Those closest to me will recognise the logo's on this section of this site. They may even have been there behind the scenes, or a paying customer. Let me explain more.
 
If you took a good look at the logo on the previous page, you saw a light bulb and a floppy disk with the words Network Service. The light bulb represents the bright idea of a central reference for electronic information. WHEIN became an acronym for Wilson Hein's Electronic Information Network and at one point an internet domain. Wilson Hein Network Service (whein.com) was the name of the business that allowed WHEIN to function, and hence the floppy disk of information to get you connected to us.
 
It's a matter of public record that what was Wilson Hein Network Service (the ISP) is no more. I'll try to explain what it was all about from here out. It's quite a story. Maybe best titled "How not to go into business".;-) Not to mention there are some people out there that deserve some explainations as well.
 
This all started I'd say about mid 1994. A couple of us were looking into real internet access. Some of us hams had been experimenting for sometime with data over radio, which gave us limited access to an internet gateway. So we started investigating to see what was available. At that time we would have been happy for a dial up connection, but there was none available locally.
 
This in mind we thought there might be a market for it. Little did we know what we were in for. So the search continued, gathering information on the cost and types of available equipment, cost of larger bandwidth internet service to us, as well as cost of service to be able to provide service to others. This process seem to take forever. Leaving voicemail for people and praying someone would return your call.
 
January of 1995, Wilson took some funds loaned to him personaly, and opened an account at a local banking institution. On top of that he and his wife added to that by taking out a personal loan. This was enough to cover the initial costs of the needed hardware. Things like a Cisco router, a T1 DSU/CSU, 28,8 modems, and a 486DX4/100 Computer to serve as the dialup and internet servers.
 
Over the next few months the TELCO installed the lines. We wired up the house and connected up the T1 circuit to the Cisco. Attached the Cisco to the LAN, which was connected to the 486 Linux server then attached to the modems that were connected to the Centrex POT's, Wilson's workstation, and a donated 386 used for an Amateur Packet Radio / Internet Gateway.
 
We certainly had our share of problems along the way. Like losing about a week waiting for Adaptec SCSI drivers for SCO, to find out later they weren't going to play together. Or maybe the weeks it took later till we got pppd to work in a dialup fashion, on the Linux software which would work with the hardware we had. Just to mention a few:-)
 
It was at about this point that we hearing of other ISP's opening in the area. Some offering thier service for more then what we were charging, and some charging less. One in particular that hit the street a bit ahead of us that was gaining by leaps and bounds. By mid 1996 we just could no longer meet our expenses, and in the beginning of 1997 Wilson and his wife were in bankruptcy court filing Chapter 7.