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I came of age with Windows 95 and friends... All my IRC friends pretty much dialed in directly to the internet from our main PC. When we got cable or DSL, if yo
by toast0 2y ago
I came of age with Windows 95 and friends... All my IRC friends pretty much dialed in directly to the internet from our main PC. When we got cable or DSL, if you had one computer, it got to connect directly.
Windows 98 Second Edition came with internet connection sharing, so you could dial up on one computer and share with the LAN, and I think it worked for cable/dsl with two NICs as well. Many of my circle ended up with a Linux (or BSD) box doing NAT too. There was other software to share on Windows if you didn't have 98SE.
- rvnx 2y agoTotally this. You had one PC connecting to the DSL box, having directly a public IP, and then if you were smart you would install a second network card in your computer with a crossover Ethernet cable connecting to the second computer. Routers were super expensive, they came only later when internet was democratized more. Same for switches. Most users were using Ethernet Hubs at that time.