Questions tagged [network]
Regarding retrocomputing networks, connections and protocols.
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Did ARPANET hosts have some kind of name resolving before 1974?
I'm trying to complete some information on the history of DNS and name resolution in networking. I've found some information on ARPANET and BBN's protocols relying on the numerical machine code for ...
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Why would email transmission change the 6-char sequence "0rom "?
According to the Ubuntu uuencode manpage: Specifically, email cannot handle binary data and will often even insert a character when the six character sequence "0rom " is seen.
Is (or was) ...
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How did the AOL software provide internet access to other applications running on Windows 95/98?
During the late 1990s, I (and countless others) accessed the internet by running software provided by America Online (mailed to my house on free CD-ROMs) and using a dial-up modem to access their ...
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Atari SIO vs IEEE 488
When Atari was designing the 800 series of computers, they needed a way to connect peripherals. To comply with FCC regulations on RF emission, it needed shielded cables. To achieve low cost of entry ...
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What systems actually used the ACCT command in FTP?
FTP has a USER command for sending the user name and a PASS command for sending the password. It also has an ACCT command, as RFC 959 page 26 explains:
ACCOUNT (ACCT)
The argument field is a ...
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What did corporations use for long-distance networks in the 1980s?
Although ARPANET was invented in 1969, the Internet as publicly available infrastructure didn't really become available until 1989. But people were certainly using computers as communication tools in ...
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How can I communicate with a Nintendo DS using the Download Play protocol?
Would it be possible to use a Nintendo DS's Download Play feature over the Internet? I don't have a ton of understanding of how the protocol works, but so far I'm pretty sure it uses a network of ...
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IBM RS/6000 Token Ring ISA card not operational
After solving a configuration challenge, the ISA Token Ring adapter in my RS/6000 is still not connected to the ring.
Extract from errpt -a:
LABEL: NONE
IDENTIFIER: 0118D2D0
Date/Time: ...
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IBM RS/6000 Token Ring ISA card fails configuration
The system at hand is a RS/6000 7248-100, running AIX 4.3.3.
My quest is to get a Token Ring ISA card to work. The card is a 2971 as called for by the docs.
SMS is happy with the card. I've set the ...
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Origin of Cisco-like CLI?
Loads and wagons of networking devices all over the world use the same manner for commandline interface (CLI). First I met it in 1990s at Cisco devices (switches, routers...) which used Cisco IOS. It ...
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Was there an equivalent to TELNET in the IPX/SPX protocol suite?
It seems logically like there would be, but I can't find much information.
I found an IBM AS/400 manual from 1997, OS/400 Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) Support V4R1, which briefly mentions using ...
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did people already connect computer with other computers (like a LAN/Intranet) before ARPANET/NPL that sparked the Internet? [closed]
As far as I understand ARPANET and NPL shared the goal to make data transmission scalable and reliable over large distances between many computers/networks. Of course to make the internet today, ...
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How can SPI be used with a Z80 CPU to control an RFM95 LoRa module?
I’m trying to communicate with my Z80 computer (RC2014) using a wireless radio. The easy way to do this is to use something like an ESP8266 (and there’s even an RC2014 module for this), but where’s ...
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Novell and DOS instant messaging
Long ago, there was a TSR that would allow instant messages to be sent and received between DOS based computers using a Novell network. I think it was called Noteworks.
It had a little airplane that ...
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Windows/lanman shares ending with $ are invisible - where did this come from?
(Inspired by a comment in an answer about CLOCK$ which says: the 'symbols with a dollar sign are reserved to us' was also a DEC convention, certainly on RSX-11M systems)
In Windows, network shares ...
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How should I set CCGMS on my Commodore 64 to login to a Linux machine?
I have a Strikelink WiFi modem for the C64 (see here and here) and I can connect to a BBS without issues using CCGMS 2017 v4 and the following settings:
Baud = 9600
Modem Type = UP9600 / EZ232
For ...
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Why was Wireplay "faster and more reliable" than dial-up Internet, since they both used the same hardware?
In 1997, there was this service called Wireplay in the UK.
Instead of using the Internet, you used it by directly phoning their servers with your modem from your PC, and the point of this was that it ...
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How to connect remote Windows XP PCs to one VPN using linux VPS in 2021 [closed]
I want to connect 2 (or more) Windows XP computers from different networks to a mutual virtual network. Also I have a VPS with a modern linux distribution with a public IP. I want to install some VPN ...
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Does 10BASE-T need more sophisticated electronics than 10BASE5/10BASE2?
In a discussion on the history of Ethernet and 10BASE5, Stefan Skoglund commented Was 10BASE5 a mistake?
One reason why 10BaseT became possible is Moores law (and the same for the other designs after ...
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What was the first Ethernet hub?
An Ethernet hub is – well, Wikipedia does an impeccable job of summarizing what it is:
An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport repeater, or simply hub is a network hardware ...
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Was 10BASE5 a mistake?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10BASE5 gives a succint but vivid description of the physical layer of the first version of Ethernet and its subsequent replacement:
10BASE5 (also known as thick ...
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Which computer system defined the IPv4 576 byte datagram limit?
The IPv4 specification requires that IPv4 devices must be able to reassemble a datagram with a length of a minimum of 576 bytes.
Looking back into the creation of the Internet...
RFC 791 in defining ...
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How and what did it mean to connect to ARPANET from home?
In the iWoz biography, I read:
Now, TV terminals I already knew a little about. […] I'd already built a terminal that could access the ARPANET, the government-owned network of computers that was the ...
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Is there any public documentation of the LapLink protocol?
Is the protocol used by the DOS Laplink software publicly documented?
I seem to remember there were Linux tools that could use it.
I cannot find anything useful on their website.
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How to SSH from Amiga to remote Linux host
With a new purchase coming in shortly I wanted to ask what do I need to be able to SSH to a remote host from an Amiga:
Make modem work and connect to my network:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KCWIFI-PRO-...
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Have TCP connections ever been exclusive per port?
I came across an old service which listens on a range of TCP ports. Client connections are handled with this scheme:
Client connects to the first port
Server answers with a port number and closes the ...
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In Windows 3.11, did a unusual subnet mask actually work?
AFAIK, in Windows 3.11 it was possible to enter all kind of subnet masks, e.g. 255.255.255.1. Nowadays, the bits of the mask have to be consecutive.
However, I could imagine that such a unusual subnet ...
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Network card that came bundled with a space war game
In the 90s, before everything was networked, you had to buy a Network Interface Card as an expansion card for your PC. One brand came with a bundled game where you piloted a space ship and fought ...
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Running Codenet on a Commodore 64 Emulator
I finally managed to get basic networking stuff working on VICE, thanks to another thread on Retrocomputing. I'm now wondering how to setup a Codenet server emulation.
I was able to identify four ...
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How to Perform RR-Net MK3 Detection on VICE Commodore 64 Emulator?
RR-Net documentation describes a detection algorithm for the MK3 model. The algorithm is supposed to reveal the last four hex digits of the MAC address. According to documentation the MAC address 28:...
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Running WarpCopy64 on an emulator
I'm interested in IP networking capabilities of the Commodore 64. I learned there is a tool called WarpCopy64 that can be used to run a simple file server on the Commodore. The server can be accessed ...
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Documents about timesharing systems, access and resource control and its financials
I delved a bit into the origins of (commercial) timesharing and it seems there have been very interesting computing hardware and software (architectures) which have become relatively unknown but may ...
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Was X.25 solely about the connection from the DTE to DCE link?
So I'm having a good bit of trouble understanding this protocol. Many resources seem to compare it to modern networking protocols in some way, while others, including the specification, seem to refer ...
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Is the thirty something year old RJ45 jack as small as it will ever get? [closed]
Why are micro-ethernet adapters not a thing? A physical adapter that takes our thirty year old standard sized RJ45 jack on one side and and plugs into a TabletPC on the other.
Every other form of ...
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Problem accessing Internet from old phones/PDAs (HTTPS, SSL, certificates, compatible services,....) [closed]
How to connect 18-12 years non supported OSes/devices to Internet?
Specifically PDAs and phones, that are more limited to use additional components/accesories?
(*) Answer related to computers can be ...
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Connect Ethernet via Parallel or Serial in old laptop
Is it possible to connect an old 386 machine to network (ethernet)? It has only parallel and serial ports. I'm not expecting much, just planning to use it as a remote terminal. The machine in question ...
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Networking WfW 3.11 between modern ethernet and 56k internal modem card
Is there any way i could use either of those networking cards and use them on a modern ethernet system? We have aDSL where i live. If i couldnt connect it to my home network, is there any way i could ...
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Does the "Amiga Client for Novell NetWare" exist?
On page 139 of Brian Bagnall's book "Commodore: The Final Years", there is the statement that at CeBIT Hannover in March 1989, Commodore announced (amongst other things) "Novell Netware for Amiga".
I ...
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Did this analogue computer from 1960 really have Internet?
If you zoom in this image, to the leftmost, white "cell" in the middle "row" of the machine, it says, in the bottom, "INT NET": https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/PACE-TR-...
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How to configure NETWORK and TCP on a DOS VM
I'm trying to install and use the Arachne broswer under DOS (6.22). I've DOS installed on VirtualBox VM (5.2.34) under Linux Ubuntu (4.15.0-88-generic #88-Ubuntu).
I'm in trouble in configuring ...
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What are some early network file systems?
I know it's always hard to define an exact first, so I'll just ask about early network file systems. To be more specific, I'm wondering about file systems that transparently present directories and ...
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How to set up a payphone phone network central office
I would like to setup a network of payphones inside my college as part of a retro phone systems / artistic interactive exhibit. I would like to be able to use the payphones to make calls inside the ...
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Why has Novell never written its own boot loader?
I've never used NetWare 5.x 6.x but if I remember correctly versions 3 and 4 required you to boot to DOS partition and then load NetWare server files from it. I could never understand the logic behind ...
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Did Xerox really develop the first LAN?
Did the computer scientist at Xerox really develop the first LAN, but had no backing from the company to further develop these technologies, later showing this to both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates?
Just ...
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DOS networking (Ethernet)
Would like to use a Linksys "Etherfast PCMPC100" PCMCIA network card under DOS 5.0, for file transfer. Am planning to use the "XFS" package to share directories with Linux.
Have found an archive file ...
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How to reset/recover password on Ascend/Lucent "SuperPipe 155" ISDN router
I am trying to set up a second-hand 1990s era Ascend/Lucent "SuperPipe 155" ISDN router for use with some of my 90s era computers, but I don't know the router's password and the instructions I found ...
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AppleTalk adapters to bridge LocalTalk to Ethernet?
What AppleTalk adapters can bridge LocalTalk to Ethernet? There are some adapter that allow LocalTalk printers to show up on ethernet, but I want to allow computers to talk. My IIgs has LocalTalk but ...
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Which microcomputer manufacturers developed their own Local Area Network systems? [closed]
With the advent of microcomputers, there was a large number of manufacturers entering the home computer market. The ability to network these computers together wouldn't be very useful (or affordable) ...
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When TCP was first invented, was the initial sequence number required to be random?
In current time, when a TCP connection is initiated, the initial sequence number is required to be random.
But I am wondering, when TCP was first invented, was the initial sequence number required to ...
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Windows 98 SE PC refusing to network using NIC/modems
The problem is basically as the title stated. I have a Compaq Presario PC from the late 90s running Windows 98 Second Edition. It was handed down so I'm not exactly sure what it went through in its ...
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