1First Article InstallmentWednesday, June 04, 2008

The First ISP

By Alan WilenskyBarry Shein, owner of Software Tool & Die, the first company ever to offer dial-up access to theInternet (then called ARPANET), asserts, "Al Gore will be elected and will mandate expandedfederal funding of the Nation's public data infrastructure.” This opinion might be discounted outof hand coming from a 29 year-old college dropout turned net-trepreneur, burning through hismezzanine funds like Pizza and Jolt cola; but Barry Shein is wiser than his younger self. He hasrun Software Tool & Die (brand name “The World”) for eleven years, and seen it grow to over 10,000 paying, loyal subscribers. I met with Barry at the World’s tidy offices located under theSS Pierce Clock tower in Brookline, Massachusetts.The events that led to the birth of the first ISP spawned a gradual, even haphazard process,fostered by exceptionally serendipitous circumstances. This was before the era of the net-IPOfrenzy. Shein's realization in 1988 that people might need access to the net would be financed bythe STD partners out of pocket. The dot com had not been invented yet.Shein had his first ARPANET account in 1977 at Harvard University. From 1983-1988, while atBoston University as a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science, he held the full time position of Special Projects Manager of the Distributed Systems Group. Newcomers to net life, or even "pro's", may not know that this was the time the details of interconnected computing, network protocols, and packet routing were being hashed out in amostly collegial environment. There were a few large computer and defense companies with netaccess, whose numbers were climbing steadily. The economy had a great deal to do with thefuture of the net's commercialization, but not in the way you might think!Shein explained, "You have racks of equipment and phone lines, user support requests, etc. It waslike trying to manage the university's PBX or heating plant; what started as an academic pursuit inthe evolving science of wide area connectivity, turned into keeping the system up for the users."He mused, "Is this what the university really wanted? To operate a huge, experimental WAN/LANoperation just so grad students can have e-mail?"Companies and universities with and without ARPANET would sometimes have terminal accessto super computing centers or math department minis. But at B.U., the academic pursuit of internetworking and distributed computing was slowly turning into an institutionalcommunications service. It was obvious to Shein that academics and professionals leaving their institutions might want private net access.Software Tool & Die actually began its life as a UNIX shop, with most of the original groupcoming from B.U. With one foot still in academia, Shein started fulfilling the few requests for mailand news group access, from just these recently departed academics and tech workers. "You had

2First Article Installmentthe situation where net access for these early adopters morphed from purely experimental toalmost a practical necessity."Before even considering making a business out of it, Shien had a workstation dialing out everyhour or so, downloading the latest e-mail and news group articles, and storing the message trafficfor its users who would dial in. The lack of a dedicated connection didn't matter then, as all of thetraffic was text based, and real time access was just not seen as a necessity. Of course, this was1989, and the evolution of the Internet was making any predictions short-lived.A historic moment occurred when Rick Adams, from the then new Uunet, called Shein to begsome co-location space for a T1 and 'some other stuff.' This meant, among other things that STDwould now have a dedicated, real time connection to the Internet proper. I asked Shein what dealwas struck between UUnet and STD. I was wondering about strategic relationships and the like."No, no, no," Shein replied, "it was completely informal - our space in exchange for access toUunet and free route peering arrangements.” The two companies shared an Ethernet LAN, theappropriate router and address pool magic was done, and viola. Part II of this article will focusmore on the World’s technical adolescence. But at this point in the story, it’s the late 1980's, andthings were starting to heat up.What drove the business in its early days? What was the defining event that caused the STD partners to make serious capital investments in the new Internet arena? Shein's answer took meaback: "It was the recession of the late1980's....”"DOD cutbacks hit the Rt. 128 companies hard. And many of these defense and computer companies, like DEC and DG were thinning the ranks.” So it was that net access was a perk atthese companies, and departing workers were loathe to give up their net access."Indeed,” says Shein, "few of these institutions had any provision for remote access off premises,security issues aside. The employees knew, of course, that the paycheck would stop, but whined,'Why can't the company continue their user accounts'? An STD "The World" flyer helped thecompanies answer that question. " Outplacement companies assisting laid-off DEC and DGemployees in their career transitions also helped by allowing STD to leave brochures in their offices.Things started to move into high gear. The STD partnership, now connected via T1 to Uunet, andwith its six 2400 baud modems, was pouring blood money into capital system's expansion. It wasa gamble for sure; there was no precedent for such a venture. After all, who wanted net access?The answer was soon supplied: academics and professionals leaving their jobs and institutions,who were desirous of continued net access.December 1989 is the date Shein gives for the official offering of live net access, UNIX shellaccounts, ftp, and e-mail. The next two years were to be less fun and playful, for serious decisionshad to be made that would directly affect the bottom line. In all, the STD crew enjoyed amonopoly on net access for a brief four months.Shein reflected, "I remember siting here, when we set up the original system, and thought, 'If wecan just pay for the phone lines, and the machine leases, I'd be happy.’" STD was leasing a used

3First Article InstallmentSun 4280 at the time, with payments running around $2500/ mo. Electricity and phone bills shotup with each system upgrade, and there was concern that user accounts might not meet expenses.But the accounts did become profitable, with the World eventually building out POPs inMassachusetts only. "We just went along,” said Shein, referring to the contravention in operating plans that existed between the big national ISPs and STD.Plant upgrades were to be a way of life from then on. In step with this evolution of ISPtechnology, customers were crossing into the 1990's with more powerful PC's. At this point,savvy users were downloading the first incarnations of noncommercial Mosaic, a web browser later to be improved upon by its inventor, Marc Andreeson, at Netscape.Barry Shein and company were, as always, preoccupied with system upgrades. From Sun toSolborne, the first SMP UNIX box, to SGI. Remote access and modem standards were changingevery few months, as was the very network; the IETF was growing its ranks to include morecommercial members. STD was kept up to speed quite well due to its close working relationshipwith UUnet, which continues to this day.The World was entering the '90's with several thousand loyal users, I among them. I was installingthe new Windows 3.1, and buying a new modem every three months. And STD? Shein recalled,"We were going through a period of painful expansion, being courted by the UNIX SMPhardware vendors - struggling of course with the changing modem standards, and trying to seeinto the future, technically and strategically -- it makes me feel so nostalgic."In next week's installment, we look at the nuts, bolts and business strategy of the Nation's firstISP.