IBM PC Network

[Lyle Bickley]

Hi Grant,

On Sat, 22 May 2021 13:34:05 -0600
Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> Q:  Does anyone have any IBM PC Network hardware and / or software that 
> they would be willing to part with?

My company installed a several hundred IBM PC Network equipped workstations
"back in the day" ;)

It was a very stable network and had the advantage that one could use existing
75 ohm cable that could be simultaneously used for video (although, most of
our installations were network only).

IBM's NETBIOS was integrated into the IBM PC Network board. I wrote a
network utility program to analyze NETBIOS networks (which was advertised in
"Byte Magazine"). My largest software clients were TRW and the U.S. Navy. I
tried to get the U.S. Navy as a client (unsuccessfully) - as they had bought
my utility software and complained to me that it didn't support their 10,000+
workstations!

Unfortunately, I long ago got rid of all my IBM PC Network cards and related
hardware. (I still have some IBM Token Ring stuff, though).

We also had several clients who "picked" Arcnet. We never recommended it - but
IT folks had their own opinions - and we were a network/system-integration firm
and would do whatever the the client asked for. (We later got to convert all
of our Arcnet clients to IBM Token Ring or Ethernet. Kinda like "double
dipping" ;)

By the late 1980's I had converted all of our clients to Token Ring
(especially those with IBM Mainframes) or Ethernet.

All the PC Network hardware was ultimately scrapped...

Cheers,
Lyle
--

> The recent "COMPAQ ISA PC to ethernet" thread got me thinking about IBM 
> PC Network (and ARCnet) again.
> 
> Sadly, Wikipedia's IBM PC Network article [1] is about the most concise 
> / complete source of information that I've seen in the past.  I'd like 
> to learn more.  I knew about the F connectors on coax cable, but was not 
> aware of centralized device needed to do frequency translation.
> 
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Network
> 
> 
> 



-- 
73   NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West
https://bickleywest.com

"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"