The introduction to the article is a bit overblown. We were connecting computers, sharing printers and files and playing multiplayer games, long before we used

The introduction to the article is a bit overblown. We were connecting computers, sharing printers and files and playing multiplayer games, long before we used Ethernet. Now we all use Ethernet, and Ethernet has been around so long that devices are available at practically every price point. But for a long time, Ethernet was not the only choice. As a Mac user, I was using AppleTalk (later called LocalTalk) until the late 90's. The controllers were built into every Mac, and the PhoneNet transceivers and wiring were extremely cheap. We just used plain, common, thin telephone wiring, daisy-chained from computer to computer. No need for hubs or carefully categorized cabling. The devices configured their own addresses, so we only had to give them names that meant something to humans, and not memorize all these 192.168 numbers. LocalTalk was slow (230kbps), and the lack of DMA on most of the controllers really sucked, but it was a nice and easy way to start a network.