I'll have to say, needing to deliberately "call" in for the internet was kind of nice vs today when just about everything around you is connected doing almost whatever it pleases all the time.
Although it sucked so much if you were downloading something like a large (for the time) game and had call waiting or someone picked up a phone in another part of the house. 3 hours down the drain.
Definitely, but there was a time before them. A dark and evil time when your world could be destroyed by a guy calling to sell gutter cleaning services.
I had one, I forget its name, but it was a firewall AND download manager. Bizarre combo if you ask me but it was pretty cool. Its logo was a lightning bolt I think.