Heh, I noticed that guy, too - made me look up my earliest Usenet post, July 4, 1994, when I was 15 years old. I had other Usenet, Fido, and BBS identities before that, but I can't remember what they were.

So yeah, in 1994, a 15 year old and his 12 year old brother were definitely able to figure out their way onto the "Live Internet" (to differentiate from dialup relay like Fido or UUCP)

Then came the convincing of the parents to get a dedicated line so we could leave our SLIP connection up 24/7 so that others could check our finger status, etc....