How 3Com Turned Ethernet Into a Billion-Dollar Empire—and Disappeared Inside HP

Comments · 33

• CY

  @Cyco_Nix · 1 month ago

  I was working at a computer manufacturer in the 90s and worked in the diagnotics and test engineering group. Ethernet changed our entire way of doing things. Instead of individually updating 100s of testbeds with new testing software, we could just have the techs plug in a 3c905 card on the system they were testing which would update the tests as needed and later send back the results.

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• JE

  @jefftank3300 · 1 month ago (edited)

  I remember in the early days of LAN parties, 3com was the gold standard.  If you had a 3com NIC, you be gaming within minutes.  If you had an NE2000 clone, you'd spend 3 hours troubleshooting it.

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• CO

  @coffeeandrelaxing · 1 month ago

  It's not what you can invent, it is what you can commercialize that counts.

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• RO

  @royr8631 · 1 month ago

  at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MetRLSIM-M0&amp;t=288">4:48</a>, the classic Cabletron ST-500 brings back tons of memories!

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• GO

  @gogee8510 · 2 weeks ago

  Worked with 3Com switches in the 1990s.

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• IL

  @illyack5593 · 1 month ago

  I loved 3com. Pcmcia cards were the GOAT

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• CA

  @CandyGramForMongo_ · 1 month ago

  How many tokens did this take?

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• CA

  @carstenhardt1589 · 9 days ago

  And not a single word about the software side of things? 3COM developed 3+Share, then partnered with Microsoft to create LAN Manager (3COM called their version 3+Open, IBM distributed it as LAN Server). LAN Manager eventually became the network part of Windows NT.

• CO

  @cookiecookie9040 · 1 month ago

  Excellent history video! &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;in the 1980s, my senior thesis was a LAN using RS-232 (Serial Port) and Coax using concepts from his Ethernet paper. wrote Print and File Sharing. &nbsp;No network OS yet (CP/M time) &nbsp; Had 3 different computer brands need to talk to each other.

• ID

  @idahofur · 1 month ago

  3com had drivers included in windows 95. So they got installed in windows 95 machines. The problem with that is. When you use the 3com driver that comes with the card. It increased performance. Then again I also found the same with NE2000 compatible. Sure they used the generic driver. But, if you installed the driver that came with the card. It was faster.

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• BO

  @BobFlisser · 1 month ago

  I&apos;m maybe a little surprised this video didn&apos;t mention that Ethernet is based on the CSMA protocol invented by Hedy Lamar during World War II. Also, Ethernet wasn&apos;t the first local area network. That was ARCnet, created by Datapoint. (Where I worked long ago.)

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• BU

  @buenos4799 · 1 month ago

  next: brocade please

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