History Channel - The Internet: Behind the Web

From: William Donzelli <aw288_at_osfn.org>
Date: Sat Oct 12 22:38:00 2002

> So, the IMPs they built would be the first network interface, right? The
> precurser to the present-day NIC.

Nahhh...evrybody knows that the first real network was Ma Bell...

> I wonder if any of those are still
> around... Or if they're even used once in a while...

Until quite recently, the oldest parts of the Internet were some NSFnet
(ANS) era links. These are now gone. The old APRAnet (where IMPs lived)
links died years ago.

There are some private WANs that (at least fairly recently) use very old
technology. One of the sites I frequented (3 or 4 years ago) had a bunch
of blinkenlight HP minis used as NICs. Another used IBM S/1s. I never
found out who these machines belonged to.

William Donzelli
aw288_at_osfn.org
Received on Sat Oct 12 2002 - 22:38:00 BST