It's amazing when you think about it. Two people, fresh out of university, find that they don't have Internet access any more. With no commercial solutions available, and the withdrawal symptoms from hours of 'mudding' becoming untenable, they form a company called iiNet. From humble beginnings offering access from a suburban garage - less than five years have passed, and iiNet is practically a household name in WA. Today, tens of thousands of people access the Internet - now a global phenomenon - through the iiNet network.

The evolution of iiNet's web site over the past four years

Here are some of the milestones at iiNet over the years.

1993

OCTOBER

Michael Malone and Michael O'Reilly open iiNet in the garage of Michael Malone's Padbury home. Equipped with a massive 14.4k link to the Internet (which is a quarter of the speed of one of today's modems), they open the doors on October 23, 1993.

1994

JUNE

iiNet install a facility at UWA in the same room as the AARNet hub, and run ethernet between the two - dramatically increasing iiNet's bandwidth capability to 10mbps. A 128kbps link connects this to the Padbury node. This compliments the other link (now 28kbps) to Connect.com.au.

1995

JULY

iiNet hires its first paid employee.
iiNet runs off around 40 14k4 dialup lines.

AUGUST

After being told it could take at least a year to get more lines added to the Padbury dialups, iiNet moved its operations to an office right in the centre of Perth at 105 St Georges Terrace. iiNet joins with other companies, plus many people, to form the WA Internet Association, to address draconian Internet legislation planned by the government.

OCTOBER

iiNet announces it will close the Padbury node.

NOVEMBER

opera.iinet.net.au is commissioned as the new shell, news and email machine. It replaces classic.iinet.net.au.

DECEMBER

The first edition of iiNet's Internet Guide is published, and is popular with iiNet's clients.
iiNet commissions a third Internet link, this one to Access One. After AARNet is acquired by Telstra, the hub of the Perth Internet is moved from the UWA campus in Nedlands, to the Telstra Wellington Exchange.

iiNet passes the 1,000 client mark

1996

JANUARY

The limit on the iiNet killer daemon is increased from 80 minutes, to 2 hours.

FEBRUARY

disco.iinet.net.au is deployed as a massive newsfeed machine. Support hours change to 9am-10pm weekdays, and 10am to 5pm weekends. New support system - previously all support email went to Michael Malone! Nedlands dialin number closes.

iiNet now has 10 staff members.

MARCH

For support, weekend hours are now from 9am to 5pm. The iiNet training centre opens. iiNet faces a drought of phone lines in the city, so Padbury is officially re-opened.

At this point, iiNet has 128 dialup lines - equipped with 28k8 ability.

APRIL

iiNet's first regional dialup opens in Bunbury.

MAY

iiNet finds out from Telstra the delay getting lines in Padbury the year before was really because the plans for the upgrade "fell behind a Telstra engineer's desk"

JUNE

iiNet opens dialup services in Mandurah.

Michael Malone, after 6 months living in South Australia preparing, opens iiNet SA with two local staff - Leigh Hart and John Lindsay. iiNet SA offers local call access to Adelaide and Gawler.

AUGUST

iiNet stops offering its standard account ($25/mo), and introduces a new product - the premium Explorer account - which offers many more features for $40/mo. iiNet's homepage is rated best in Western Australia by the West Australian newspaper. iiNet goes the quality assurance training, plus training by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

iiNet unleashes 33k6 modems!

OCTOBER

iiNet shuts down its first Perth number - 3227331.

NOVEMBER

iiCon, a new web design arm of iiNet, is formed in collaboration with leading Perth design firm Haymarket.

DECEMBER

iiNet runs out of space at 105 St Georges Terrace, and moved to new spacious offices in the QV.1 building in Perth. The QV.1 building offers unparalleled facilities for iiNet, accomodating its rapid growth. iiNet also forms Intuition, to operate from the old offices, which runs the training facility and offers Internet training courses.

1997

JANUARY

A sophisticated support phonecall queueing system is implemented on the new 322-7773 support phone number, allowing the support team to keep up with the increasing number of clients.

FEBRUARY

The Internet community coheses to fight the threat of timed local telephone calls - which could pave the way for huge increases in the cost of Internet access. Meanwhile, iiNet offers a new service, allowing 10M internet access to the tenants of QV.1, at amazing cost savings.

MARCH

iiNet's Internet link to Telstra is upgraded to 4Mbps. iiNet launches a class action on behalf of all COM.AU domain name holders against Melbourne IT - who introduced unreasonable new restrictions and pricing on Internet domain names. Melbourne IT later modified their policy, and iiNet suspended the case. iiNet offers a local server for the Austnet IRC network.

APRIL

After only 10 months of operation, in which time it managed to get to be in the Top 5 SA Internet providers in terms of size, iiNet (SA) was sold to Ourworld Global Network - to be used as the foundation for their new national Internet access service. OGN's access service shut down six months later.

iiNet is the first to broadcast Perth radio live on the Internet, after Triple M Perth start their RealAudio service.

MAY

iiNet offers superior performance to clients as it introduces digital lines based on ISDN technology. Rather than using modems, iiNet now uses access servers to provide Internet access. Quake and Kali servers are implemented to allow local gaming over the Internet.

JUNE

iiNet joins with other Internet providers in WA to form the WA Internet Exchange, where it exchanges local traffic at near zero cost - making for huge cost reductions. iiNet launches the WebTrack product to schools, offering safe filtered Internet access.

JULY

The telecommunications industry is deregulated, but much to everyone's surprise no major effects are seen in the Internet industry.

AUGUST

iiNet's Access One link is decommissioned. Two months later, Access One is bought by OzEmail.

OCTOBER

The last of iiNet's facilities at UWA in Nedlands are closed down and absorbed into the Perth Internet facility.

NOVEMBER

iiNet dramatically increases support personnel to handle the influx of calls as 8 digit phone numbers become mandatory in Western Australia. K56Flex support is introduced to iiNet's dialups. A massive new news server, motown, is deployed with a high quality USENet feed.

iiNet acquires one of its largest competitors - Online Information Systems.

DECEMBER

Along with the christmas rush, and the OIS acquisition, iiNet rapidly surpasses 10,000 clients. iiNet acquires Access Communications.

1998

JANUARY

iiNet upgrades its Telstra link to 6Mbps. iiNet trials late-night weekend support.

FEBRUARY

iiNet unveils its fifth major redesign of its website, reaffirming its focus as a leading information source for the Internet community.