On Thu, Feb 13, 2025, 5:32 PM Rick Bensene via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Henry wrote: > > > I remember those, and when I went searching to look for more information > on them I found something I > hadn't stumbled on before - apparently Xircom > made a parallel port Ethernet adapter. It must have > > been pretty painful. The parallel port wasn't a great high speed > interface… > > ---- > > Yes, I have one of those parallel port Ethernet devices too. But, > remember, back at that time, Ethernet was commonly 10Mb/Sec. I think that > 100Mb/Sec was only located in high-end datacenters and was very expensive. > For a laptop that didn’t have a PCMCIA port, and you wanted it on an > Ethernet network, this was an acceptable way to go. Performance wasn’t > great, but most of the time laptops like this were used for TELNET > connections to other hosts on the local network for “GREEN SCREEN” type > applications that ran entirely on the remote host. Performance in such > cases wasn’t nearly as much of a concern as it would be in the not too > distant future. > > I will try to find my Xircom parallel port Modem and Ethernet adapters in > a box somewhere in my storage area and take a photo of them. If I can find > them, I’ll post a link here to the photos so those in disbelief can see > them. > That would be cool. I found this link for all the networking gear: https://www.ardent-tool.com/Xircom/Xircom_Pocket_Adapters.html And found parallel port multiplexers. Do you have drivers for them? Warner -Rick > > > > From: Henry Bent [mailto:henry.r.b...@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2025 3:54 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> > Cc: Rick Bensene <ri...@bensene.com> > Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: RS232 - parallel modems!? >
