ConnNet was a packet switched data network operated by the

Southern New England Telephone Company The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNETCo by its customers), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications. History It started operations o ...

serving the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. ConnNet was the nation's first local public

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into ''network packet, packets'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets are made of a header (computing), header and ...

network when it was launched on March 11, 1985. Users could access services such as Dow Jones News Retrieval,

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

, Dialcom,

GEnie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...

, Eaasy Sabre, NewsNet, PeopleLink, the

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

, and BIX. ConnNet could also be used to access other national and international packet networks, such as

Tymnet Tymnet was an international data communications network headquartered in Cupertino, California that used virtual call packet-switched technology and X.25, SNA/ SDLC, BSC and Async interfaces to connect host computers (servers) at thousands of la ...

and ACCUNET. Large companies also connected their mainframe computers to ConnNet allowing employees access to the mainframes from home. The network is no longer in operation.

Hardware

The

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT, now ITU-T) in a series of drafts ...

network was based on hardware from Databit, Inc. consisting of three EDX-P Network Nodes that performed switching and were located in Hartford, New Haven and Stamford. Databit also supplied 23 ANP 2520 Advanced Network Processors each of which provided the system with a

point of presence A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or network interface point between communicating entities. A common example is an ISP point of presence, the local access point that allows users to connect to the Internet with their ...

, a network control center and modems. Customers would order leased line connections into the network for

host computer A network host is a computer or other device connected to a computer network. A host may work as a server offering information resources, services, and applications to users or other hosts on the network. Hosts are assigned at least one network ...

s running at 4,800 to 56,000 bits per second (bit/s). Terminals would connect over a leased line from 1,200 to 9,600 bit/s synchronous, 300 to 2,400 bit/s asynchronous or using dial-up connections from 300 to 1,200 bit/s. The connection to Tymnet was established over an

X.75 X.75 is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (formerly CCITT) standard specifying the interface for interconnecting two X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched data communication in wide area networks (WAN). ...

based 9,600 bit/s analog link from the ConnNet Hartford node to Tymnet's Bloomfield node.

References

# Southern New England Telephone (Mar 13, 1985). ''SNET; Offers its Connecticut customers the first local packet switched data network in the nation''. Press Release # ConnNet Online Help. Accessed Jan 07, 1991 # AT&T (Jan 29, 1986). Untitled. Press Release # SNET / Packet/PC (Nov 12, 1987). ''PC users can link to IBM mainframes with Packet/ PC software and SNET's Connect''. Press Release # Scully, Sharon (June 2, 1986). "Protocol Conversion; SNET heralds services". ''Network World'', p 4. # Databit (May 27, 1986). ''DATABIT; Announces point-of-sale terminal application with Southern New England Telephone''. Press Release # Strauss, Paul R. (Jan 1 1987). "Feature 1986: Information networking's quiet watershed year in review". ''Data Communications'', p 169. {{DEFAULTSORT:Connnet 1985 establishments in Connecticut Communications in Connecticut History of the Internet

Hardware

See also

References