It was some random socket program I found on an FTP server that got me going on writing this whole thing. The sockets API was pretty confusing in terms of the sequence of what to call when and how, but this sample program spelled it out pretty simply. (So thank you, anonymous author!)

Then it was just lucky timing with the web picking up around then and the fact that we had just gotten NCSA Mosaic installed on the computers at school. :)

Edit: Pretty sure the first version of the guide was ~1995.