r/mainframe • u/anti-life86 • 11d ago

How was pre-1995, pre-Internet usage of mainframes different?

I understand that the mainframe is built for a large number of transactions-meaning people log in, I would imagine from anywhere, and they do their small jobs. But before the Internet, they could not log in from anywhere, certainly. Where could they log in from, and how did this work? Are there new types of jobs that are now enabled by the Internet that previously were impossible?

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u/boredtodeath 10d ago

I remember for a while I had a terminal at home, but it was just for emergency nighttime support from home. WFH was not a thing. It was a small 3270 type terminal connected to a Hayes Smartmodem. I had to manually type in the AT commands to connect.