Network visibility

Wed Oct 20 21:59:19 UTC 2021

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 at theworld.com wrote:
> 
> 
>> On October 20, 2021 at 16:08 mel at 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 at 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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