Back in June, 1998, I started a new job. A Communications Technician. Four of us all started on the same day to join with the single person already working there, with the idea that we would be involved in the expansion of the network used by our employer. Twenty-five years later, I’m still there!

Back in June 1998, the organisation I joined had an IBM mainframe with about 200 3270 terminals attached by co-ax, about half a dozen IBM 5520 Word Processing servers with their huge, hulking screens attached using twin-ax, and about 20 modem links to remote sites, the fastest of which was 2400bps. There were also other systems maintained by separate departments that included Unisys, IBM CAD and Vaxes, and at that time, IIRC not a single PC! It was all very dis-jointed and pretty much localized within the departments using those systems.

Today, like most organisations these days, there’s a copious amount of servers, a PC (or two) on every desk and the network speeds reach an unlikely 10Gbps!

I’m not really interested in the technicalities of how all this old stuff worked, or what it did for that matter. For me, Baudrate is a nostalgia trip, nothing more. Over 25 years I’ve seen network technologies come and go. X.25, Token Ring, Frame Relay, we played with them all and this is really a homage to those old technologies. So, sit back as we start our journey at a less than pedestrian 300bps and head for the speed of light!

Nig