & Guestbooks: Finding niche websites was a scavenger hunt, and guestbooks were the original comment sections.
• Personalized Homepages: Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod hosted the wildest personal websites, full of glittery text, autoplay MIDI music, and "Under Construction" GIFs.
• MSN Messenger: Social life revolved around setting the perfect status message and dramatic nudge wars when someone ignored you.
• Music Piracy & MP3 Players: If you didn't get scammed downloading a "free" song that turned out to be a Bill Clinton speech, did you even use Napster?
• Winamp & RealPlayer: One really whipped the llama's ass. The other was a nightmare to use and even harder to uninstall.

10 Signs You Were an Early Internet Kid

Think you might have been part of the early internet generation? If you relate to most of these, you probably spent way too many hours staring at a bulky CRT monitor.

1. You had to warn family members before using the internet because it tied up the phone line.
2. You knew your ICQ UIN by heart, and still do now.
3. You spent hours playing online Flash games and TetriNET.
4. You customized your Neopets shop or MySpace page with custom HTML and Comic Sans font (and broke it many times).
5. You experienced the pain of downloading a song for an hour, only to find it was mislabeled.
6. Your parents thought chatting with strangers on mIRC would lead to disaster.
7. You clicked "Yes" on a sketchy download, immediately regretted it, and hoped your computer wouldn't explode.
8. You remember RealPlayer's buffering struggles and still don't know why people used it.
9. You remember the pure joy of finding a hidden Easter egg on a website (or a Konami Code trick).
10. You left messages on online "guestbooks" and navigated "webrings".

How to Take This 90s Internet Quiz

Think you remember the internet's golden age? Here's how it works:

1. Answer multiple-choice questions. Each question has one correct answer and three wrong ones (some of which might sound right just to mess with you).
2. Get instant feedback. Every time you answer, you'll see an explanation that gives you more context or a fun fact about that piece of internet history.
3. Rack up points. The more you get right, the higher your score.
4. Compete with others. If you're feeling competitive, climb our leaderboards by finishing the most quizzes and earning points.

So, do you have what it takes to call yourself a true 90s/2000s internet kid? Or have you been spoiled by fast Wi-Fi and streaming services that don't buffer every five seconds? There's only one way to find out—start the 90s internet quiz!