Who are we?

Net253 is a locally owned and operated business, we have been delivering commercial internet service to Kitsap business and governmental customers on the KPUD fiber optic network since 2013. If you are curious if Net253 is a good fit for your fiber, please look at our Blog, where Steve muses on about aspects of operating an internet service provider.

In November of 2017, Net253 began delivering residential internet for a new residential development (Roost) on Bainbridge Island. Net253 now serves residential customers in every corner of Kitsap, from the tip of Twin Spits, to Carney Lake in the south of the county.

Net253 is owned and operated by Stephen Hellriegel.

Steve is an electrical engineer (Sr. member of the IEEE), holds over 19 patents, and developed several generations of the largest supercomputers in the world while working at Cray Inc. Not only is Steve versed in network configuration and operations, his company builds the actual networking hardware customers use for specialized operations in data centers. When we say “internet by engineers” it is literally that.

In addition to Steve, Net253 has two additional electrical engineers available to help trouble shoot issues.

We have three technicians available for cabling/installation issues.

Speedtest link

Here is a link to SpeedTest. This is the same speedtest as generic speedtest.net but does not have advertisements, which can slow down the test.

Steve Hellriegel's Backstory

My grandfather was an early radio pioneer, he founded a radio institute in Buffalo, NY and performed the first portable FM transmission. His transmitter is now property of the Smithsonian Institute.

Growing up, we moved to Pennsylvania for my Dad's medical internship. In order to keep in touch with gramps we communicated by going to an amateur radio operators’ home where we used a phone patch to allowed us to communicate from Philadelphia to Buffalo wirelessly. This is back in the days when long distance was measured in tens of cents per minute.

I have always been involved in helping people communicate, compute, control, or automate. The invention of the computer was the first tool man has created that leverages the mind over the muscle. We are in the infancy of this journey and it is amazing.

For years,we paid $600 a month to have a 1.5mbit connection from my home to the workplace. Now we pay 1/10th that price to 100 times the bandwidth. Where else have you seen 1000x improvement in price/performance other than electronics?