Business History

[About ISP Limited]

ISP Ltd. has been providing Linux consulting and server administration since 1999. We have designed Linux servers and networks for global, national, regional, and small enterprise in Canada, the USA, Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, and France through the Internet's dynamic growth over the past two decades.

We have developed software since the 1980s that has been trusted by Federal, State, Provincial, and municipal governments, military, power companies, and fire departments, companies ranging from global enterprises to entrepreneurs. We continue to develop custom Linux server software solutions today. Just recently (summer 2020) we were contracted to provide a network-wide job scheduling solution for a global energy provider based in eastern Canada. Call us if you would like more details and to discuss what we might do to help alleviate your server administration challenges.

1986	Angelo's third start-up, Babudro Advanced Business Computer Designs (ABCD) in Los Angeles, California is his first successful business. His level of expertise attracted professional and retail clients, and eventually led to the company being the sole computer service provider for a regional bank. The company provided computers, repair, and programming for MS-DOS, Oasis, and AT&T UNIX. A multi-user accounting, inventory, and point-of-sale system was developed that provided up to 8 terminals with automated cash drawers and receipt printers on low-cost micro-computers.
1990	A new company is launched for the purpose of publishing software, following positive reviews of a mailing list management package that was developed and published as Shareware in the late 1980s. The mailing list software (WML) was one of the first on the market to print USPS bar codes on labels and envelopes. It was adopted by a branch of the USA federal government and many small and large businesses. The second product published was an equipment preventive maintenance (PM) package, and it also attracted high-profile customers including the US Navy, NJS&EA, Victoria BC CRD, Fire Departments in Detroit (MI), Paris (KY), and North Bay (NY), plus transportation, construction, and manufacturing companies and farms throughout the USA and Canada. (See software.ispltd.com for the historical web site of this business.)
1993	Angelo moved his family to western Colorado and continued software development, publishing, and consulting.
1997	The Computer Station opens in Paonia, Colorado, offering computer programming, repairs, and sales.
1998	An Internet service named Paonia.com is launched using servers built on-site and running entirely on Linux. No proprietary appliances are used. Even the terminal server controlling the modems is Linux-based.
1999	Encouraged by people asking how it was possible to start an ISP using only Linux, a web site was published that told people how to do it. The popularity of the site was unexpected and led to the start of Internet System Professionals, Ltd. (ISP Ltd.). The ISP Ltd. web site pioneered the concept of turnkey ISP packages based on Linux. Many excited businessmen offered proposals to partner with their businesses, but ISP Ltd. stayed its course.
2000	As the local ISP grew we refined the hardware and software and published the results on the ISP Ltd. web site. The concept of wireless 10Mbps to 25Mbps ISP designs are developed and published. At the close of 2000 ISP Ltd. is the only company offering turnkey ISP packages on the Internet.
2001	Very low-cost unlicensed 2.4GHz (preceding the 802.11 standard) wireless Internet service is started at our ISP. In partnership with Dynatek Telecomm in Ohio turnkey broadband wireless solutions are developed and offered, but no sales result.
2002	Don's Directory, an oil and gas publishing company, awarded us a one-year software development contract at the end of 2001. After the initial release, they were so pleased that they continued to have us develop the software far beyond its original scope. After we moved to Canada they tried to find someone in the USA to replace us, but nearly two decades later we are honoured to still be the trusted provider for all Linux server administration, database administration, and software engineering services for our longest and most highly esteemed client. In 2002 we installed our first ISP network overseas, in Angola, Africa. The company had a dozen employees, but with the growth came unexpected problems. We moved our family and business to Victoria, British Columbia for a fresh start. At that time Canada was dubbed "the most wired nation in the world". In the middle of 2002 we installed a wireless ISP in Telluride, Colorado, which went from no wireless ISPs to having four in a year: ours launches second and a third is right on our heels. We dealt with many interference issues and design changes during installation. Following the installation of the ISP in Telluride, Colorado and prompted by the Canadian Rural Broadband Initiative, the Neighbourhood ISP package is designed and announced.
2003	Our second-generation Neighbourhood system is shipped to Umuahia (near Port Harcourt), Nigeria. The director of the business came to Victoria to meet us and review the product prior to shipment. Work begins on the first Metropolitan HC network, the design of which began in October 2002. The network is completed and shipped in December: 13-servers, DSL and dial-up remote access equipment, and switches in four 42U racks designed to serve 100,000 people in Lagos, Nigeria using a combination of dial-up, DSL, and wireless access.
2004	A multinational company with a division in Oran, Algeria purchases our third-generation Neighbourhood ISP design. It is shipped in the Spring.
2005	In late 2004 Don's Directory hires ISP Ltd. to take over the development and hosting of their public web site that was begun by another company. The hosting, server administration, maintenance, and security of this site, as well as occasional further development, continues to this present day. The site has maintained perfect security and nearly perfect up-time for nearly 15 years even through server repairs, software language upgrades, database upgrades and migrations, backbone outages, and multiple data centre moves.
2007	As the demand for turnkey ISP networks dwindled, Angelo accepted a Senior Consultant position to Morgan Stanley in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 6000km from Victoria, BC.
2010	JD Irving recruited Angelo as their Senior Red Hat Linux Consultant to develop automation and monitoring for an ERP platform. Custom automated deployment scripts for multiple server types using kickstart were developed, configuration management using Cfengine was developed, Zabbix monitoring, and many other areas of server administration were design, implemented, and thoroughly documented.
2012	First Advantage in St. Petersburg, Florida recruited Angelo to lead a global software development team in establishing software and server standards that defined the future of a set of products. This work lasted nearly all of 2012.
2013	Morgan Stanley again engaged Angelo as a senior consultant, this time as part of a their telecom engineering team in Montreal, Quebec. He became the SME and lead administrator for their global network of SevOne NMS servers that monitored tens of thousands of critical backbone devices around the clock. His initial tasks were Perl and BASH scripting of automation and monitoring tools and administration of Red Hat servers. Within the first year he spotted an unforeseen opportunity to use his Gentoo Linux administration and PHP development skills to provide services to internal customers that had not been possible or even considered previously. Initially a one-year contract that began in November 2012, they were so satisfied with the work that the contract was renewed four times, through 2016.
2017	From 2017 to 2019 ISP Ltd. has been consulting to OnX, providing senior Linux consulting to their client Nova Scotia Power and its parent Emera in the planning, deployment, and maintenance of Oracle and Red Hat Linux servers.
2019	As the projects at NSPI wind down, I am developing plans for more Linux server hosting and administration clients and a potential new software project.
2022	ISP Ltd. is contracted to provide Linux server administration and automation for a web site of the Canadian federal government.

Publications

• 1991—What Mailing List? MS-DOS software developed that facilitates management of any number of mailing lists. It was extremely efficient, able to run on computers with small amounts of memory yet could manage lists with hundreds or tens of thousands of names. The software was used by the USA federal government and businesses in the USA and Canada.
• 1991—What Vehicle History? MS-DOS preventive maintenance tracking and scheduling software. The software was used by farms, fire departments, the US Navy, Canadian and US utilities, and large enterprises like NJS&EA.
• 1999—The Internet's original Linux ISP How-To, which has been expanded to the present day to provide tips and tutorials on a variety of topics relating to Gentoo and Red Hat Linux.
• 2000—Content-filtered Internet service offered to clients of Paonia.com Internet service that blocked ads and objectionable content at the ISP so parents could allow children to explore the Internet with one big concern significantly reduced.
• 2000—Stapler DNS configuration management software developed to provide a central DNS configuration repository to reduce errors and generate complete sets of uniformly formatted zone files with minimal effort.
• 2005—Webilant Family Filter offered without cost to ISPs who wish to offer a Christian or family-oriented service.