Demon Internet

Demon Internet is a British Internet Account Provider. It was one of the UK's ancient ISPs, abnormally targeting the "dialup" audience. It started on 1 June 1992 from an abstraction acquaint on CIX by Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems Ltd. The annex in the Netherlands started in 1996, and was awash to KPN in June 2006, its operations getting taken over by their XS4ALL subsidiary.1 The business was financed aboriginal on by Internet avant-garde David Tabizel of Durlacher and accustomed abundant abetment from Apax Partners.2

In the aboriginal canicule MS-DOS users were accepted to download Internet affiliation software based on the KA9Q accomplishing of TCP/IP.3 Added platforms able to affix to the account included OS/2 Warp, Amiga, Archimedes, Atari, Linux and Mac. In 1995 the aggregation acquired Chris Hall and Richard Clayton's Turnpike apartment for Windows.

Its aboriginal account was the "standard dial-up" (SDU) - abounding TCP/IP admission on a changeless IP abode acceptance users to accept SMTP mail and added IP cartage absolute to their computers. It was accessible to accomplish apart of Demon or to accomplish use of Demon's mail, news, IRC, servers.

Demon was the aboriginal ISP to avant-garde SDU account priced at £10 a ages additional VAT, declared in the sales abstract as a "tenner a month". The low amount admiring abundant new barter that it was assisting and served to aggrandize Internet acceptance in the UK. Demon still offers SDU account at the aforementioned amount today but abounding barter today use ADSL ("broadband").

Demon Internet accustomed a advantageous addition in user numbers if "The UK Internet Book" accounting by beat internet biographer Sue Schofield, adjourned with Demon in 1993/1994 to cover a abatement advertisement in the book for newcomers to Demon. The book bare a change to Demon's mail systems. Schofield accepted and got a POP3 mail advantage added to the Demon service. The book awash 15,000 copies off the aboriginal book run, abounding readers subscribing to Demon.

In 1998 Demon was bought by Scottish Telecom, a wholly endemic accessory of the clandestine account aggregation Scottish Power. Scottish Telecom rebranded as Thus plc in October 1999 and floated on the London Stock Exchange. Thus plc absolutely demerged from Scottish Power in 2002. Afterwards the auction of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom Cliff Stanford founded the aggregation Redbus Investments.

The accessible blast amount of the company, and abounding of the dialup admission numbers, end with 666 (the declared Amount of the Beast), a advised pun on the name Demon. If Thus plc was formed as a ancestor of Demon, its about allocated aggregation amount aswell concluded in 666. Also, afterwards a access of "access" accompanying names (e.g. gate, post) abounding of its aboriginal servers' hostnames started with dis, getting the antecedent belletrist of Demon Internet Services as able-bodied as the name of a allotment of Hell in Dante's Inferno and addition name for Lucifer.