For several years we had UCSB’s IMP control panel hanging in our office as a wall decoration (it belonged to Larry Green, one of the UCSB IMPlementors). I still have the manuals. The actual IMP with 56Kbps modem was in a huge rack with lifting eyes for a fork lift, and weighed about 500 lbs. Every IMP had a unique customized host interface, which packetized bit-serial data from the host over the host’s usually proprietary I/O bus. While this was part of computers internetworking with each other, it was not the capital-I Internet. -mel
On Oct 20, 2021, at 2:20 PM, bzs@theworld.com wrote:
On October 20, 2021 at 16:08 mel@beckman.org (Mel Beckman) wrote: Mark,
Before 1983, the ARPANET wasn’t an internet, let alone The Internet. Each ARPANET connection required a host-specific interface (the “IMP”) and simplex Network Control Protocol (NCP). NCP used users' email addresses, and routing had to be specified in advance within each NCP message.
Then again there were IMPs fitted to various systems like TOPS-10, ITS, Vax/BSD Unix, IBM370, etc.
So was that really all that different from ethernet vs, oh, wi-fi or fiber today, you needed an adapter?
Even so, the Internet as a platform open to anyone didn’t start until 1992. I know you joined late, in 1999, so you probably missed out on this history. :)
Well, we certainly tried in 1989 :-) We had customers from all over The World, um, the big round one you see when you look down.
-mel
On Oct 20, 2021, at 8:43 AM, Mark Tinka <mark@tinka.africa> wrote:
On 10/20/21 17:26, Mel Beckman wrote:
Mark,
As long as we’re being pedantic, January 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet, when TCP/IP first let different kinds of computers on different networks talk to each other.
It’s 2021, hence the Internet is less than, not more than, 40 years old. Given your mathematical skills, I put no stock in your claim that we still can’t “buy an NMS that just works.” :)
Hehehe :-)...
I guess we can reliably say that the ARPANET wasn't keen on pretty pictures, then, hehe :-)...
Mark.
-- -Barry Shein
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