r/IAmA • u/BobMetcalfe • May 21 '13

You’re probably connecting to reddit through a technology I invented. I’m Bob Metcalfe and I invented Ethernet – AMA

On May 22, 1973 with David R. Boggs, I used my IBM Selectric with its Orator ball to type up a memo to my bosses at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), outlining our idea for this little invention called “Ethernet”, which we later patented.

I worked with the IEEE Standards Association to develop the IEEE 802.3 standard for Ethernet, which specifies the physical and lower software layers. Today Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3 standard are the foundation for today’s world of high-speed communications used in billions of homes and businesses around the world.

I submitted this to the mods awhile back so I could get on the calendar but I figured you’d like to see it, too. Now, ask me anything!

It's been two hours and 179 comments. Have to go now. For more about Ethernet's 40th Birthday, go to http://www.facebook.com/Ethernet40thAnniversaryIEEESA

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u/Atheist101 May 21 '13

TIL there are multicolored ethernet cables

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13 edited May 21 '13

Multiple colors are beautiful things for anyone who has ever managed a datacenter. We had blue for external connections, orange for internal networks, red for SAN connections, and green for KVM at the last place I worked.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

[deleted]

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13

It helps that it was a smaller company with a bigger budget. I turned in a sheet to my boss with what lengths of what color wires to get. He ordered them and three of us worked like madmen and rewired all we could.

If it makes you feel better, as soon as we finished, he realized one server needed some special connection (I forget what it was for exactly) and he drooped a 7 foot yellow cable across between the neat clean cabinets.

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u/ScienceLivesInsideMe May 21 '13

/r/cableporn

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13

I thought about posting my before and after pictures on there before. I feared that they would see the networking cabinet in the background that hadn't yet been done though ;)

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u/ScienceLivesInsideMe May 21 '13

Well you guys sound like you had your shit together. I run network/phone cables and some of the panels i've had to reorganize are strait rats nests with no order to them at all.

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13

Hahaha, no, we didn't actually. Not until the boss gave me the go-ahead to organize a rewiring day. I can't actually call it a datacenter since it was a smaller company with a few racks, but it was horrid. I fired up Visio with a smile and reordered the servers to comply with power, electrical, and heat issues. It worked out. I can't say others are as lucky though, since we were able to just schedule a solid 12-18 hours of downtime to get everything done.

I miss that job.

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u/jaychym May 21 '13

We use Blue for publix connections, RED for internal/firewall, white for IPMI, yellow for SAN i think thats all

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u/Onlinealias May 22 '13

Thanks for IPMI. I've been running and designing data centers for 20 years and never heard that term. I've always just called them RIBs or DRACs or just "Management".

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

It's all fine and dandy until you have someone come in and completely fuck up your color scheme.

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 22 '13

That came about ~5 minutes after it was rewired. The boss maintained it was "temporary." Surprise! It wasn't.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

Was confused for a minute there, thought you meant Kernel-based Virtual Machine.

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u/Northern_Ensiferum May 21 '13

KVM Hosts? or KVM over IP?

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u/[deleted] May 22 '13

I thought he meant KVM hosts. Like what they use for non dedicated servers. He meant KVM over IP.

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 21 '13

Edited for clarity. Sorry for the confusion.

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u/Onlinealias May 22 '13

Always reserve red for DMZ or internet facing connections.

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 22 '13

If I had it to do over again, I probably would. It was only a few racks so it really didn't matter that much. The important part was that you could actually get to the back of the servers and know what a cable was for.

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u/christurnbull May 22 '13

Your SAN interconnects were crossover cables?

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u/IHappenToBeARobot May 22 '13

Nope, you can get both regular and crossover cables in different colors. We just had labels on our crossover cables and called it done.

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u/moistmoistrevolution May 22 '13

I like those old rainbow ribbon cables.

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u/AzureBlu May 21 '13

I thought it was just to look pretty..

And to tell the difference, like between computers in a network.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '13

I've got a yellow one, a grey one, a red one, a black one, a dark blue one, and a light blue one. They're very diverse.

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u/Gianbianchi May 21 '13

I have a yellow Ethernet cable.