Twenty years ago, before the birth of the World Wide Web, Grant Berry liked to connect a modem to his computer and go "on-line." There wasn't much consumer content -- no news or gaming sites, not even eBay. In those days, going on-line meant leaving messages on virtual bulletin boards and reading other visitors' remarks. The exchanges trickled along the phone line at turtle-like speed. But there was no rush -- only one person could access the site at a time.

Today, a high-tech revolution later, Mr. Berry, a 37-year-old systems engineer, derives half his home entertainment from the Internet. On his home-made computer, he can see the Blue Jays play the Red Sox or bet on and watch horse races running at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack. The images pour onto his screen at rates at least one thousand times faster than they did in those early days.

"It's damn fast and it comes in flawlessly," he says. "You get pretty addicted to it."

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