5 ms·

> While your preferred specification is excellent, It’s “an ethernet port” in ordinary usage. Or “ethernet jack” in more technical contexts and entirely suffici

> While your preferred specification is excellent, It’s “an ethernet port” in ordinary usage. Or “ethernet jack” in more technical contexts and entirely sufficient for Ali Express. Right, in your average 2020s home or office, "Ethernet" is almost certainly 8P8C (commonly known as RJ-45). In decades past it was more ambiguous – in the 1990s, coax – ThinNet/10Base2 – was still reasonably common; even the older ThickNet/10Base5 would still occasionally be encountered. So to some extent, being specific is a bit of an "old timer" trait–a habit picked up decades ago when it was still important, now maintained when it is rarely still necessary. But even in the 2020s – in a factory, it could easily be M12 instead. Or even a mix of both – 8P8C in the offices, but M12 on the factory floor. Honestly, even in a home environment, I hate how fragile and easily unplugged 8P8C connectors are (the worst part is when they get slightly pulled out, so they still look like they are plugged in, but the connection is dead or flaky). I've thought about using M12 at home before, but it probably wouldn't be very practical.

RF_Savage 1y ago
M12 gets old quick if you do a lot plug/unplug cycles.
brudgers 1y ago
in the 1990s, coax – ThinNet/10Base2 – was still reasonably common In the 1990's they were extremely uncommon and ethernet was rare. People had dial-up if they had anything at all and only a tiny fraction of people even had that.
- skissane 1y ago
  Not in homes, in institutions (workplaces, schools, universities, government agencies, etc). In the early 1990s, a lot of places were in the process of replacing 10Base2 with 10BaseT, so there was still heaps of 10Base2 installs around. 10Base5 had mostly been replaced wth 10Base2 already, but as with any legacy technology, pockets of it survived initially-in 1992, 10Base5 was only 10 years old, absolutely you would find places still stuck on 10 year old technology. Nowadays? I doubt there is any 10Base5 left anywhere. Maybe, maybe, buried deep inside some super-legacy embedded system, but even that’s dubious.
  - brudgers 1y ago
    SneakerNet was far more common in the world were most people actually lived and if there was a digital network there is a good chance it was Novell or Token Ring.
    - bigfatkitten 1y ago
      “Novell” invariably meant a Netware box in a closet that people talked to via IPX/SPX over Ethernet. Token Ring was rare outside of IBM shops. Only commonly found in places like banks.
    - skissane 1y ago
      > if there was a digital network there is a good chance it was Novell or Token Ring As the other commenter pointed out already, the vast majority of Netware networks used Ethernet. I knew what Token Ring was, but I don't think I ever actually saw it, my knowledge of it was purely from books and magazines. My dad's work (a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant) was somewhat of an IBM shop in that their main computer was an AS/400 that ran the whole factory, but I interned in their IT department for two weeks in 1997 (I think I'd just turned 15) and I don't remember seeing any Token Ring, or hearing it even mentioned. And this is the thing, I was a teenager in the 1990s, I was there. I saw Ethernet (and Acorn Econet too, which is much more obscure). I saw it at my school. I saw it at my dad's work. I remember one of my school friends had Ethernet in his house (not in the walls, they just had 2-3 computers in the family room connected to a hub/switch). I was trying to convince my dad to buy Ethernet cards but he wasn't sold on the idea–he was familiar with it from work (his field was chemistry and pharmaceutical manufacturing not computing, but he was technical enough to know what it was), but at home he was happy with Laplink. We had dial-up Internet before we had Ethernet; we had multiple computers, more than one of them had a modem, and my siblings and I would fight over who would use the dial-up since only one of us could use it at once. I remember around 1998 I was invited to a LAN party at a church, but I didn't go. "the world were most people actually lived" is a bit meaningless, because then we are talking about what was happening in rural villages in Africa at the time. In the world in which I lived, my 1990s, Ethernet was widespread, first in school/work settings, and by the end of it, it was really taking off in home settings too. Maybe your 1990s were different from mine (different country/geography, different social milieu), or maybe you weren't actually there to experience it firsthand.
- bigfatkitten 1y ago
  By around 1994 it was extremely common in pretty much any office with more than one PC. Dialup internet (or any internet access at all) was uncommon but LANs were popular, and they very rarely ran IP. IP didn’t typically come until later in the decade, when the need to share an internet connection arose.
  - brudgers 1y ago
    I did a lot of CAD in the 1990’s, most shops had no network and a computer on every desk. The reasons were simple: capital expense and scarcity of technical expertise. By 2000 it was different because networking was cheaper and the network effect had reached the tipping point where other businesses had email, ftp, etc.
    - bigfatkitten 1y ago
      It had nothing to do with capital. A low to mid spec PC cost around $2000, and an NE2000 clone was around $50. RG-58 coax was about 20 cents a foot from Radio Shack. Windows for Workgroups made the setup pretty trivial, and there was a plethora of folks out there (like me) repairing PCs and setting up LANs for small businesses.
      - brudgers 1y ago
        I was involved in those decisions. The people I worked for knew their businesses and knew the importance of cash flow to it. It had a lot to do with capital. The simple equation was that setting up a network did not look like it would make those companies money. And in the Windows for Workgroups era, running CAD on Windows was a massive performance hit. Don’t ignore the capital cost of buying Windows versions of Cad software…potentially thousands of dollars per seat. Don’t ignore the cost of graphics cards…the high performance card might not have Windows drivers and every machine might have a different card bought at a different time. And don’t ignore the cost of a file server that inspires confidence. In an environment where contracts are five to seven figures, the local PC repair shop is not the most enticing risk.

RF_Savage 1y ago

M12 gets old quick if you do a lot plug/unplug cycles.

brudgers 1y ago

in the 1990s, coax – ThinNet/10Base2 – was still reasonably common In the 1990's they were extremely uncommon and ethernet was rare. People had dial-up if they had anything at all and only a tiny fraction of people even had that.

skissane 1y ago
Not in homes, in institutions (workplaces, schools, universities, government agencies, etc). In the early 1990s, a lot of places were in the process of replacing 10Base2 with 10BaseT, so there was still heaps of 10Base2 installs around. 10Base5 had mostly been replaced wth 10Base2 already, but as with any legacy technology, pockets of it survived initially-in 1992, 10Base5 was only 10 years old, absolutely you would find places still stuck on 10 year old technology. Nowadays? I doubt there is any 10Base5 left anywhere. Maybe, maybe, buried deep inside some super-legacy embedded system, but even that’s dubious.
- brudgers 1y ago
  SneakerNet was far more common in the world were most people actually lived and if there was a digital network there is a good chance it was Novell or Token Ring.
  - bigfatkitten 1y ago
    “Novell” invariably meant a Netware box in a closet that people talked to via IPX/SPX over Ethernet. Token Ring was rare outside of IBM shops. Only commonly found in places like banks.
  - skissane 1y ago
    > if there was a digital network there is a good chance it was Novell or Token Ring As the other commenter pointed out already, the vast majority of Netware networks used Ethernet. I knew what Token Ring was, but I don't think I ever actually saw it, my knowledge of it was purely from books and magazines. My dad's work (a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant) was somewhat of an IBM shop in that their main computer was an AS/400 that ran the whole factory, but I interned in their IT department for two weeks in 1997 (I think I'd just turned 15) and I don't remember seeing any Token Ring, or hearing it even mentioned. And this is the thing, I was a teenager in the 1990s, I was there. I saw Ethernet (and Acorn Econet too, which is much more obscure). I saw it at my school. I saw it at my dad's work. I remember one of my school friends had Ethernet in his house (not in the walls, they just had 2-3 computers in the family room connected to a hub/switch). I was trying to convince my dad to buy Ethernet cards but he wasn't sold on the idea–he was familiar with it from work (his field was chemistry and pharmaceutical manufacturing not computing, but he was technical enough to know what it was), but at home he was happy with Laplink. We had dial-up Internet before we had Ethernet; we had multiple computers, more than one of them had a modem, and my siblings and I would fight over who would use the dial-up since only one of us could use it at once. I remember around 1998 I was invited to a LAN party at a church, but I didn't go. "the world were most people actually lived" is a bit meaningless, because then we are talking about what was happening in rural villages in Africa at the time. In the world in which I lived, my 1990s, Ethernet was widespread, first in school/work settings, and by the end of it, it was really taking off in home settings too. Maybe your 1990s were different from mine (different country/geography, different social milieu), or maybe you weren't actually there to experience it firsthand.
bigfatkitten 1y ago
By around 1994 it was extremely common in pretty much any office with more than one PC. Dialup internet (or any internet access at all) was uncommon but LANs were popular, and they very rarely ran IP. IP didn’t typically come until later in the decade, when the need to share an internet connection arose.
- brudgers 1y ago
  I did a lot of CAD in the 1990’s, most shops had no network and a computer on every desk. The reasons were simple: capital expense and scarcity of technical expertise. By 2000 it was different because networking was cheaper and the network effect had reached the tipping point where other businesses had email, ftp, etc.
  - bigfatkitten 1y ago
    It had nothing to do with capital. A low to mid spec PC cost around $2000, and an NE2000 clone was around $50. RG-58 coax was about 20 cents a foot from Radio Shack. Windows for Workgroups made the setup pretty trivial, and there was a plethora of folks out there (like me) repairing PCs and setting up LANs for small businesses.
    - brudgers 1y ago
      I was involved in those decisions. The people I worked for knew their businesses and knew the importance of cash flow to it. It had a lot to do with capital. The simple equation was that setting up a network did not look like it would make those companies money. And in the Windows for Workgroups era, running CAD on Windows was a massive performance hit. Don’t ignore the capital cost of buying Windows versions of Cad software…potentially thousands of dollars per seat. Don’t ignore the cost of graphics cards…the high performance card might not have Windows drivers and every machine might have a different card bought at a different time. And don’t ignore the cost of a file server that inspires confidence. In an environment where contracts are five to seven figures, the local PC repair shop is not the most enticing risk.