William Donzelli (william(a)ans.net) writes: As I've mentioned elsewhere on this list, I used to make bisync and sdlc interface cards for PDP-11's and VAXen. They replaced the "HASPBOX" in 1982 (the HASPBOX was a PDP-11/04 or PDP-11/03 with 100% DEC boards that plugged into a unibus machine via DR11C and ran a custom communications package). It used a 68000 and between 32K and 2M of RAM (depending on the model) with a parallel port (Dataproducts, not Centronics) and a sync serial port (COM5025 UART or Z8530 SCC). It ran beteen 2400 baud to 64Kb (in Europe, 56Kb in the US). At that company, we didn't have Ethernet to link our machines. We used COMBOARD(R) to link VAXen for file transfers, and DMF-32/DMR11 and sync modem eliminators to link them for DECnet remote logins and such. The COMBOARDs were much lighter on the CPU, but were not useful for transparent kinds of I/O. You had to run (external) commands like SEND and RJEOPR to manipulate the files. Just for kicks (since I legally retain the copyrights of my former employer), I did an Altavista search for "RJEOPR" and the like and dug up a web page from a university that had put their VMS help files on the Web. Part of our installation procedure was to optionally mangle your help files to insert pages for our custom commands (back in the VMS3/4 days, before the advent of combination logicals to point to several directories simultaneously a-la SYS$MANAGER). The complete text of our help messages are up on the Web. While technically a copyright violation, I'm not concerned about protecting 15-year-old help files, if DEC/Compaq isn't concerned about same. Posting *source* is right out! But anyway, Yes, Virginia, there were networks before Ethernet. Not as fast, but viable over inter-state distances. At McMurdo Station, Antarctica, we have a station-wide FDDI ring linking the larger work centers. It's well over 1Km long, and is a very stable way of routing multiple Ethernets through dozens of buildings. It's been so stable that more than once, it escaped the attention of the network engineer that the ring was broken and wrapping, until he happened to make a visual inspection of a router that happened to be in my office, and noticed a particular light was on, indication this dangerous condition. (For the FDDI-impaired, FDDI is a token-style network with an A ring and a B ring, that can withstand one break, and "wrap" from end to end, like turning a circle into a horseshoe. This impairs efficiency, but not basic functionality, until a second break occurs, dividing your network into two independent segments. This Is Bad. It's important to nip that in the bud and restore the ring nature of the network before traffic or additional failures cause headaches). -ethan