s2k.nnov.ru — the site of the Nizhny Novgorod company "Sintez-2000" (spelled in Latin script as Syntez-2000), which worked in network integration, uninterruptible power supply systems, and telephony[1][4]. The office was based in Nizhny Novgorod at Beketov Street, office 1, postal code 603146, and held three city phone lines — 61-54-78, 61-54-80, and 62-07-61[1]. The earliest capture of the home page in the web archive is dated January 16, 2000, and the last one October 2, 2003[6]; in this last snapshot the company already listed a different domain as its online address — www.s2k.ru[3].

2001: reconstruction and three encodings

The May 16, 2001 snapshot catches the site under rebuilding. The first thing a visitor saw was a warning typed in exclamation marks: "Attention, the site is under reconstruction!!! Stay tuned for updates!!!", as the home page announced[1]. Right there stood the encoding switch mandatory for the Russian internet of the time — win, koi, dos[1].

The company's line of business was spelled out in one line under the header: "network solutions - uninterruptible power supply systems - telephony - service"[1]. The menu consisted of the sections "About the Company," "Energy Audit" (marked "new"), "Products and Services," "Price Lists" (marked "upd"), "Projects and Solutions," "Service Support," and "Technical Information"[1]. The products section named two supplied brands right on the home page — Chloride and SDMO[1]. The company's mailbox, meanwhile, lived on a third-party domain: s2k@kis.ru[1].

2002: home page under job openings

By the September 28, 2002 snapshot the site had been rebuilt. The tagline next to the name had changed — "system integration new technologies" — and the line of business had become "network solutions - power supply systems - automation systems": telephony had dropped out of it, while automation appeared[2]. The menu had shrunk to four items: "About the Company," "Products and Services," "Price List," "Projects and Solutions"[2].

Most of the home page was taken up not by a showcase of services but by an announcement, "Very hot job openings (staff expansion)" — across three departments at once[2]. The "networks and telecommunications" department was looking for a corporate client account manager with a salary from 10,000 rubles (base pay plus commission plus bonus) and a cable systems design specialist from 6,000 rubles. "Electrical engineering systems" needed two client account managers, for small-and-medium electrical installations and passive electrical equipment respectively, both from 10,000 rubles, plus a design specialist from 6,000. "System support" was hiring a system administrator with a salary from 6,000 rubles[2].

The company described itself briefly: it develops and implements "balanced solutions" in four areas — computer networks and information technology, telephony and data transmission, electrical engineering and uninterruptible power supply, automation systems; it provides consulting and audit services; its staff were "professionally trained specialists with extensive practical experience building large information and electrical systems"; a separate line promised a "flexible pricing policy and financial arrangements"[2]. The address and phone numbers remained the same, on Beketova Street, and a link to a directions map appeared at the bottom[2].

2003: move to Meshchersky Boulevard

The October 2, 2003 snapshot opens with the announcement "We have moved to a new office!": "Dear Ladies and Gentlemen! The company 'Sintez 2000' has moved to a new office, located at: Meshchersky Boulevard, building 5," with an invitation to view the directions map[3]. The postal code changed to 603070, and so did the phone numbers: (8312) 722-534, 722-535, 722-536[3].

The line of business had also changed. The menu gained "Technical Information" and a cryptic item called "IB Systems," and in the list of business areas "automation systems" gave way to "intelligent building systems"[2][3]. The "system support" department disappeared from the job listings, while a new "automation and intelligent buildings" department appeared, seeking a corporate client account manager at the same salary of from 10,000 rubles[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru catalog the company was listed in two categories at once, both described by the same line: "Network integration. Uninterruptible power supply systems. Telephony."[4][5]. The first — "Companies (Enterprises): Computers and Office Equipment: Network Installation and System Integration": in the snapshot from June 20, 2002, "Sintez-2000" held the ninth line out of 25 when sorted by rating, with a score of 49; ahead of it were "Sunrise Computer Salon" with 223, the company "AVARD" with 191, "Roskompyuter" with 172, Ecotecnology pro systems with 151, the SOLAN group with 124, "Trikon Systems" with 102, Seti-NN" with 97, and "Intek Service Centre" with 53, while nine participants in the category had no score at all, marked "Rating: none"[4]. The second category — "Companies (Enterprises): Communications and Means of Communication: Communication Equipment, Services and Other": in the snapshot from August 16, 2002, this was the tenth line out of 25, with a score of 30[5].

The scores for the same site differ between the two categories, meaning the catalog rating was calculated separately for each category and was not a shared measure of the domain's traffic[4][5]. We have no other traces of its traffic: in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, on which the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating is based, the domain s2k.nnov.ru does not appear — only these two catalog lines. By December 2004, when the results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet were tallied, the site at its former address had already been gone for a year, and neither s2k.nnov.ru nor s2k.ru appears in the final voting table[7].

How it closed

The snapshot with the moving announcement turned out to be the last for the domain: the web archive did not preserve the s2k.nnov.ru home page after October 2, 2003[6]. The same snapshots show where the company was headed: while the 2001 and 2002 snapshots gave "Web: www.s2k.nnov.ru" in the signature, the 2003 one gave "Web: www.s2k.ru"[1][2][3]. So for the Nizhny Novgorod Internet this is a typical case not of death but of leaving the city zone: the firm outgrew its address on the nnov.ru domain and moved to its own second-level domain, and the old one simply stopped responding. What happened to the company itself and to the new site after 2003, the surviving materials do not show.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — nn.ru catalog, category "Network installation and system integration", 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — List of s2k.nnov.ru snapshots in the web archive (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru catalog, category "Communication equipment, services and other", 2002 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)