Connect.com.au

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Connect.com.au was one of the first commercial Internet service providers to operate in Australia. The company was founded in 1991 by Hugh Irvine, Benjamin Golding and Chris Chaundy, in conjunction with a small group of highly technical staff.

From the outset Connect aimed for supplying high end Internet services to the corporate and wholesale market, marking a stark contrast to the many small ISPs which grew out of the PSTN Bulletin Board systems or the APANA nodes. In addition to the comprehensive commercial services, Connect also supplied some additional services to both the Australian and International communities.

Free DNS services were provided to various smaller nation-states on the sub-continent and throughout the Pacific Rim, in many cases being the primary authoritative server for these countries until they could provide their own infrastructure. Some of these countries include, but are not limited to, Fiji, Kiribati, Nepal and Micronesia.

Within Australia Connect became the registry for the .net.au namespace to reduce some of the burden of these domain registrations from Robert Elz. This coincided roughly with the establishment of the .com.au registry, Melbourne IT. Connect provided .net.au domains free of charge until a policy change allowed the introduction of registration fees in 1997. Domains registered prior to this change remained free until the .au namespace was deregulated in 2002.

[edit] Acquisition

In 1995 Connect was sold to three major investors: National Australia Bank, Sirius Technologies and AAPT. AAPT executive John Stuckey was appointed Chief Executive Officer.

In 1998 AAPT acquired the remaining two thirds of Connect, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Their aim was to consolidate existing business Internet services with those provided by Connect and take advantage of the technically proficient technical team when launching their Smartchat brand. In 2000 AAPT was bought by Telecom New Zealand.

[edit] Founders

Following the sale of Connect in 1995, Hugh Irvine started an ICT and software development consultancy called Open Systems Consultants. This company specialises in the development and support of software for ISPs and Telecommunications providers, such as user administration and authentication software.

Chris Chaundy remained with Connect until the early 2000s, following which he joined Comindico. In 1999 both Irvine and Chaundy were inducted into the Australian Internet Awards' Hall of Fame.

[edit] External links

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