History of CharlesWorks

Charles's roots in the computer field go back to the late1970s when he wrote a program that ran on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Level II microcomputer called Access-80. There is a photo of the actual system at http://Access-80.com. The system was jerry rigged to answer a 300 baud modem (that's .3k as compared to 56k today). Such systems were referred to as a computerized BBS (Bulletin Board System). A novel function on the Access-80 system was available to the caller that offered a relatively new concept. That function was delivered by another program Charles wrote that he called "email." There is also more about Access-80 on Charles's personal page at http://Oropallo.org.

Based in Massachusetts, The Internet Access Company (TIAC), was Charles and Susan Oropallo's personal Internet Service Provider (ISP) from June 1998. Using server space on another company's web servers is a common practice. Charles was essentially what is referred to as a web services reseller at that time. TIAC provided 56k dial-up Internet access. With their Internet service came a five megabyte personal web space. This was the first Internet space that Charles managed and essentially the start of CharlesWorks. He created personal web pages on a machine in his home using Microsoft FrontPage Express software and uploaded them to the the Internet using a file transfer program (WS_FTP). He had placed some personal information and photos on web pages that were online for family and friends to view. He also experimented with the Personal Web Server (PWS) that was part of Windows 95 and Windows 98. He had overcome the five megabyte space limitation by putting his own pages online over a modem connection. This was before the days of the ISPs blocking port 80.

In April 1999, Charles put forth a proposal at an Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) of New Hampshire meeting he attended. He proposed that a web site be set up so the AVP workshop scheduling could be accessible twenty-four hours a day to facilitators (or anyone) desiring to participate in an AVP workshop. Charles volunteered to manage the site as part of the Oropallo's personal web space.

TIAC agreed to provide hosting for AVPNH at no charge in June 1999, provided the site space did not exceed the five megabyte limit that was available through the Oropallo's personal TIAC account. On July 6, 1999 the AVPNH.org domain name was purchased and Charles began managing http://AVPNH.org.

The Maine AVP organization was equally interested in a web presence and hired Charles to create their web site. On August 24, 2000 he began managing the Maine AVP site, still located at http://AVP-ME.org.

Over time, TIAC was gobbled up by a larger ISP. Their service worsened to a point where Internet access was terrible. For days on end one could not dial in. Charles experienced intense frustration and wanted to change to a different ISP but felt locked into TIAC because they continued to allow AVPNH.org free web access.

During this time, Charles also started doing web services for a professional speaker in NH.

It was not until July 2001 that Charles found another company willing to host AVPNH.org at no charge, provided he hosted a personal or business site with them. It was on that date that the Oropallo.org domain was obtained and the personal space from the old TIAC space was now available under its own domain name. AVPNH.org was moved to the new hosting company as well. The new company also allowed space for AVPME.org and along with KezarTraining.com now Charles was managing sites on the new company's servers.

Before long, Charles managed about a dozen sites on the new company's servers. The management was soon happening under CharlesWorks, a series of domain names Charles had purchased. Service was inexpensive, but, as it turned out, increasingly unreliable. As if it were not bad enough that the server down time was worsening, there was no way to ever speak with a person about the problems. As the service worsened there was less communication from those managing it. It disappeared at one point for in excess of three weeks. So, free hosting for non-profit organizations or not, another hosting company had to be found. There were important schedules and information on the non-profit sites that many folks relied upon, as well as email, that became increasingly unavailable.

The next hosting company was more expensive. Their service appeared much more reliable. However, after only a couple of months with them, a bug surfaced in the operating system of the server CharlesWorks was on. The bug made it impossible for CharlesWorks clients to update their own sites. The hosting company unsuccessfully endeavored to resolve the problem.

The problem went on for a number of weeks. After several hundred hours of work CharlesWorks was forced to explore a more reliable solution. Operating its own servers had been a goal since the inception of CharlesWorks. So that's exactly what happened in August 2003 and has been happening ever since.

CharlesWorks currently has its offices in Peterborough, NH. It operates its own servers in Peterborough, NH, in Dublin, NH and in Antrim, NH. Several more locations are in the works.

The CharlesWorks servers currently direct Internet traffic for over 1,400 domains as of June 2008.