XS4ALL: Голланд интернет провайдерінің тарихы мен мұрасы

XS4ALL was an Internet service provider (ISP) in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers club Hack Tic
by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp, Paul Jongsma and Cor Bosman, while based in Amsterdam. It was the sixth provider in the Netherlands (after NLnet, SURFnet, HCC!hobbynet, Knoware and IAF) and the second company to offer Internet access to private individuals. Initially only offering dial in services via modem and ISDN, it later expanded to offer dial up access as well as ADSL, VDSL, and fiber optic (FTTH) services as well as mobile internet (but no calling or texting). The name is a play on the English pronunciation of access for all. As of 2007, XS4ALL was one of the larger ISPs in The Netherlands. In 2005, the company had a turnover of 86.1 million euro, realising a 15.4 million euro profit before taxes. Also in 2005, XS4ALL employed 327 people (325 FTE) and served 265,000 private subscribers. The company is known for its willingness to take on controversial issues; has taken legal action against spammers, and fought over other legal issues in court, such as Scientology vs. the Internet. XS4ALL was sold to KPN in December 1998, but remained an independent subsidiary. A petition and a special action commission was started to try to revert this decision, the petition has been signed over 50,000 times, signatories include ex board members and founders of XS4ALL. In November 2019 the committee launched a new company named Freedom Internet, meant to serve as an ideological successor to XS4ALL, and supported by a crowdfunding action that raised 2.5 million euro. From these days there is also a relationship with NGO Bits of Freedom, an organisation promoting Freedom of Speech: BoF was a strong supporter for Karin in her fight with Scientology. A video appeared from anonymous featuring the office building of XS4ALL.

In December 1996, XS4ALL put the Belgrade radio station B92 online using streaming audio technology in response to the jamming of its broadcasts by the regime of Slobodan Milošević. XS4ALL installed a leased line to the radio station in response to a request from Adriënne van Heteren, a Dutch citizen who went to Belgrade to set up various cultural activities. After XS4ALL had launched the online broadcast of Radio B92, its signal was picked up by the Voice of America and BBC World Service and transmitted back into Serbia, where it was then also transmitted via several local radio stations. XS4All opened up their—still existing—dial in modems to give people from Egypt direct access to the open internet. Because international telephone connections from Egypt to the rest of the world were not blocked, people could dial into the modems in Amsterdam and from there subsequently log into the internet using username and password xs4all. When later that year a similar situation arose in Libya, the possibilities of such connections were brought to the attention of protesters in that country.

In December 1998, XS4ALL was sold to the Dutch incumbent phone company KPN. Many of the original employees, especially system managers, still work there. XS4ALL also sponsors and hosts the sites of many free software projects, like Python, Squirrelmail and Debian. It sponsors the data traffic of ScriptumLibre, and thereby indirectly helps projects like Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) and the Free Software Translation Project.