Since everyone seems to want to tell their network history stories, here's
mine.
I worked in a group of about 30 people which was part of a university
laboratory mainly doing work for the U.S. Navy. My group had about half PCs
and half Macs. When the group bought an Apple laser printer sometime about
1987, they wanted to set things up so that all the computers in the group
could use the printer. After all, the thing cost $2,500 and there was no
chance of ever getting more of them at that lofty price.
There was no particular desire to link the group's ten or so computers so
that they could share data, just enable them to print with that expensive
laser printer. I was asked to come up with a proposal for a network to
accomplish this. I don't know why they asked me, I wasn't particularly a
computer geek. We had many in the laboratory who were very competent with
computers but none who were especially so in our group. After reviewing the
then-current technology, I wrote a memo suggesting the use of Apple Talk. As
I recall, the Macs in the group would be able to use it directly and cards
were available to insert into the PCs.
I don't know if they ever acted on my suggestion or not, as I retired soon
afterward, but that's the story of my VAST experience with networking.
73,
Bill Tynan, W3XO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph W5JGV" <w5...@w5jgv.com>
To: "'FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz'" <flexradio@flex-radio.biz>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Real Radios
Memories, my first network experience was with coax based Ethernet
cards
from Artisoft using Lantastic before Microsoft even offered networking
in Win 3.1
I think I can beat that - I started with networked DOS machines using a
program called "Little Big LAN." It connected through either parallel
printer ports or through serial ports. It required you to write a
simple text configuration to make it work. Well, it was simple, unless
you mapped all available drive letters A through Z on all machines, as I
did with two of my five computers. It worked amazingly well, and I used
it to run a multi-line BBS for ten years. I also had DesqView on a
couple of the boxes so I could multitask programs, such as individual
BBS instances. And everything ran with 8 MB of Ram. Of course, when
Lantastic appeared, Little Big Lan faded into the night. I did keep the
disks, just in case... <G>
Memories, indeed...
73,
Ralph W5JGV - WD2XSH/7
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