Before the advent of BeppoSAX the search for counterparts, mainly based on IPN locations, was unsuccessful, and the GRB astronomy has done some progress a statistical approach. This approach has led to an important global characterization of the GRB class mainly thanks to the BATSE experiment. The revolution introduced by BeppoSAX is the capability to study the GRBs on a single-event basis, therefore fixing some fundamental parameters. Before BeppoSAX no one had the idea of what could happen to a GRB emitter soon after the event. If it is visible or not, at what wavelength, and how long.
The operations for a prompt reaction to GRBs started on December 1996. The first detection was on January 11, 1997: GRB970111. Even if an important observational effort has been spent on this event, no immediate result was obtained neither from BeppoSAX or from any ground-based observatory. The second chance was on February 28, 1997: GRB970228.