We were fortunate enough to have unlimited hours, but living remotely enough to not get broadband until ~2010. Fond memories of downloading Linux Isos and the like from 10pm-7am over the course of weeks/months trying not to tie up the phone line too much.
Getting access to a university's connection was a revelation and many a CDs were burnt of random stuff whilst being amazed that a month long endeavour could be done in minutes
At some point, Bell Canada had a $5/month service called "Internet Call Display", so you had an app that popped up on your computer when there was an incoming call and who it was. You could also set it to auto-disconnect for any in-coming call.
With that, I started logging many hundreds of hours a month on dialup...
I did high school work experience at a university and they were kind enough to give me a Red Hat Linux CD to install at home along with a full printed manual for it. There began the awaking to a whole new world beyond DOS and Windows that I never would have had on dial up.
Getting access to a university's connection was a revelation and many a CDs were burnt of random stuff whilst being amazed that a month long endeavour could be done in minutes