Internet Media Network Incorporated
Employees / Executives :
Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954) (Founder - Created IMN as a division within his company American Computer Group )
Thomas Johannes Obenhuber (born 1955) (one of the founding employees - stays until after Internet Media Network changed it's name (1997) to Genuity Incorporated )
Mr. Frank Dziuba - Founder of an Internet Service Provider [Silicon Beach Communications Inc.] in Santa Barbara, California in 1994
Related / Associated companies
American Computer Group [of CA/AZ] ( IMN is created as a subsidiary of ACG, or so it has been claimed, by Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954) )
Bechtel
HISTORY
"In the early 1990's, following the NSF disgorgement of commercial Internet traffic from the NSFNet, [Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954)] launched [Internet Media Network Incorporated] as the Internet division of [American Computer Group [of CA/AZ]]. " Source - [HC004O][GDrive]
" In 1996 in partnership with Bechtel Enterprises, [Internet Media Network Incorporated] was renamed [Genuity Incorporated], which then went on to became one of the largest ISP Data Center Operators in the world. The company was driven by Hopscotch™, invented and patented by [Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954)], and the very first formal content distribution and load balancing technology. " Source - [HC004O][GDrive]
"[Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954)] remained as the Chief Technical Officer of Genuity until the end of 1997 when [Genuity Incorporated] was acquired by [GTE Corporation]. He was then appointed Vice-President, Strategic Technologies, and Chief Technology Officer of the Business Services division of GTE Internetworking." Source - [HC004O][GDrive]
EVIDENCE TIMELINE
Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954) : "One of the misnomers about [Genuity Incorporated] is that we're a start up. You'll actually find that we were one of the 22 direct connects to the CIX router in Santa Clara already in May of 1994, so I'd hardly call Genuity a start up. Although we were certainly the smallest, or one of the smallest [...], we were very much in business before the Internet truly became mainstream. Anyway, our early allocations were a couple of /24s, and then a 19/. We had to plead with Kim Hubbard for another 19/, but were successful in getting it only when we promised to be frugal in sub-allocations (she didn't ask for empirical evidence). Then Genuity came in to being (December 1995 when I sold 75% of the company to Bechtel)."
1994 (Oct) - Domain "imn" for "Internet Media Network" is registered
Source - https://ipfind.io/whois
Organization: Internet Media Network (IMN)RegDate: 1994-10-25Updated: 2000-09-19Ref: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/204.74.64.0OrgName: Internet Media Network <--- note this is not necessarily the original address; it may have been updated.OrgId: IMNAddress: 4535 S. Lakeshore Drive Address: Suite 4ACity: TempeStateProv: AZPostalCode: 85282Country: USRegDate: 1994-10-26Updated: 2019-07-31Ref: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/IMNOrgAbuseHandle: RJ48-ARINOrgAbuseName: Joffe, RodneyOrgAbusePhone: [...]1994 (Nov) - Silicon Beach has announced a merger with Internet Media Network
Source - http://www.silcom.com/scta/941116min.html
Where - (November 16, 1994 - 7:00 p.m.) - South Coast Telecommunications Alliance: General Meeting
Frank Dzuiba, Silicon Beach/Internet Media Network:
Silicon Beach has announced a merger [between Silicon Beach Communications Inc.] with Internet Media Network.
They will be bringing many high speed data connections to the area.
1995 (Jan) - Thomas J Obenhuber joins Internet Media Networks
1995 (Feb) - "American Computer Group" (which owns Internet Media Group) has "recently relocated it's datacenter to Phoenix)
Source - https://www.newspapers.com/image/116998788/?terms=%22American%20Computer%20Group%22&match=1
1995-02-12-the-arizona-republic-pg-cl-26.jpg
1995-02-12-the-arizona-republic-pg-cl-26-clip-acg.jpg
1995 (?) – American Computer Group (ACG) joins Los Nettos as non-voting member.
https://www.losnettos.net/subpage-1/subpage-2/1995-2000-the-ds3-years/
NOTE : Los Nettos was co-founded by Jon Bruce Postel (born 1943) ; See https://archive.nanog.org/meetings/nanog44/presentations/Monday/Celeste_WelcometoLA.pdf
"Los Nettos was co-founded by Jon Postel back in 1988, 20 years ago. We wanted to celebrate Jon and his many contributions to the networking community by hosting the joint NANOG/ARIN meetings."
1995 (Oct 27) - ACG and Bechtel are both new/invested in Phoenix ...
https://www.newspapers.com/image/123749208/?terms=%22American%20Computer%20Group%22&match=1
Late last year [, which would be 1995 - as this article is 1996], Bechtel quietly purchased Phoenix-based [Internet Media Network Incorporated], a dormant Internet access provider. The company, which it renamed [Genuity Incorporated], was one of 22 so-called "Tier 1" companies that make up the Internet's backbone.
Others in the same exclusive club include AT&T, MCI, UUNet, AOL and CompuServe. [...]
Owner/founder Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954) sold 75% of the company [Internet Media Network, Inc.] to Bechtel
Source - Archive - Discussion Group for NANOG (North America Network Operator's Group) ; See [HI0024][GDrive]
Rodney Lance Joffe (born 1954) : "One of the misnomers about [Genuity Incorporated] is that we're a start up. You'll actually find that we were one of the 22 direct connects to the CIX router in Santa Clara already in May of 1994, so I'd hardly call Genuity a start up. Although we were certainly the smallest, or one of the smallest [...], we were very much in business before the Internet truly became mainstream. Anyway, our early allocations were a couple of /24s, and then a 19/. We had to plead with Kim Hubbard for another 19/, but were successful in getting it only when we promised to be frugal in sub-allocations (she didn't ask for empirical evidence). Then Genuity came in to being (December 1995 when I sold 75% of the company to Bechtel)."
Subsequent History for Internet Media Network, Inc. after the May/June 1996 can be found at :
The T1 years
Los Nettos Regional Network – the T1 years
While most regional networks were built as 56 kilobit per second networks, Los Nettos started with T1 (1.5 megabit per second) links between all of its sites. When CERFNet was completed in 1989, it provided Los Nettos with a backup connection to the NSF Backbone and vice versa.
1988 – NSFNET upgraded to T1 backbone.
1988, June – First commitments made for funding for Los Nettos.
1988, October – First Cisco gear arrives at USC’s Information Sciences Institute for testing and configuration.
1988, December – First four nodes are up and passing packets (Caltech, UCLA, ISI, USC), as the all-T1 regional network is realized.
1989 – Los Nettos adds nodes for RAND Corporation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), TRW, Trusted Information Systems (TIS), IBM, UNISYS, and Naval Ocean Systems Command (NOSC), completing the orginial network.
1989 – Los Nettos allows associate connections via member connections.
1994 – Los Nettos upgrades its connection to the Internet backbone to DS3 (45Mbps).
https://www.losnettos.net/subpage-1/subpage-2/1995-2000-the-ds3-years/
1995-2000 – The DS3 years
From 1988 to 1994, T1 connections were adequate to run the network, including connections to the NSFNet. In 1994, the connection to NSFNET was upgraded to DS3. Demand for internet connectivity jumped and Los Nettos upgraded the majority of its member connections to 45 Mbps connections (DS3).
1995 – American Computer Group (ACG) joins Los Nettos as non-voting member.
1995 – Los Nettos backbone is ugraded to 45Mbps.(T3)
1995 – The Associate Program is integrated into Los Nettos and expanded to include hub sites at the Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, Caltech, American Computer Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and TRW-Space Systems.
1996 – Los Nettos co-founds the MAE-LA / LAAP internet exchange in downtown Los Angeles and Marina del Rey with Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS).
1998 – Los Nettos Co-founder Jon Postel dies on October 16; anniversary plans are delayed.
1999 – Los Nettos starts upgrades to gigabit backbone.
2000 – Los Nettos celebrates belated 10th-anniversary party in October.
History
The Los Nettos Consortium was created in 1988 by group of Southern California researchers to provide cost-effective connections to the national NSFNET backbone for local campuses and research institutes. Led by Danny Cohen and Jon Postel of USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), the group included Charles Seitz of Caltech, Leonard Kleinrock of UCLA, and Richard Kaplan of USC. The group had the benefit of support from Mark Pullen of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Science and Technology Office (DARPA/ISTO).
The founding members of Los Nettos made commitments to create the regional network in June 1988. The necessary hardware began to arrive in October 1988; testing started in November, and the first four nodes of the network (ISI, UCLA, USC, Caltech) were up by December 1988. After CERFNet was built in the San Diego area in 1989, Los Nettos and CERFNet provided backup links to the NSFNET backbone for each other.
Today, Los Nettos continues to provide connectivity to Los Angeles area educational and research organizations. It is administered and operated by the Information Technology Services (ITS) division of the University of Southern California on behalf of the Los Nettos Consortium.
Timeline
See the 1988 entry in the Hobbes Internet Timeline for a more general timeline.