Netopia, Inc., formerly Farallon Computing, Inc., was an American computer networking company that produced a wide variety of products including bridges, repeaters and switches, and in their later Netopia incarnation, modems, routers, gateways, and Wi-Fi devices. The company also produced the NBBS (Netopia Broadband Server Software) and, as Farallon,

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

remote administration software, as well as the MacRecorder, the first audio capture and manipulation products for the Macintosh (later sold to

Macromedia Macromedia, Inc. was an American graphics, multimedia, and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that made products such as Adobe Flash, Flash and Adobe Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver. It was purchased by its riv ...

). Farallon originated several notable technologies, including: * PhoneNet, an implementation of AppleTalk over plain ("Cat-3") telephone wiring or, more commonly, EIA-TIA 568A/B structured cabling systems. Many versions of the product were produced, but the original product was a commercialized version of a kit developed and produced by BMUG, the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group in 1986. * The StarController, a line of LocalTalk and Ethernet bridges and switches released in 1988 which integrated directly with EIA-TIA 568A/B structured cabling systems. * EtherWave, an ADB-powered serial-to-ethernet bridge in a

dongle A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality. In computing, the term was initially synony ...

form-factor which looked something like a manta ray. The two external ports were 10BASE-T and the serial pigtail spoke an overclocked 690 kbps version of LocalTalk. This served both to allow devices without expansion busses (commonly early

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers and

LaserWriter The LaserWriter is a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter sold by Apple, Inc. from 1985 to 1988. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker ...

printers) to connect directly to Ethernet networks, and also to allow the daisy-chaining of multiple devices from a single Ethernet switch or bridge port. Later versions used Apple's "AAUI" version of the Attachment Unit Interface to achieve full 10 mbps host connections. * AirDock, a Serial-to-IrDA gateway which allowed devices with LocalTalk ports to communicate on IrDA infrared wireless networks. Netopia acquired multiple companies in the home networking space including Cayman and DoBox, Inc. DoBox, Inc., founded by Nicole Toomey Davis, Bradley Davis and Matt Smith, was acquired in 2002 for its award-winning DoBox Family Firewall and Home Server Gateway.

History

Farallon Computing was founded in 1986 in Berkeley. It subsequently moved its headquarters to Emeryville,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and later still changed its name to Netopia in 1998. Netopia was acquired by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

in the first quarter of 2007. ISPs known to use Netopia modems include: *

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

in the United States * Sonic.net in the United States * Covad in the United States * eircom in Ireland * Swisscom in Switzerland * NextGenTel in Norway * France Télécom, Cegetel RSS, B3G Telecom, Nerim, Easynet, Claranet
Magic Online
in France In the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, Netopia was created in 1996 by Digital Paradise. In 2019, declining internet cafes business ended Netopia when IP E-Games Ventures divest from the former.

References

External links

* * * {{Cite web, url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez/browse/farallon-computing?per_page=50, title=Douglas Menuez Photography Collection - Farallon Computing, website=exhibits.stanford.edu
Netopia financial news from Google Finance
1986 establishments in California 2007 disestablishments in California American companies established in 1986 American companies disestablished in 2007 Companies based in Emeryville, California Computer companies established in 1986 Computer companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Networking hardware companies Telecommunications companies of the United States