GeoNet was an early international on-line services

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

built using

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

s. Based on software developed in Germany by GeoNet Systems GmbH in the early 1980s, and completed in the early 1990s, it was one of the first networks to offer a comprehensive on-line services platform, and was early to market with a number of innovations. Unlike other "mailbox" systems at the time, GeoNet had a user-friendly command interface and made extensive use of distributed processing technology.

History

GeoNet became an important force in the European market within 15 months of introducing its first system in the early 1980s, and by 1986 had an installed base of some 25 systems in 8 countries. By the early 1990s GeoNet systems had been established in Austria, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, UK, USA and USSR. Apart from the Austrian PTT and

An Post (; literally 'The Post') is the state-owned provider of postal services in Ireland. An Post provides a "universal postal service" to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union. Services provided include letter post, p ...

in Ireland, most of the operators were independent private companies.

System features and design

GeoNet systems were strongly interconnected using a proprietary pre- X.400 protocol, called "InterMail". The so-called "GeoMail" network constituted a worldwide “private domain”, later interconnected with other public and private domains through X.400. Later versions of GeoNet software ran under

OpenVMS OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing and virtual memory-based operating system. It is designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. Customers using Ope ...

on DEC hardware. The largest installations ran on Alpha clusters. GeoNet operated centralised system monitoring and maintenance from Germany. Some of the many innovative features of the GeoNet systems: * Cross-system accounting and clearing: the systems were able to bill for many on-line activities, but also had a built-in micropayment clearing system whereby users of one system could use services offered on another and be billed accordingly. * Unified database front end: the GeoNet philosophy was to offer users a "one-stop-shop" for on-line services. Users could access a wide range of remote on-line databases using a sophisticated gateway called Intelligent Interface, developed with a research grant from the European Commission. The cost of accessing remote databases was added to the user's bill. * Unified messaging: GeoNet was one of the first systems to offer "

unified messaging Unified messaging (or UM) is a business term for the integration of different electronic messaging and communications media (e-mail, SMS, fax, voicemail, video messaging, etc.) technologies into a single interface, accessible from a variety of diff ...

" (a term introduced by

Ovum Ltd. Ovum, now part of Omdia, was an independent analyst and consultancy firm headquartered in London, specializing in global coverage of Telecommunications, Media and Technology. History Ovum was created in 1982 by Tim Johnson, a remote working ...

in the UK). The "one-stop-shop" metaphor was extended by allowing message exchange with

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...

telex The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a Public switched telephone network, telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of ...

teletex Teletex was ITU-T specification F.200 for a text and document communications service that could be provided over telephone lines. It was rapidly superseded by e-mail but the name ''Teletex'' lives on in several of the X.500 standard attributes u ...

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

pager A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...

, voice and

Inmarsat-C Inmarsat-C is a two-way, packet data service operated by the telecommunications company Inmarsat which operates between mobile earth stations (MES) and land earth stations (LES). It became fully operational after a period of pre-operational trial ...

. GeoNet was one of the first systems to introduce a fax-out service, and also one of the first systems to offer private fax-in numbers, allowing users to send and receive faxes from wherever they could get a connection to their mailbox. * Multilingual user interface, in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. * Forerunner of

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

: users could "chat" live online.

Operators

The UK systems GEO2 and MCR1 were run by

Poptel Poptel was initially an email and bulletin board service, and later a British internet and on-line services provider that was run by an employee cooperative (worker cooperative) from 1986 to 2002. In the 1980s Poptel offered on-line communicati ...

which aimed its services at non-commercial organisations, and the distinctive GeoNet addressing format (e.g. GEO2:TONY.BLAIR – a well-known user in the early 1990s) was widely recognised in

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

and

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

circles. In addition, Computer Access (originally Hackney Computer Access)* url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101211191239/http://www.access-it.org.uk/ , date=2010-12-11 created the Hackney HOST using the GeoNet technology, using this to tackle digital exclusion within East London and the

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, under the aegis of City Challenge funding. The system in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, MOS1, was established at the height of the "

glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

" period and relayed information about the attempted coup in 1991 to the Western media. The GeoNet name is now used by a German Security-ISP. Geonet's last hostmaster - Kay-Michael Sonntag from Höxter — took over the websit
, geonet.de
as well as their customer base on 21.12.2012 together with Arno Witt and founded the entrepreneurial community of the Web-Security-Hosting-Services already in October 2012. In October 2018 Arno Witt (who previously owned 50% of the company) took over the shares of Web Security Hosting Services UG and integrated the company into the WE Webdesign (owner: Arno Witt) in January 2019. Since then, GeoNet has continued as a department of WE Webdesign. The products of GeoNet, especially the mail accounts from geonet.de and geonet.com, which partly existed since the early 90s will be strengthened in the future and offered through the WSHS-Solutions.

External links

, Web-Security-Hosting-Services UG

, WE Webdesign

, WSHS Solutions
Computer networks