Networking 3Com’s Three Losing Bets Against Novell May 7, 2026 by mark | Leave a Comment I ran across this article written by Bob Metcalfe in 1991 about 3Com’s losing bets against Novell. This contained an important fact in our research about Ethernet development in the 1980s. To summarize the article, those losing bets were: Thanks to David Strom who originally posted scans of this on his Happy 40th birthday, Ethernet […] Read more » 3com etherlink etherseries netware novell
Networking A 1988 performance comparison of PC LAN servers May 5, 2026 by mark | Leave a Comment In our 1980s networking research, we came across this: a 1988 paper out of the National University of Singapore where Gee-Swee Poo and Tiow-Seng Tan benchmarked the file server performance of 3Com 3Plus, Novell Advanced Netware 286, and IBM PC Network, all running on IBM PC ATs (plus the dedicated 3Com 3Server thrown in for […] Read more » 3com 3server ethernet netware novell
Internet Networking Microcom ISPorte: An Elusive Managed Modem Chassis [part 1] March 17, 2026 by David Beauchamp | Leave a Comment Our story today begins the way many readers will be quite familiar with; one evening, while killing time looking at surplus networking equipment on eBay, I happened across a piece of hardware that immediately grabbed my attention. The description did not add much more of value, other than directing me back to the single image […] Read more » compaq ISPorte
Networking Full BGP table in Linux with FRR May 2, 2025 / October 9, 2025 by mark | 2 Comments on Full BGP table in Linux with FRR For a project, we need to be able to simulate sending full Internet BGP routes to devices in our lab. While we could create a simulated table ourselves in a vacuum (i.e. 500k+ static routes in Linux then resdistribute with BGP), my natural inclination was to use a live Internet feed. How to get the […] Read more » bgp frr
Total Control Total Control: Netserver config September 26, 2024 / September 26, 2024 by mark | Leave a Comment Since we didn’t know the password, we flipped up dip switch 5 on the Netserver card and were then able to login to console as !root user and no password. Our firmware is: I’m now setting the password with: and then save all I powered off the unit, flipped dip switch 5 back down, and […] Read more »
Total Control Total Control: NMC Config September 26, 2024 / September 26, 2024 by mark | Leave a Comment Writing notes here for future reference. Connecting to serial console of the NMC, there is no password, and current firmware is: old LAN IP was 192.77.203.193, I’ve changed it to 10.254.255.46. SNMP strings are default (public RO, private RW). RADIUS secret key: serialport I saved config, then applied it by going to Command menu and […] Read more »
Total Control Cisco IAD2432 and PRI T1 September 25, 2024 / January 19, 2025 by mark | Leave a Comment We have a Cisco IAD2432-24FXS in use, we are currently using the FXS analog ports to provide analog modem lines for our ISP dial-in lines and for general use. Now that we have our 3com/USR Total Control running, we need to feed it with a PRI or channelized T1 (these are similar but slightly different). […] Read more » ISDN PRI T1 voip
Networking Cabletron Ethernet April 19, 2024 / April 19, 2024 by mark | Leave a Comment We’ve started looking at 1980s Ethernet products recently, and Cabletron was one of the most prominent Ethernet vendors at the time. I stumbled upon this Ethernet Technology Guide published by Cabletron, and found it to be a very comprehensive of Ethernet history and how the physical LANs were built (10base5, 10base2, 10baseT) particularly the multi-port […] Read more » 10base5 cabletron
Networking HP Procurve 1810G-24 J9450A January 28, 2024 / January 28, 2024 by mark | 3 Comments on HP Procurve 1810G-24 J9450A I’ve used several HP Procurve switches over the years and have found them to be great for general office use. We have been using a 1810G-24 (J9450A) switch in our lab, to keep machines online including the infamous Cobalt RaQ 3. This is a “web managed” switch, with basic VLAN support. On the plus side, […] Read more » hp procurve J9450A procurve 1810G
