BTInet Homepage Evolution

Formed in 1996, BTInet provides a variety of hosting services and Internet access options to individuals, small businesses, and large corporations around the region and around the world. Since it's beginning, BTInet has grown and evolved along with the rest of the online world to provide best in class services to it's customers.  Over the years, the BTInet Homepage has also changed in line with this evolution process.

Please join us in looking back at the former incarnations of the BTInet Homepage!  If you want a more detailed look, click on the homepage image you are interested in.  We have also included any noteworthy items that happened in our history during that homepage versions existence.

Original Site (1996)

1996 - BTInet was incorporated and began service by offering Dial-Up Internet access. 1996 - Provided Netscape 1.2 and Eudora Lite as our supported Browser and E-mail program. 1996 - Help Desk support originally supplied through Sykes Enterprises, Inc. 1996 - Upgraded our modem banks from 28.8k modems to 33.6k modems. 1997 - Began offering our own News Server feed as well as WebTV Internet Access. 1997 - Upgraded our modem banks from 33.6k modems to 56k Flex modems. 1997 - Help Desk support was moved from Sykes Enterprises, Inc. to staff hired, trained, and located within BTInet. 1998 - The Internet was still in its infancy, and many users had questions on how to use it. We began offering an "Introduction to the Internet" class to our customers. Sadly, as users became more "Internet savvy," this class was discontinued a few years later from lack of interest. 1999 - Upgraded our modem banks from 56k Flex to V.90 modems. 1999 - Began offering Webmail access and an 800 number for individuals who needed to access their e-mail and/or Internet while traveling. 2000 - Began offering DSL broadband Internet service.

First Major Update (2001)

2001 - Rolled out our new Homepage and discovered that our Subscribers missed many of the features from the Original Site. The Subscriber Zone was born. 2001 - Began the process of migrating from the btigate.com domain to btinet.net. 2001 - Began offering new services; such as Webstorage, E-commerce Solutions, and Firewall Services, to name a few. 2001 - Netscape 6, Mac OS X, and Windows XP all became available and were supported by the BTInet Help Desk. 2001 - Spam started to become a real nuisance and we started taking steps to limit its impact on our customers by partnering with ORDB.org to block known sources of Spam. 2002 - BTInet's business office and Help Desk moved from the Basin Electric Headquarter's building to its own offices across the street. 2002 - We began distributing Netscape 6 to our customers.

Second Major Update (2003)

2003 - As we continued to expand and grow, it was necessary to further update our Homepage to more accurately reflect the various services we were able to offer. 2003 - Rolled out two new broadband Internet services, BTInet Mobile Wireless at the beginning of the year and BTInet Fixed Wireless later that summer. 2003 - DSL finally makes it to Mandan! 2003 - Spam continued to be an issue and had increased to the point that we were handling over 20 million attempted Spam connections to our system within an hour's timeframe. Service updates and changes were made to alleviate these "attacks." 2004 - We began distributing Netscape 7 to our customers. 2004 - BTInet's partner for Mobile Wireless service, Monet, decided to end operations. Regrettably, BTInet was forced to discontinue offering this unique service option to our customers. 2004 - After renegotiating our long distance rates with AT&T, we were able to lower the rate of our 800 Remote Access number to $0.10/minute. 2004 - The first version of our user configurable Spam Filter became available, helping to further curtail the amount of unwanted e-mail reaching our customers. 2005 - In our ongoing commitment to provide the best service possible, we lowered some of our pricing plans for DSL and Fixed Wireless services, as well as increased the speed of the Fixed Wireless service. 2005 - Accelerated Dial-Up service became available. 2005 - Began offering a Referral Program as a thank you to existing customers who refer a new subscriber to the service. Have you referred someone lately? 2005 - To give our customers even further control over the amount of Spam they receive, we implemented a new Spam Filter tool. 2006 - Regrettably, when our licensing contract reached the end of it's term for our Accelerated Dial-Up service, we were unable to re-negotiate an acceptable contract that allowed us to continue offering this service free of charge to our customers.

Current Site (2006)  

2006 - During Spring Cleaning, we spruced up the BTInet Homepage to more accurately reflect the many services we offer in addition to Internet Access. This is the current version of the site that you see today. 2007 - New Fixed Wireless tower sites went into operation, furthering our goal to provide our customer with the services they want in the areas they wish to live. 2007 - Introduced High-Speed Upgrade Appreciation program. 2007 - To help handle our continued growth, we upgraded our connectivity to Qwest from an OC3 to an OC12 connection.