Came across this while poking around ebay: Corvus Concept Systems Computer Didn't know anything about to off to the wiki and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_Systems In 1980 Corvus came out with the first commercially successful local area network (LAN), called Omninet.[17] Most Ethernet deployments of the time ran at 3 Mbit/s and cost one or two thousand dollars per computer. Ethernet also used a thick and heavy cable that felt like a lead pipe when bent,[citation needed] which was run in proximity to each computer, often in the ceiling plenum. The weight of the cable was such that injury to workers from ceiling failure and falling cables was a real danger. A transceiver unit was spliced or tapped into the cable for each computer, with an additional AUI cable running from the transceiver to the computer itself. I had actually heard about the Corvus network stuff in the 80 but as a noob wasn't going to dig into it with the cost. I do like the injury claim. I don't recall ever hearing about that but I do recall the bends like a lead pipe part. I have no idea what qualifies as the first commercially successful network. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry kd2zrq@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies KD2ZRQ