Category Archives: 3Com

Was the NE2000 Really That Bad?

Over the last few months I have been on and off digging into the history of early PC networking products, especially Ethernet-based ones. In that context, it is impossible to miss the classic NE2000 adapter with all its offshoots and … Continue reading

Posted in 3Com, Ethernet, Networking, Novell, PC history | 15 Comments

Emulating EtherLink

Spurred by the discovery of a pre-release OS/2 NetWare Requester from early 1988 with a very thin selection of drivers, several months ago I decided to write emulation of the classic 3Com 10Mbps Ethernet 3C501 card, also known as EtherLink. … Continue reading

Posted in 3Com, Networking, PC hardware, PC history, Virtualization | 33 Comments

1987 Networking: ELS NetWare 286 Level I 2.0a

A rare find recently turned up: NetWare from 1987, specifically the low-end ELS variant of NetWare 286 version 2.0a (ELS may be claimed to mean Entry Level System or maybe Entry Level Server, but at least originally it stood for … Continue reading

Posted in 286, 3Com, Kryoflux, NetWare, Networking | 29 Comments

1988 Networking: 386 XENIX

With the 3Com 3C501 EtherLink emulation in hand, I thought I’d see if it works with the SCO TCP/IP stack for SCO XENIX/UNIX. That particular stack, which actually consists of separate STREAMS and a TCP/IP packages, comes with whopping two … Continue reading

Posted in 3Com, Networking, PC hardware, SCO, TCP/IP, Virtualization | 11 Comments