Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Is this another thing you just happened to remember? Another of my long
> ago jobs was technical assistant to the development manager for the PC3270.
>
Yeah, we've talked about it briefly here before.
I used to use 327x SNA terminals heavily at one time. Then I got an
early XT for other uses. So for some time, I had two keyboards and two
displays.
I got a PC3270 soon after they came out and simply loved it, as it both
reduced the terminal count and integrated the two systems rather nicely.
I was sad when the PC part started becoming obsolete, but it wasn't too
long before I was able to initiate the first real network there, which
could again link us to the mainframe, as well as to each other and other
shared resources.
MIS was studying PC networking with an IBM Token Ring, mostly to keep
people who could see the future off their very comfortable backs. Then
the company had some serious work much faster than mainframe systems
could be created and too big even for the Excel crazies to handle to do
in real estate as a result of an LBO and I started a network skunkworks
outside of MIS/IT. We started with thin Ethernet, which worked with a
few users, but was far too fragile as we grew. So we went to a star
topology with a hidden closet full of routers and 'phone' lines. These
were pre-standards routers of the type that later became a standard, the
name of which I forget. I also did a remodel that gave us an essentially
hidden server room.
By the time we had things really going, accounting, financial planning
and others both needed to link to us and saw the advantages for their
own work. So the network started squirreling up and down between floors.
I eventually did sell the whole thing, including my network guru, whom
the dummies had laid off a few years before so I could pick him up, to
IT. From such tiny roots, a Fortune 500 company-wide network grew. Fun
times.
Moose
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