As a few of you may know, I have a Web site of my own.

It isn't a big commercial site. It doesn't sell anything or have flashy effects or use more plug-ins than an old maid on a lonely night. It's simply my virtual portfolio. As a poor and humble writer, I find that referring a potential client to a URL is much cheaper than Fed-exing three pounds of sample articles and similar evaluative materials to somebody who might never even look at them.

My Web site was born in early 1997. I built it just a few months after I first got online, using GTE as my ISP. At first, I put my site on GTE's servers. At some point, I decided to get a virtual domain of my own. But GTE wanted $500 to set up my site, and another $29.95 a month to host it!

At the time, I was co-hosting the Internet Gazette Radio Show. One week Brian Daily, the show's producer, invited FlexNet owner Del Wong to be a guest on the show. I remember being impressed by Del's intelligence and offbeat sense of humor. But what REALLY impressed me was the fact that FlexNet would host my site for only $15 a month!

So I moved all my scribblings over to Del's servers.

Flash-forward a year or so. I moved back to the mainland, and decided to leave my site with FlexNet. Why? I suppose I liked the idea that I've still got a little bit of space out there in Paradise, no matter how infinitesimal that space may be.

Sometime in the second quarter of 1998, I got a canned message from FlexNet, announcing that payments would only be accepted online, via credit or debit card. However, a spoonful of sugar accompanied this message: the monthly fee for hosting domains and dial-up access had gone down to $9.95!

Del's notes and status updates have always intrigued and amused me. As I told him recently, it's quite a trick to make someone laugh at the same time you're taking their money and calling them 'stupid'. So I decided to interview the ornery, arrogant, funny, very smart guy who runs FlexNet. Without further ado, here are the highlights of the conversation between Wright and Wong.

CAROLINE WRIGHT: When did you start FlexNet, and why?

DEL WONG: Well, lessee. I got my first taste of the Internet at U.H. Manoa, used my in-law's account (she was faculty) to sneak around, later used and abused her account to hook up a Linux system with one modem, used another modem for dial-in access by my "users", ran a BBS for eight years prior, got kicked out by U.H., got my in-law in trouble, then I became fed up and got my own 56Kbps line direct to the mainland for the Internet, then offered true Internet access to my 300 BBS users, of whom 200 or so decided to pay me twenty-five buckeroos a month.

We offered Internet access on a trial basis on July 12th, 1994 and July 19th we started charging for real.

Here is the no-bullshit chronological order of Hawaii ISP beginnings: Flex came first in 1994, then a month later Hawaii Online, then a month after that came PixiNet. At end of 1994, LavaNet. In early 1995, we helped set up MauiNet and a whole rash of other ISPs - Interlink/Interpac, Kauai Internet, Dataplus, and Pacific Onramp.

WRIGHT: How many customers did you have at the beginning of 1999, and how many at the end?

WONG: Well, at the beginning of 1999 we had around 1300 users, I'd say. We cracked 2000 before the end of the year. Now we have around 2500 or so. Plus, we have around 1000 to 1300 resale accounts on top of that.

WRIGHT: Why does Flex only want customers who are experienced Internet & computer users?

WONG: We look for computer-smart, internet-savvy users. Our business model is based on NO TECH SUPPORT. I leave that to places like Lava Net (who does a great job at it, from what I hear.) We qualify our users/customers. We find customers to fit our business, not change our business to fit the customer.

Now, before you blow up and call me a snob, consider this. Would you walk into McDonald's, ask for lobster and steak to go, and then suggest that they should be added to the menu? 'Course not.

Just like FlexNet, except McDonald's does it with a smile. Lots of prospects get put off by my "attitude", but heck, FlexNet is Del Wong. I encounter just as many users who love my attitude as I encounter those who don't.

WRIGHT: You moved over to a credit-card-only payment system a couple years ago. Is this unique among Hawaii ISPs? Did it cost you many accounts? How has this made your business more efficient?

WONG: Most ISPs will take anybody (instead of screening, like we do), and take checks and whatnot. FlexNet automates the entire process - signup, initial payment, dunning notices and inactivation upon non-payment. Everything is automated. And we pass the savings on to the customer.

Any ISP must have a handle on what I call the dreaded ABCs... Accounting, Billing and Collections. Fail or fall down in any one area, and you can kiss that ISP goodbye.

Jeff Tupa (former FlexNet Webmaster) and I both did the Web programming. Everything is in real time, so once you sign up and put in your credit card, your FlexNet account is active within 2 to 3 minutes, tops. Twenty fours hours a day, everyday. The online account status screen shows your complete history with us, and also provides a printable invoice. Real slick, if I do say so myself.

WRIGHT: How fast are your customers connecting to the Internet? What is your modem-to-user ratio? How many are ADSL accounts?

WONG: If you've got the smarts to do the ethernet configs yourself, you will be very, very happy with our ADSL. Overjoyed even. We installed a special DS3 Frame Relay link just for our ADSL customers. DS3 is equivalent to 28 T1 Frame Relay circuits. A single T1 (or maybe two T1s) is what most ISPs use for ADSL incoming customers.

Now think. How can an ISP legitimately sell a T1 Platinum ADSL access over this single T1, and also dump other ADSL customers on this very same T1? They'd be selling snake oil, dat's what.

We do it right and so far are the only Hawaii ISP to do so.

Our modem pool kinda sucks right now, to be honest, but we will have brand new stuff online before this article hits the stands, so watch out!

FlexNet rocks.

WRIGHT: You've seen some pretty big changes this month. You have a new Cisco 3661 router now Has it met your expectations?

WONG: Our initial 3661 had BIG PROBLEMS. Kept crashing. And crashing. After two weeks of "hmmmms" from Cisco tech support, they finally sent us a brand new unit which works flawlessly. It is running eight T1 serial ports, and a fast 45Mbps HSSI port. It handles our four different Internet Feeds and all our frame and ADSL customers. Really a great piece of hardware. At only 35 percent processor usages.

WRIGHT: What factors most influenced or affected your business in the last year?

WONG: Luck. Pure dog luck. Right place, right time. Goddess blessings. Not parking my Lexus under a tree. Voices in the night sky. Take your pick.

WRIGHT: How has Hawaii's soft economy affected Flex?

WONG: We are a 'Net business, so Hawaii's economy bothers us not, either way. Frankly we don't make money doing modems or ADSL, which is local income. We make our money on the 'Net.

WRIGHT: It seems like the newsgroups are fairly Flex-hostile. Somebody on one said recently that you'd oversold your capacity. How do you respond?

WONG: I don't bother anymore reading the dang thing. As I said before, our present modem situation is crappy. But by the time this article comes out, we will again rock in that department. No worry.

WRIGHT: What percent of Hawaii's market share have you captured? Does FlexNet really have more bandwidth than the other Hawaii ISPs?

WONG: Market share? Who's blowing on that balloon? I don't think we make a blip on anyone's screen. We don't really need to, to survive. Actually, I am doing the modeming and low pricing thing just for fun. I've been told to my face by other ISPs that I am ruining the market, that I charge way too little. Other people go drinking or golfing. I like playing with modems/ADSL and low pricing. Lots of fun. So I'm a little wacked...

As for bandwidth, we hold our own. We have links to UUNET and AT&T directly, plus two other links as backup. Total is around 10.5 Mbps. Actually we hardly go over 30 percent utilization on our feeds. And most of that is taken up by stupid news feeds.

WRIGHT: Are you a millionaire yet?

WONG: If people knew what we pull in from all our activities, they'd slap my head in total disgust! Several times. Let's just say I am a Republican.

WRIGHT: Who is the staff of FlexNet? Are you a one-man band? Is Missus Wong still helping you out? Is Flex your only business, or do you have other irons in the fire? What are they?

WONG: Everything is secret. Don't Tell, Don't Ask.

WRIGHT: How have customers responded to your decision to dump the GTE numbers in your modem access pool in favor of GST numbers exclusively?

WONG: Well, our entire present modem pool is crap. But it won't be that way by the time you read this article. Count on it.

WRIGHT: What's next for FlexNet?

WONG: Ask me that next time.

Visit FlexNet's Web site at www.flex.com.

Caroline Wright, of WRIGHT FOR YOU Word Services, is a freelance writer. A former resident of Hawaii, she now lives in rural South Carolina. Feel free to e-mail your comments to Caroline at cw@wrightforyou.com.