config.com has an extensive history preceding the commercialism of the ’net! The Internet Barter Exchange came about as a result of our success in using barter to expand our company Nationally and we couldn’t help but wonder "what if" we shared our barter experience with our clients to help grow their businesses. Our time table gives some of the highlights of our history.
Config Time Table
The management of config.com (formerly Config.Sys) has been experienced in telecommunications since Oct 1988.
A timetable of a few notable landmarks include:
October 1988 - Operated The Blue Parrot Bulletin Board Service ;^)
July 1993 - Placed an article on the Internet to sell a CD-ROM library - sold the entire collection within 24 hours.
October 1993 - Oct 1994 - We placed the first Internet address ever advertised in a computer magazine (Computer Shopper)
October 1993 - Founded alt.cd-rom.reviews which is one of the first commercially sponsored Internet newsgroups.
January 1994 - Registered the Internet domain config.com with Internic  ago!
May 1994 - Management quoted in Fortune magazine pages 39-40.
August 1994 - June 1995 -Recognizedby the Small Business Administration (Cleveland Region) resulting from a business plan written by Dan Gabella with assistance from the Small Business Institute at Kent State University school of business department of marketing.
Nov 1994 - Oct 1995 - Internet & CD-ROM contract for Interactive Multimedia Publishers (NASDAQ = DROM)
March 1995 - Restructured the company from an Internet retail CD-ROM sales to become focused toward community content publishing i.e.: Information management, marketing, and publishing. This change was due to forecasting the future needs of regional based consumer content which also answered the question of regional commercial sponsorship.
May 1995 - Found sponsorship and initially developed the first National center for missing children in the World! Dr. Branden Perez of Child Search, Inc.in Houston, Texas eventually took over the Internet project with the same enthusiasm which he founded this fine institution.
Nov 1995 - Co-founded akr.biz, the third oldest commercial newsgroup in Ohio.
June 1996 - Introduced Internet services to Portage County as a sales agent for an Internet service company.
June 1997 - Akron community directory was published in Compton’s on-line encyclopedia.
July 1997 - Became the official host delegate for portage.oh.us by letter of designation of the County Commissioners.
July 1997 - Became the first agent in Ohio for Ameritech Interactive Media Service.
March 1998 - Became an authorized agent of Primestar satellite services.
Jan 1999 - Restructured the business to include consumer services designed to enhance our well known commercial Internet services.
Our company has developed in excess of over 3,000 web pages and is represented by a team which includes consultants and contractors highly recognized in various areas of expertise.
August 1999 - The Wall Street Journal publishes URL: http://www.config.com/sequoiafund/ which is one of our web sites.
July 2000 - Kent and Mantua. Ohio dial-in circuits added.
March 2001 - Config.com signs up it’s 1,000th subscriber.
March 2001 - The Plain Dealer publishes a story about the orginial Geauga Lake site resulting from our community service involvement.
July 2001 - Akron, Canton, Alliance, Massilon, North Canton, Green, Montrose, and redundant Kent & Ravenna dial-up circuits added.
December 2001 - Relocated our facility to the former Oak Rubber corporate headquarters in beautiful Ravenna, Ohio. Oak Rubber was the World’s largest toy balloon manufacturer in the ’70s.
Jan 2002 - Achieved redundant network infrastructure with multiple T-1’s using Fiber Network Solutions Inc. and Sprint Telecomm.
Febuary 2002 - Implemented broadband wireless infrastructure in Portage County to offer broadband wireless where cable and DSL are not available options.
July 2002 - National dial-in access in over 350 cities across America leasing ICG circuits..
August 2002 - Our first long term billboard contract is located in the Geauga Lake/Six Flags / Sea World / Geauga Lake ;^) route 43’ corrider between Kent and route 76.
July 2003 - GlobalPops National network gained us 10,000+ cities.
August 2003 - Qwests’ National network gained us another 3,000 cities.
June-Sept 2003 - config.com becomes the 1st ISP in America to distribute Globalstar.com satellite telephones and services!
Sept 2004 - config.com wins bid to provide Internet access for the Akron Digital Academy students which is a remote learning project funded by Akron PublicSchools. Akron is the fifth largest city in Ohio and we are very proud to have won the bid due to meeting all the requirements of the school system!
Feb 2005 - The config.com network is now used to transmit MRI images to the Cleveland Clinic from Canton, Kent and Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Mar 2005 - Butch Reynolds, Olympic Gold Medalist joins team config! Butch approved of and endorses our network design of filtering all the spam, viruses, and pop-up garbage at our servers so our network users don’t have to transmit it to their computers!
Apr 2005 - Redundant Xeon power servers co-located in Dallas, TX with EV1 on a peered x 10 100MB Internet backbone.
May 2006 - Xeon power server and 1.3 expandable to 3.8 Tara Byte file server on Cogent Circuit in Level 3 Canal Park NOC, Akron, Ohio
July 2006 - Established the Internet Barter Exchange for config.com commercial clients though a partnership with The World Trade Banc.
Oct 2006 - We moved to our own place. Nothing like paying ourselves rent and being able to resolve environmental issues when they should occur!
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