[182546] in North American Network Operators' Group
Why we did Internet-in-a-box (was: Remember "Internet-In-A-Box"?)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roland Perry)
Tue Jul 21 05:30:30 2015
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 10:29:07 +0100
To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Roland Perry <lists@internetpolicyagency.com>
In-Reply-To: <A1F92A0E-98F6-4AC0-AAA3-3FD7739D535E@the-watsons.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
In article <A1F92A0E-98F6-4AC0-AAA3-3FD7739D535E@the-watsons.org>, Brett=20
Watson <brett@the-watsons.org> writes
>> This goes back a number of years. There was a product that literally
>>was a cardboard box that contained everything one needed to get started
>>on the Internet. Just add a modem and a computer, and you were on your
>>way. No fuss, no "learning curve=E2=80=9D.
>
>MCI (way back, original MCI when I worked there) had MCI One that was=20
>similar with bundled voice/internet/etc, may be what you=E2=80=99re thinki=
ng=20
>of or not
There were numerous Internet "in a box" type products available in the=20
1994-95 timeframe, based largely on the existing Compuserve "in a box".
I was responsible for the first one to go on sale in the UK, through a=20
large chain of electronics retailers. The ISP was UK-Online.
The commercial reason for the packs was to put the product in front of=20
as many potential customers as possible, and make it easy to buy.=20
Cover-disks on magazines had quite a wide circulation but didn't fully=20
address the financial issues because...
...the corresponding operational reason was to overcome the=20
bootstrapping problem of how do you sign someone up for an account and=20
take a pre-payment if they aren't already online?
A cover-disk could solve the problem of pre-installing the software=20
needed, which in those days was generally a paid-for 3rd-party Stack and=20
some kind of bulk-licenced browser (eg Trumpet + Netscape); but involved=20
giving users a certain period of 'free trial', unless you employed the=20
somewhat clumsy option of having them call in with credit card details=20
during the set-up process.
What an "in-a-box" product achieved was the ability to get wider=20
distribution, because the retailer was typically receiving a 30% margin=20
on his sale and therefore happy to have it on his shelves, but the ISP=20
was also getting the 70% [less manufacturing cost, obviously] in order=20
to part-fund the first month's access and the licence on the software,=20
after which the person is online and can subscribe fully if they wish to=20
continue.
Even back then, there was the secondary effect that having spammers sign=20
up to your service using a succession of "free trial" cover disks wasn't=20
something to be encouraged.
How any of this is relevant to IPv6 "in-a-box" I will leave as an=20
exercise for the reader. Although my own inclination is to say it's much=20
more to do with grappling with legacy hardware and operating systems=20
that don't (either happily or at all) support IPv6, than getting a=20
reasonably recent PC/CPE configured automagically via an existing IPv4=20
connection.
--=20
Roland Perry
