46
votes
Accepted
Which computer system defined the IPv4 576 byte datagram limit?
576 bytes was the standard buffer size in DECnet Phase IV use inside DEC.
Why 576? Because a FILES-11 disk block was 512 bytes, you needed a few more bytes for protocol overhead, and the allocation ...
- 33.5k
43
votes
Accepted
Was 10BASE5 a mistake?
The performance (except for allowable cable length, see below) was the same between 10BASE5, 10BASE2 and 10BASE-T, and you have the complexity backwards: the coax is simpler than the twisted pair.
The ...
- 24.6k
33
votes
Accepted
What was the technical reason behind the octal digits used for CompuServe User IDs?
It appears to be a legacy from TOPS-10. The easy part: octal was more popular in the 60s and 70s in general, but especially at DEC, which produced a number of 18-bit machines; the 3 bits per symbol ...
- 4,475
33
votes
Accepted
Did Xerox really develop the first LAN?
Xerox developed ethernet. Was there a local area network preceding ethernet?
There was certainly wide area networking before ethernet, e.g. ARPANET dating from 1969.
There was also local networking ...
- 58.4k
32
votes
When TCP was first invented, was the initial sequence number required to be random?
The first standard specifying modern TCP is RFC793 from 1981 (with predecessors dating back to 1974), which says about initial sequence number selection:
To avoid confusion we must prevent segments ...
- 1,686
32
votes
Accepted
Does the "Amiga Client for Novell NetWare" exist?
The "Amiga Client Software for Novell Netware v1.4" (official name) was created in 1992 by Oxxi. It is available as a set of six(6) floppy disk images most places where Amiga abandon-ware is found. ...
- 60.1k
31
votes
Accepted
How and what did it mean to connect to ARPANET from home?
You dial in with a terminal to a TIP (Terminal Interface Processor), which then offers a simple command interface to connect you to some host machine.
Living Internet web site
Wikipedia
Functionally, ...
- 33.5k
27
votes
Why was Wireplay "faster and more reliable" than dial-up Internet, since they both used the same hardware?
This article from British Telecom says Wireplay launched in June 1996 as a way to host multiplayer games over a closed dial-up network. This is why it was "non-Internet": All players were ...
- 3,763
25
votes
Which microcomputer manufacturers developed their own Local Area Network systems?
One prime example is the Econet networking system designed by Acorn Computers.
Best known for their BBC Microcomputer and Archimedes systems, Acorn started with a range of modular rack-based ...
- 8,036
25
votes
Accepted
Does 10BASE-T need more sophisticated electronics than 10BASE5/10BASE2?
I designed a 10BASET ethernet chip (codename ENZO used in Sage MainLAN https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1991-01-rescan/page/n67/mode/2up?q=sage+mainlan) and produced a proposed design for a ...
- 5,277
24
votes
Accepted
Why has Novell never written its own boot loader?
In order to load files from the SYS volume NetWare needs to have a device driver for the kind of disk your SYS volume lives on. Considering that you might put your SYS volume on an MFM drive, or RLL, ...
- 11.4k
21
votes
Why was Wireplay "faster and more reliable" than dial-up Internet, since they both used the same hardware?
I was the architect for BT Wireplay from 1995-2000 and am one of the co-authors of the patented network protocol. Essentially @hobbs answer is correct, in that 90s Internet links were often highly ...
- 311
20
votes
Connect Ethernet via Parallel or Serial in old laptop
Yes. For example, the Xircom PE3-10BT is a parallel port adapter that allows an RJ45 connector be plugged into it. You don't get full 10 Mbps with it, but it works. Mine is powered via a PS/2 port ...
- 4,643
20
votes
Does 10BASE-T need more sophisticated electronics than 10BASE5/10BASE2?
Your question seems to ignore the topology of a network completely:
If you want to connect, say 20 computers via Thickwire or BNC, you need:
A length of the chosen cabling
20 MAUs if you want ...
- 33k
19
votes
Was 10BASE5 a mistake?
Something that enabled functional multiaccess local area networks hardly seems like a mistake.
At the time, or at least in my experience, your networked computers were in a dedicated room. The cables ...
- 33.5k
19
votes
Why was Wireplay "faster and more reliable" than dial-up Internet, since they both used the same hardware?
If they still use the same modem, and the same telephone wires, why is "not using the Internet" faster and more reliable for playing (supported) games "online"?
The internet is a ...
- 4,475
17
votes
Did this analogue computer from 1960 really have Internet?
No, this has nothing to do with any networks; the "INT" stands for "integrator." That panel and the adjacent one to the right are the interface to an integrator/memory module:
Integrators in analogue ...
- 24.6k
17
votes
Does 10BASE-T need more sophisticated electronics than 10BASE5/10BASE2?
The per-port electronics in the network card is very similar, no matter whether you use 10base2 or 10baseT. AUI is slightly simpler on the network card, as a part of the electronics is not in the card,...
- 7,636
16
votes
Format of "Pound" domains in RFC 821
It's called a #-literal. It's basically an Internet host number (IP address) written as a decimal number and it's been obsolete for almost as long as the Internet has existed. The current version of ...
- 11.4k
16
votes
Accepted
In Windows 3.11, did a unusual subnet mask actually work?
The first question would be: "with what Winsock stack?"
As originally shipped, Windows for Workgroups didn't support IP at all. Somewhere along the line (but I'm not sure of the exact date) ...
- 4,742
15
votes
Accepted
When was network byte order decided?
As far as I can see, RFC 1700 doesn’t define “network byte order” as a phrase; it specifies the order of transmission of bytes (or octets) on the network, as done previously in the RFCs it obsoletes (...
- 118k
15
votes
Did people back then build powerful computers out of multiple smaller machines?
Did people back then build supercomputers out of multiple smaller ones?
What smaller ones?
But there have been multiprocessor systems.
For one, multi processor systems have been around since the ...
- 213k
14
votes
Accepted
Which microcomputer manufacturers developed their own Local Area Network systems?
Preface: As with many early questions, it's up to the definition of network. It might be helpful not to tie this too close to our modern understanding of a connection between (mostly) equal peers.
...
- 213k
14
votes
Accepted
Network card that came bundled with a space war game
The description of space combat over a network also matches NetWars, which was bundled with Novell DOS and Personal Netware.
- 6,925
14
votes
Which computer system defined the IPv4 576 byte datagram limit?
Which computer system defined the IPv4 576 byte datagram limit
The question seems to be made under the impression that this is a maximum limit defined by some machine that needed to take part. But it ...
- 213k
14
votes
Accepted
How can SPI be used with a Z80 CPU to control an RFM95 LoRa module?
SPI is eventually the most simple interface to implement. It was designed especially to work with low end processors. I tend to use SPI for all my micro controller designs (*1).
Unless one intends to ...
- 213k
13
votes
When TCP was first invented, was the initial sequence number required to be random?
It is not actually required that the TCP initial sequence number be random. It would be more correct to say that it is chosen arbitrarily, or to put it another way, that there is no rule specifying ...
- 11.4k
13
votes
Connect Ethernet via Parallel or Serial in old laptop
If you have another computer to hook it up to and act as a bridge (or router), you could in principle run SLIP or PPP over the serial port to another machine. You're unlikely to get speeds exceeding ...
- 681
12
votes
Accepted
DECNet physical connector
DECnet is more of a protocol suite than a physical hardware standard. So asking what kind of physical connector it uses is kind of like asking what kind of physical connector TCP/IP uses -- the ...
- 11.4k
12
votes
How and what did it mean to connect to ARPANET from home?
Simply, he built a serial terminal which reads ASCII text from an RS-232 connection and displays it on the screen. Then when you type something on the keyboard, it sends that back over the RS-232 ...
- 17.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible