By Felicia Morton
for digitalMASS

What does he do? He is the founder and CEO of Xensei, an ISP, and the first web hosting service on the South Shore How's business? He has nearly 700 customers What drives him? Computers, collecting Pac-Man memorabilia and wood-working How do you contact him? jeffm@nullmodem.org

Jeff Morris, 31, President and CTO of the Xensei corporation, an ISP based in Quincy, is what you might call a geek's geek.

In the early 80's, he shared software on a 300 bps Commodore Vic-20 modem. Today, he salvages old computers and installs Linux operating systems on them for fun. He also has a wood shop in his office where he is making a jelly cupboard for his mom. He even collects Pac-Man memorabilia.

Morris founded Xensei in 1994, when the Internet was still the domain of high-tech pioneers. He was attracted to the idea of running his own business, and it sounded like a cool idea to him after working as a senior network engineer for Fidelity Investments in Boston. Xensei was the first Web-hosting service on the South Shore. Today, he has nearly 700 customers, including Yankee Publishing, Teddy Peanut Butter and Cheers Pub in Boston. Although he is mum on the financials of his company, he charges from $24.95 to $99.00 per month for Web hosting. You do the math.

What's notable about Morris is that he didn't attend college. In fact, he never wanted to. Instead, he started working for State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston's Financial District in the late 80's, back when they only had four personal computers in the entire company.

"I was telling them that they needed to get e-mail, too, but they didn't think so," says Morris, shaking his head. "I knew the Internet was going to be something big."

After he finished building the bank's computer network, he thought it was pretty boring to just hang around as their network administrator. "Basically, I would help people with questions like, why isn't my printer working?" says Morris. "And I'd say, because it's not plugged in."

Morris's attention span couldn't take it, so in 1994, after several similar positions at other large companies, he started Xensei with $10,000. He bought two servers and set up shop in a small office in Quincy. Today, Morris runs high-end servers on a customized system he calls "totally redundant." This is a good thing.

"I have designed the network so that if one piece fails, another will take over," he says.

He is happy to show off his equipment. Morris walks into the primary server communications room cautiously, like a father peering in the bedroom of his sleeping children. There, he sees his creation, a mass of circuitry-encased in plastic, held together by fiber optic, cable and electric wires. Basically, it's the server room. But to Morris, it's his life.

"These are like my babies," he says, touching the plastic lovingly. "Sometimes they keep me up at 3 a.m., though."

Does he ever get a vacation?

"Not unless he takes the servers with him," jokes Laura Adams, director of business development for Xensei.

All in all, they don't seem to give him too much trouble. He has enough time to cultivate other interests, such as collecting Pac-Man memorabilia. Indeed, his inventory of Pac-Man collectibles is impressive. It includes a Pac-Man telephone, a Pac-Man gumball machine, a Pac-Man bath set including yellow soap that is shaped like Pac-Man and blue soap that is shaped like the Ghosts. And the list goes on.

"I have Pac-Man sheets and a Pac-Man bedspread but my girlfriend won't let me use them," says Morris.