Demon Internet
Encyclopedia
Demon Internet is a British Internet Service Provider. It was one of the UK's earliest ISPs, especially targeting the "dialup" audience. It started on 1 June 1992 from an idea posted on CIX
by Cliff Stanford
of Demon Systems Ltd. The branch in the Netherlands
started in 1996, and was sold to KPN
in June 2006, its operations being taken over by their XS4ALL
subsidiary. The business was financed early on by Internet pioneer David Tabizel
of Durlacher and received substantial backing from Apax Partners
.
In the early days MS-DOS
users were expected to download Internet connection software based on the KA9Q
implementation of TCP/IP
. Other platforms able to connect to the service included OS/2 Warp, Amiga
, Archimedes
, Atari
, Linux
and Mac
. In 1995 the company acquired Chris Hall and Richard Clayton's Turnpike
suite for Windows.
Its first service was the "standard dial-up" (SDU) - full TCP/IP access on a static IP address allowing users to receive SMTP mail and other IP traffic direct to their computers. It was possible to operate independently of Demon or to make use of Demon's mail, news, IRC, servers.
Demon was the first ISP to pioneer SDU service priced at £10 a month plus VAT
, described in the sales literature as a "tenner a month". The low price attracted enough new customers that it was profitable and served to expand Internet usage in the UK. Demon still offers SDU service at the same price today but many customers today use ADSL
("broadband").
Demon Internet received a healthy boost in user numbers when "[The UK Internet Book]" written by pioneering internet writer Sue Schofield, negotiated with Demon in 1993/1994 to include a discount coupon in the book for newcomers to Demon. The book needed a change to Demon's mail systems. Schofield demanded and got a POP3 mail option added to the Demon service. The book sold 15,000 copies off the first print run, many readers subscribing to Demon.
In 1998 Demon was bought by Scottish Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the private utility company Scottish Power
. Scottish Telecom rebranded as Thus plc in October 1999 and floated on the London Stock Exchange
. Thus plc fully demerged from Scottish Power in 2002. After the sale of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom Cliff Stanford founded the company Redbus Investments.
The public telephone number of the company, and many of the dialup access numbers, end with 666 (the supposed Number of the Beast), a deliberate pun
on the name Demon. When Thus plc was formed as a parent of Demon, its randomly allocated company number also ended in 666. Also, after a spate of "access" related names (e.g. gate, post) many of its original servers' hostnames started with dis, being the initial letters of Demon Internet Services as well as the name of a part of Hell
in Dante's Inferno
and another name for Lucifer
.
boards, Stanford suggested that if 200 people stepped up with a year's subscription, he would use Demon's infrastructure to create such a service.
The original Demon service was hosted using mainly Apricot servers including a gigantic pair of LSI towers named "gate" and "post".
When Demon started, WinSock
was still a new concept. Most PC users had to use "KA9Q" or "NOS" - a command line style client - to establish their TCP/IP connection to use ftp, gopher, telnet, etc. The Worldwide Web had not yet arrived.
Thanks to Demon Systems, Demon Internet always had a strong programming team allowing it to create solutions to emerging issues in-house. All three directors were programmers and Stanford wrote many business-critical pieces of software, writing modules to adapt MMDF
to Demon's purposes. Mark Turner, originally one of Demon System's developers, wrote many of the accounts and operational systems. As Stanford was increasingly absorbed with corporate activities, Neil McRae eventually took over the work on the mail system
. Oliver Smith moved from Systems to Internet to run and automate services for corporate customers. Later on, Peter Galbavy was brought in to develop solutions for interoperability issues and Ronald Khoo developed low-level networking solutions that allowed the company to run on free operating systems and PC-based hardware.
Many other key Demon people started out as developers - Giles Todd, Clive Feather, Richard Clayton.
Armed with so many developers, many of whom made names for themselves within the developing industry, Stanford used the company's ability to contribute its developments to the Open Source
community as a means of developing Demon's reputation beyond what its actual Internet Service commanded.
Because the Internet was still a relatively new phenomenon, the domain of academics and geek
s, Demon's home-dialup focus was also its Achilles heel. They had some exposure after sponsoring Fulham F.C.
, but British Telecom were very sceptical of Demon's projected growth and did not provide for expansion, resulting in a regular shortage of lines and regular redigs of the top end of Hendon Lane, Finchley
, north London to lay down additional cables. Demon moved initially to Energis lines with a Regionally Organised Modem Pool (ROMP) and later added COLT lines to the service so they had more control over which lines new customers used over separate 0845 numbers.
Demon's early days are described in an interview with Cliff Stanford published in The Independent
on 15 January, 1996.
and EFnet
networks since 1993 and QuakeNet
later. In 2009, Demon delinked their server from QuakeNet and EFnet.
CIX
CIX was one of the earliest British Internet service providers. Founded in 1983 by Frank and Sylvia Thornley, it began as a FidoNet bulletin board system, but in 1987 was relaunched commercially as CIX...
by Cliff Stanford
Cliff Stanford
Cliff Stanford, an accountant from Southend-on-Sea, was a co-founder of Demon Internet, the first Internet Service Provider in the United Kingdom for individual subscribers...
of Demon Systems Ltd. The branch in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
started in 1996, and was sold to KPN
KPN
KPN is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, including both 2G and 3G mobile operations...
in June 2006, its operations being taken over by their XS4ALL
XS4ALL
XS4ALL is the third-oldest Internet service provider in the Netherlands, after NLnet and SURFnet. However, XS4ALL was the first company to offer Internet access to individuals, since 1993...
subsidiary. The business was financed early on by Internet pioneer David Tabizel
David Tabizel
David Tabizel is an internet and media entrepreneur, who was the co-founder of a number of successful technology startups such as 365 Corporation , Demon Internet, Autonomy, Rage Software, Durlacher and others....
of Durlacher and received substantial backing from Apax Partners
Apax Partners
Apax Partners LLP is a global private equity and venture capital firm, headquartered in London. The company also operates out of eight other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel-Aviv, Madrid, Stockholm, Milan and Munich. The firm, including its various predecessors, have raised...
.
In the early days MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
users were expected to download Internet connection software based on the KA9Q
KA9Q
KA9Q, also called KA9Q NOS or simply NOS, was a popular early implementation of TCP/IP and associated protocols for amateur packet radio systems and smaller personal computers connected via serial lines. It was named after the amateur radio callsign of Phil Karn, who first wrote the software for a...
implementation of TCP/IP
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP from its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol , which were the first networking protocols defined in this...
. Other platforms able to connect to the service included OS/2 Warp, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
, Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
. In 1995 the company acquired Chris Hall and Richard Clayton's Turnpike
Turnpike (software)
Turnpike is a British-developed software suite for Microsoft Windows, originally written by Chris Hall and Richard Clayton . The suite, which comprises a combined email and news client as well as a separate program for handling the Internet connection aspects, first appeared in 1995...
suite for Windows.
Its first service was the "standard dial-up" (SDU) - full TCP/IP access on a static IP address allowing users to receive SMTP mail and other IP traffic direct to their computers. It was possible to operate independently of Demon or to make use of Demon's mail, news, IRC, servers.
Demon was the first ISP to pioneer SDU service priced at £10 a month plus VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
, described in the sales literature as a "tenner a month". The low price attracted enough new customers that it was profitable and served to expand Internet usage in the UK. Demon still offers SDU service at the same price today but many customers today use ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
("broadband").
Demon Internet received a healthy boost in user numbers when "[The UK Internet Book]" written by pioneering internet writer Sue Schofield, negotiated with Demon in 1993/1994 to include a discount coupon in the book for newcomers to Demon. The book needed a change to Demon's mail systems. Schofield demanded and got a POP3 mail option added to the Demon service. The book sold 15,000 copies off the first print run, many readers subscribing to Demon.
In 1998 Demon was bought by Scottish Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the private utility company Scottish Power
Scottish Power
ScottishPower Ltd. is a vertically integrated energy company with its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but in 2006 it became a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola...
. Scottish Telecom rebranded as Thus plc in October 1999 and floated on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
. Thus plc fully demerged from Scottish Power in 2002. After the sale of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom Cliff Stanford founded the company Redbus Investments.
The public telephone number of the company, and many of the dialup access numbers, end with 666 (the supposed Number of the Beast), a deliberate pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on the name Demon. When Thus plc was formed as a parent of Demon, its randomly allocated company number also ended in 666. Also, after a spate of "access" related names (e.g. gate, post) many of its original servers' hostnames started with dis, being the initial letters of Demon Internet Services as well as the name of a part of Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
in Dante's Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
and another name for Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
.
Early days
Demon Internet was born of Demon Systems, a bespoke business software development company formed by Cliff Stanford, Grahame Davies and Owen Manderfield. In a discussion of the need for a home-oriented dialup IP service on the CIXCIX
CIX was one of the earliest British Internet service providers. Founded in 1983 by Frank and Sylvia Thornley, it began as a FidoNet bulletin board system, but in 1987 was relaunched commercially as CIX...
boards, Stanford suggested that if 200 people stepped up with a year's subscription, he would use Demon's infrastructure to create such a service.
The original Demon service was hosted using mainly Apricot servers including a gigantic pair of LSI towers named "gate" and "post".
When Demon started, WinSock
Winsock
In computing, the Windows Sockets API , which was later shortened to Winsock, is a technical specification that defines how Windows network software should access network services, especially TCP/IP. It defines a standard interface between a Windows TCP/IP client application and the underlying...
was still a new concept. Most PC users had to use "KA9Q" or "NOS" - a command line style client - to establish their TCP/IP connection to use ftp, gopher, telnet, etc. The Worldwide Web had not yet arrived.
Thanks to Demon Systems, Demon Internet always had a strong programming team allowing it to create solutions to emerging issues in-house. All three directors were programmers and Stanford wrote many business-critical pieces of software, writing modules to adapt MMDF
MMDF
MMDF, the Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility, is a message transfer agent , a computer program designed to transmit email.-History:...
to Demon's purposes. Mark Turner, originally one of Demon System's developers, wrote many of the accounts and operational systems. As Stanford was increasingly absorbed with corporate activities, Neil McRae eventually took over the work on the mail system
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
. Oliver Smith moved from Systems to Internet to run and automate services for corporate customers. Later on, Peter Galbavy was brought in to develop solutions for interoperability issues and Ronald Khoo developed low-level networking solutions that allowed the company to run on free operating systems and PC-based hardware.
Many other key Demon people started out as developers - Giles Todd, Clive Feather, Richard Clayton.
Armed with so many developers, many of whom made names for themselves within the developing industry, Stanford used the company's ability to contribute its developments to the Open Source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
community as a means of developing Demon's reputation beyond what its actual Internet Service commanded.
Because the Internet was still a relatively new phenomenon, the domain of academics and geek
Geek
The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...
s, Demon's home-dialup focus was also its Achilles heel. They had some exposure after sponsoring Fulham F.C.
Fulham F.C.
Fulham Football Club is a professional English Premier League club based in southwest London Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they play in the Premier League, their 11th current season...
, but British Telecom were very sceptical of Demon's projected growth and did not provide for expansion, resulting in a regular shortage of lines and regular redigs of the top end of Hendon Lane, Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
, north London to lay down additional cables. Demon moved initially to Energis lines with a Regionally Organised Modem Pool (ROMP) and later added COLT lines to the service so they had more control over which lines new customers used over separate 0845 numbers.
Demon's early days are described in an interview with Cliff Stanford published in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
on 15 January, 1996.
Ownership by Cable & Wireless
In June 2008 Cable & Wireless made a predatory offer for Demon's parent, Thus. On 1 Oct 2008, Cable & Wireless completed the takeover of THUS. The company is now known as "THUS, a Cable & Wireless business", as for example in the title of their web site.IRC Servers
Demon has run IRC servers on both the IRCnetIRCnet
IRCnet is one of the largest IRC networks with more than 60,000 users using it daily. An early 2005 record had approximately 123,110 users simultaneously connected to the network.-History:...
and EFnet
EFnet
EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with more than 35,000 users. It is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network.- History :...
networks since 1993 and QuakeNet
QuakeNet
QuakeNet is currently the largest Internet Relay Chat network, with a peak average of about 135,000 users and 100,000 channels. The network was founded in 1997 by Garfield and Oli as a new home for their respective countries' Quake channels...
later. In 2009, Demon delinked their server from QuakeNet and EFnet.
See also
- Standard Dial-up SLIP ServiceSerial Line Internet ProtocolThe Serial Line Internet Protocol is an encapsulation of the Internet Protocol designed to work over serial ports and modem connections. It is documented in RFC 1055...
- Standard Dial-up PPP ServicePoint-to-Point ProtocolIn networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
- SMTP Email ServiceSimple Mail Transfer ProtocolSimple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
- POP3 Email ServicePost Office ProtocolIn computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
- Cliff StanfordCliff StanfordCliff Stanford, an accountant from Southend-on-Sea, was a co-founder of Demon Internet, the first Internet Service Provider in the United Kingdom for individual subscribers...
- Godfrey v Demon Internet Service