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09 Apr 2003 - 06 May 2026

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Simon Hackett's Home Page

WARNING: Like all good personal home pages, this one is way out of date :)

Simon Hackett: the "brief career" version:

Hello, I'm Simon Hackett. I co-founded Internode Systems in 1991. The company has been growing rapidly ever since :)

Prior to doing that, I was a senior member of the networking and communications section at the University of Adelaide, where I was one of the implementors of AARNet, the first true presence of the Internet in Australia, which had its South Australian core at UA.

Though activities and travels in the USA and the UK, I have been fortunate enough to have built great business partnerships and also find some great friends in faraway places. The only trouble with that is that they are all quite a long plane flight from Adelaide, South Australia. As a result, I find myself lurking inside a United 747-400 far more than many people!

Professionally, I do a lot of work in the field of TCP/IP and Internet based electronic mail systems, network design, Internet security and firewall-related consulting, etc. I like working on interesting things to do with Internet and TCP/IP related technology, things like networked toasters and CD players, and with real time audio and video over the Internet. I have been working in the latter field since around 1990, well before there was a general belief that such things were practical.

You can reach me by sending e-mail to simon@internode.com.au, or by calling me or leaving a message on +61 8 8228 2999 during business hours.

I'm often travelling, either within Australia or off in the USA somewhere. I'm just as likely to be in Boston or D.C. or Santa Cruz, CA or Box, UK, as I am in Adelaide; So electronic mail is often a better way to reach me than the telephone!

Some random career highlights:

• Created various interesting computer control devices, including industrial machine tool controllers for factory automation. Developed an early tendency to set up systems that make computers actually do something in the physical world.
• One of the implementors of AARNet, the Internet in Australia
• Met and got to know the great people at TGV in California, and starting collaborating with them on many interesting things.
• Co-founded Internode Systems in 1991, when things really started getting interesting:
• Became the primary distributor in Australia for TGV and Innosoft software
• Cisco Systems Partner and Master Distributor for VMS products (the former TGV products, Cisco acquired TGV), and then later sold to Process Software
• Many interesting technology developments with Epilogue Technology
• Much consulting work as an expert in the TCP/IP field
• Speaker and participant at many industry trade shows and events including many DECUS and Interop shows
• Member of the Internet Engineering Task Force, concentrating on Real Time audio/video transport issues. First Australian participant in the MBONE (IP Multicast backbone for real time audio/video across the internet)
• Co-developer of the first Internet Toaster, demonstrated first at Interop shows from around 1990, in parallel with a compatible toaster created by my friend John Romkey. John and I developed against the same SNMP MIB for toaster control. Yes, I can write tcp/ip software, not just use it :)
• Created prototype realtime audio transport systems for the Internet from 1990 onwards, demonstrated at various Interop tradeshows
• Diversified Internode to become an Internet Service Provider in addition to selling and supporting products for our existing national customer base. Internode Professional Access is the largest and fastest ISP in South Australia
• Built on collaborations with Carl Malamud of the Internet Multicasting Service by engineering and providing the Australian node for Central Park, the core structure of the Internet Worlds Fair in 1996
• Started a carrier, Agile Communications, in 1998. Clearly being a successful Internet Service Provider must be leaving me with too much copious free time :)

Simon Hackett: The Personal Version

When I'm not working on computer networking technology, or in a jet somewhere, or trying to figure out the meaning of life, I'd rather be... Gliding!

(click on the image for the view from the alternative office)

This is one of my gliders, the one I'm usually flying, VH-FQW , A Scheibe SF-25C MotorFalke, built in Dachau, Germany in 1978. It's great! It is a two seater side-by-side motor glider, with 700km range at 80kt under power, and a best glide ratio of around 25:1 with the engine off and the propellor feathered. The 1700cc engine runs on ordinary leaded automotive fuel. Of course, on a sunny day, it's not an issue because I'm zooming around on thermal lift anyway...

Another thing I enjoy greatly is music and mixing the use of computer creatively with music. That's lead to lots of interesting things, like the SNMP CD player with transmission of sound over the Internet (way back in 1991), collaborations with places like Real World, involvement in the live tranmission of music events over the internet using various technologies, off and on between the early 90's and today.

There is always somewhere new to go gliding...