As the World Wide Web became more popular, and users were looking for an easy way to surf the Web, Netcom released a Windows 3.1 based program called NetCruiser (originally it was to be called Internet Xpress, but there were legal issues with calling it by that name, so it was changed in the latter part of development). The NetCruiser service became very popular and made Netcom one of the leading Internet Service Providers by the mid 1990s.
Netcom On-line gained a lot of press when The Church of Scientology sued them for copyright infringement. On February 13, 1995, armed police officers and attorneys from the Church of Scientology raided the home of Dennis Erlich, a former minister of the Church of Scientology. Mr. Erlich was charged with copyright infringement of the Church's sacred writings, and Netcom On-line was sued by the Church because a BBS owned by Tom Klemesrud was hosting the alleged infringing postings. This case caused an uproar in the Internet industry at the time since Netcom didn't actually post the content, did not know about the material being under copyright, and could not control what customers could do with their service. Netcom and Klemesrud eventually settled out of court (see Scientology vs. the Internet for more information).
In December 1995, Netcom Canada, a subsidiary of Netcom On-line was launched in Toronto, Ontario with Ron Close as its CEO. Netcom Canada boasted a Canada Wide Network, and allowed U.S. Netcom customers to access their Internet accounts via their network using either NetCruiser or any PPP dialer. It was the first Internet Service Provider to become EBITDA positive.
In February 1996, computer security researcher Tsutomu Shimomura monitored Netcom's network to track down an unknown attacker who electronically broke into his computer. While monitoring their network, he discovered the person who compromised his computer was Kevin Mitnick.
In May 1996, Netcom Internet Limited, a subsidiary in the United Kingdom was launched. In 1997, Internetcom do Brasil SA was founded as a joint project between Netcom On-line and Itanet, a Brazilian telephone company.
In 1996 the company claimed to be the world's largest ISP, with some 500,000 subscribers.
In 1997, Rieger turned the presidency of Netcom over to David Garrison, formally of Skytel and under his direction, the company ventured into the business services market with its web hosting and hi-speed business connectivity products. On October 13 of the same year, ICG Communications announced in a press release that it had "entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger with NETCOM On-Line Communication Services, Inc.". In February, 1999, ICG sold off the Netcom's U.S. subscribers and other assets to Mindspring Enterprises Inc for $245 million in cash and stock. Netcom Canada was bought by was eventually merged with Metronet (the first Canadian CLEC), and AT&T Canada, with the combined entity acquiring the AT&T Canada name (later, in the summer of 2003, this entity dropped the AT&T name and rebranded itself as Allstream). Meanwhile, at the time of the Mindspring acquisition, Netcom Internet Limited in the United Kingdom became GTS Netcom, and in March 2003, it became part of the Viatel Group along with another business ISP, Cybernet. On January 12th, Netcom Internet Ltd was rebranded to Viatel.