Internet Solutions Since 1994
Before the phenomenon of
mass access to the public Internet in the mid-1990s there existed
independent local dialup data communications nodes known as BBSs, short
for Bulletin Board Systems. A small town or local calling area
might have 2 or 3 BBSs that were full time (one user at a time on a
dedicated phone line available 24 hours per day). Almost all BBSs
had only one line. BBSs were used to send email to other
users of the same local BBS, download a file from the file
libraries, participate in local or network message bases (like
newsgroups) or play turn-based online text or character-graphics based games. Often you would experience a busy signal and would have to try
again later (or use automatic redial as many people did, often trying
for an hour or two to get online to your favourite BBS).
Mark Steffen originally
started a BBS in Winter 87/88 running on a Commodore 64 computer with a
300 baud modem. That's 300bps, or about .03KB/s. Could you
imagine downloading at that speed? In the early 90s, Mark's BBS
expanded to have two, then three, then four, then eight phone
lines. Modem technology also advanced and by 1994 the average
dialup connection speed was about 14.4kbps. Unlike most BBSs, by
1994 up to 8 people could be on Mark's BBS at once.
On October 2nd, 1994
Mark's BBS connected to the Internet. This was the first service
to offer local call access to the Internet in the Hanover to Goderich
area in Southwestern Ontario. By the summer of 1998 Mark had 56k
dialup access at all POPs (local dialup numbers). In early 1999 Mark
started to offer High Speed Internet access to local businesses.
By late 2000 equipment costs had come down enough that SCS started to offer residential high
speed access using a combination of fixed wireless and first generation DSL technology.
Today SCS Internet offers
High Speed Access accross Ontario, dialup service Canada-wide with free
local-call roaming access from most US calling centres and the
UK. SCS also offers customized webhosting, datacentre colocation services, LAN
extensions, Virtual Private Networks, and hosted VOIP solutions.
Let our experience assist
you in all your Internet and telecommunications needs, call us today at
1-800-939-9417, or send us an email: service@scsinternet.com.
