John Boland

The market for Unix specialists in Ireland looked depressed in 1990, especially in comparison with Australia where I had spent the previous four years. Then I read that Dublin City University (DCU), which ran a mixture of Unix and VAX machines, was looking for a systems manager. I got the job and started working in the university at a time when most of its activities were still based in a single building. It was a radically different environment to the industry-based work I had done before. This new university was, however, about to expand. The DCU Business School and two new buildings for Computer Applications and Engineering were constructed soon afterwards. Network connectivity within the new buildings, on campus and externally, was evolving as a key issue for university IT.

My interest in Unix dated back to the early 1980s, when I was a field service engineer with Motorola Information Systems in the UK. I was installing and supporting Motorola’s new Unix-based computers, which were powered by the company’s own 68nnn processors. I also experienced the introduction of Ethernet there and recall drilling holes in coaxial cables and checking voltage levels to connect over modem links. By 1986 I wanted to concentrate on Unix systems. I moved to Australia and joined GE Westinghouse, where I worked as a systems administrator.

One of my first challenges in DCU required me to get to grips with the giant legacy of unlabelled cabling of all imaginable types under the computer room floor. When I arrived at the university, its systems were connected through a bird’s nest of DECnet, IBM token ring, Ethernet, RS-232 connections and telephone cables. Sorting out that mess led me to explore the new developments in switching and routing and structured cabling. Connectivity to the external world was less of a priority at that stage.

Our first structured cabling project was in the new Business School. This strategy was much more expensive than the alternatives and drew objections from other academic departments on the campus. However, our structured cabling strategy won through and, of course, ultimately made it easier for us to roll out internet access and IP addresses.

Some of the academics in DCU were UUCP users before the internet and turned to TCP/IP applications in the early 1990s. SMTP messaging, FTP and Telnet spread across the university. All of this internet data passed through our HEAnet connection, which at that time was a 64 Kbps VPN link over Telecom Eireann’s Eirpac packet switching network. Telnet, in particular, caused frequent problems. It required very small packet sizes and a lot of handshaking that affected Eirpac in unpredictable ways. Telecom Eireann eventually could not cope with our traffic and wanted to get us off Eirpac.

When I joined DCU Micheál MacConmara was its representative on the HEAnet network management committee (NMC), which was a voluntary committee of the seven university computer managers with some modest funding from the HEA. In 1992 I became Systems and Networks Manager and DCU’s representative on the committee.

HEAnet set up a Futures Group, led by Michael Nowlan and Dennis Jennings, and commissioned Euristix to study how it could move its operations off Eirpac and what the future network design should look like. The consultants proposed a star network of leased lines with a router at each site, connecting all the universities to a network operations centre (NOC) in UCD. This plan was implemented in 1993 with a central Cisco router named Connolly after the central station in the railway system. Other long-lived routers were subsequently given the names of train stations such as Heuston and Pearse. Mike Norris, based in UCD, was contracted as the Network Co-ordinator.

Schematic diagram of the HEAnet network in March 1994. Each university and regional technical college was now connected over a private leased line to the central backbone router.

The new arrangement worked better than X.25, but our bills were still partly based on traffic volumes. We tried to equalise the leased line charges, which were distance related and therefore disproportionately high for Cork, Limerick and Galway.

My first encounter with the web came through Dr Alan Smeaton in Computer Applications, in DCU. Alan was an acknowledged early expert in the development of a new protocol for hypertext embedding and linking. He invited me over to his office one day to show me how HTTP worked, linking and downloading images and documents seamlessly. There were no complicated command line logins and passwords and command line instructions, as was the case with FTP. Another DCU lecturer, Barry McMullin from electronic engineering, subsequently wrote a beginners’ guide to the internet in Ireland. Our university IT department was also the first in the country to employ a full-time web administrator to manage and develop its website.

The downside of HEAnet’s voluntary, traffic-based charging policy surfaced in early 1995 with what became known as the Teri Hatcher incident. A DCU postgraduate set up a web site with lots of photos of Teri Hatcher, an American actress best known for playing Superman’s girlfriend Lois Lane. Traffic from all over the world to this postgrad’s website soared and our volume-related charges went through the roof. Fortunately, the principle that the universities should share costs was already established. The HEAnet committee met to resolve the Hatcher problem and we brought in more restrictions on internet use. DCU became an early adopter of firewall technology after this incident and put effort into managing subnet traffic flows.

Once we had provided internet access to DCU staff and postgrads, we started to open PC labs for the undergraduates. The provision of email accounts for students and some associated disk quotas became a new and constant challenge for the Computer Services Department. We soon found students queuing for internet access outside the doors at busy times. Every summer we struggled to find an additional room and to equip it with extra PCs and printers for undergraduates. We also supported Redbrick, a student society for networking enthusiasts. Due to the traffic-based charges in place then I had to restrict what these keen students did and came to be seen as something of major spoilsport! But many of the Redbrick Society people went on to successful careers on the internet.

Network congestion could be terrible in those years. Whenever we upgraded a circuit, it would fill up with latent traffic demand within days. But the seven universities, working as a voluntary group through HEAnet, gradually got organised to address these problems.

There was still a lot of jostling about network protocols among the colleges and with our international colleagues, such as Janet in the UK, but progress was made. TCP/IP finally won out over OSI. Mike Norris headed a small team at the NOC in UCD and handled our relationship with Telecom Eireann. Mike was deeply involved in the establishment of Ireland’s neutral internet exchange. Mike could eat peering arrangements for breakfast. HEAnet brought more users onto its network, starting with the regional technical colleges. We liaised with Europe and joined the EuropaNet backbone network. The typical university connection to the external world was 512Kbps in 1996.

HEAnet became the country’s largest ISP. This was not planned. It was simply a case of academia and its demands leading the way because the commercial market could not meet the needs of researchers and students.

By 1996 we not only supported higher education, but also the civil service. I recall a meeting with Jim Duffy from the Department of Finance who more or less said ‘You guys are the TCP/IP experts. Why don’t you run the internet for us?’ The civil service was not a heavy bandwidth user in those early days.

Following the example of other countries, HEAnet set up a limited liability company to run its network. This became necessary so that we could focus on sourcing and managing expensive telecoms contracts and equipment, engage staff and represent ourselves in Europe. The “Three Wise Men” from the HEAnet NMC – Dennis Jennings, Michael Nowlan and Gordon Young – formed a steering group to oversee the set-up of a new company. Craig Gardner advised us on a structure for the company. HEAnet Ltd was incorporated on 12th November 1997 and I became its first chief executive.

There was quite a bit of interest in this role. A large selection panel asked each candidate to give a presentation in the morning, followed by an interview in the afternoon – this was the first time that I had to make a presentation for a new job. The end result was that I was offered a one-year contract. My post in DCU was permanent and pensionable, but I decided nonetheless to take a risk and go to HEAnet – where I began to build this fledgling internet service provider for education.

The new company’s budget for the first year was £2 million. My first challenge was to increase internet bandwidth. We already had a 1 Mbps circuit to New York which gave us our world-wide internet connectivity and I negotiated an arrangement with MCI WorldCom to double this capacity with a HEAnet Point of Presence in New York. That deal swallowed up half of the annual budget.

Another of my first priorities was for Ireland to became a full member of Dante, and join Irish colleges to the co-ordinated network services for the European research community. The company also needed new premises. We found office space in Marine House and Mike Norris and Dave Wilson transferred the entire network infrastructure from UCD to HEAnet’s own computer room on a single Sunday in March 1998 – on the Ides of March no less.

When Michael Nowlan (right) retired from the HEAnet board in December 2007, I made this presentation on behalf of all the directors.

The Department of Communications, under the leadership of Brendan Tuohy, was developing a tender for massive external fibre connectivity for Ireland. This visionary initiative ultimately led to the Global Crossing deal which made fibre pairs available at wholesale costs in Ireland. HEAnet was one of the first adopters for our international connectivity. The government’s initiative laid the foundations for Ireland’s enormous success in attracting global ICT companies.

HEAnet today provides internet and international research connectivity and access to cloud-based services for 64 education and research institutions and works with 19 telco partners. We lease 3,000km of fibre optic backbone and manage hundreds of routers and switches, keeping Ireland at the leading edge of European research network services. Our services support 200,000 staff and students in higher education and research institutes. Since 2005 we have extended the reach into primary and post primary schools, providing internet access to every school in the country. In total, we are now delivering internet services to one million end users on a daily basis.

Last edit: May 2016

© John Boland 2016