LAN Turns 30, May Not See 40?

dratcw writes "The first commercial LAN was based on ARCnet technology and was installed some 30 years ago, according to a ComputerWorld article. Bob Metcalfe, one of the co-inventors of Ethernet, recalls the early battles between the different flavors of LAN and says some claims from the Token Ring backers such as IBM were lies. 'I know that sounds nasty, but for 10 years I had to put up with that crap from the IBM Token Ring people — you bet I'm bitter.' Besides dipping into networking nostalgia, the article also quotes an analyst who says the LAN may be nearing its demise and predicts that all machines will be individually connected to one huge WAN at gigabit speeds. Could the LAN actually be nearing the end of its lifecycle?"

Well of course

[Adambomb]

Don't trust any spec over 40.

wait...

Yawn...

[MightyMartian]

Yes yes, and we'll have flying cars and robots cooking our meals.

Prognosticator didn't used to be a synonym for clueless shithead. Thanks to Dvorak, that has changed, and looking at the clueless shitheads he's spawned.

How did I net thee?

[Linker3000]

Let me count the ways:

Infanet
ARCnet
10Net
Appletalk
Token Ring
Ethernet: Thick/thin/UTP/STP/fibre/wireless

'LAN' ?

[Stavr0]

"Are you from the past?" -- Roy, The IT Crowd

We call that 'Intranet' nowadays.

Re:WAN, SCHMAN

[markov_chain]

It doesn't work that way, it's more like a game of chicken-- one guy gets a router first, and then everyone else hops on. First hand experience here :)

Re:FACTOR breakthrough assumption?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can someone with a PHD decipher this into english?

Reliability

[KalvinB]

Until WAN routers are cheap and reliable, it won't happen. I've had the same $30 Netgear router I've had for 5 years without any issues. My Belkin wireless router can't go a day without being unreliable. The Mac Mini had a hard time connecting to web-sites until we switched from wireless to LAN.

When you need 100% uptime you can go with a $30 router or spend significantly more than that for a wireless router and network card that won't ever drop your connection.

I'll keep my wires thank you very much.

Re:WAN, SCHMAN

[domino14]

why is this modded 0? i was thinking the exact same thing.

Re:Well, could it?

[somersault]

Some networks, for example, should never be connected to the internet in any way.

Please don't say such things! What if any Hollywood writers are reading this!? Won't someone please think of the implausible movie scripts? :(

Re:Yawn...

[Oktober Sunset]

microwave in the glove compartment dumbass.

Re:"Internet enabled"-everything

[Shakrai]

In 10 years, even tinfoil hats will be network-enabled.

Are you sure yours is working properly? Let me ssh in and take a look at it.....