Internet in a Box (IBox) was one of the first commercially available Internet connection software packages available for sale to the public. Spry, Inc. produced the package, as well as starting up a commercial Internet service provider (ISP) called InterServ.[1][2]
The IBox software included the Winsock and TCP/IP stack that were needed to connect a computer running Microsoft Windows to the Internet in 1994.[3] The IBox package also included a licensed copy of the NCSA Mosaic web browser called AIR Mosaic,[4][5] AIR Mail (an email client), AIR News (an NNTP news client), AIR Telnet, AIR Gopher, and an FTP Network File Manager.
Combined with InterServ's dial-up access, Internet in a Box provided a complete solution for members of the general public to access the Internet, a network previously available almost exclusively to government and collegiate users, or to the public only indirectly through e-mail gateways provided by hosted systems such as CompuServe. The inclusion of a web browser further gave access to the nascent World Wide Web.
Two pioneering Internet books; Ed Krol's 'Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog' (US-1993) and a special edition of Sue Schofield's 'UK Internet Book' (UK 1994) were included in the US and European editions of the product.
Spry, Inc. was a small software company headed up by David Pool in Seattle, Washington. Spry was the first company licensing the Mosaic's source code.[6] In 1995 CompuServe bought Spry, Inc. for $100 million in cash and stock of H&R Block (the parent company of CompuServe).
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