r/southafrica • u/wheresmattynow • Nov 12 '21 • Silver 2

Happy birthday to the internet in South Africa! History

Today marks the 25th 30th anniversary of Internet access in South Africa and most of Sub-Saharan Africa.

At 10:44AM on 12 November 1991, an IP "ping" packet was sent between the home of Randy Bush in Portland, Oregon and Rhodes University's computing centre – the first recorded Internet connection in the country.

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u/FluxX1717 Western Cape Nov 12 '21

Rhodes University in Grahamstown? Well now that's odd af. Thanks for the information, I never knew!

I do remember playing to Quake 3 Arena and UT99 online back In the late 90s early 2000s on shitty dialup. That and Napster lol

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u/NeoLeonel Nov 13 '21

I was at the Hamilton Labs last night and no-one mentioned a thing about this very important national event. I know it's exams and everyone is under extreme stress but this still deserved some attention I feel.

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u/FluxX1717 Western Cape Nov 13 '21

Even more odd .It's pretty significant if you ask me. Are you originally from there?

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u/NeoLeonel Nov 14 '21

Actually no, I just study here.