[ih] TCP adoption in 1984

[Greg Skinner]

On May 2, 2026, at 6:56 PM, John Levine <johnl at iecc.com> wrote:
> 
> It appears that Greg Skinner via Internet-history <gregskinner0 at icloud.com> said:
>> It occurred to me that some of this information might be inferred from UUCP maps.  Some UUCP Mapping Project <https://stargatemuseum.org/html/the_uucp_project__1984.html> entries contained the operating
>> system the machine ran.  Those sites could have run TCP/IP networks internally that were not (yet) connected to the Internet.
> 
> Probably not.  My site ima was in those 1982 maps and while there were sites that could gateway mail to the Arpanet, I don't
> remember anyone mentioning a disconnected TCP network.
> 
> R's,
> JOhn

Perhaps.  I remember starting to read the unix-wizards list in 1982 and seeing a lot of questions about Ethernet and TCP/IP.  People wanting help with getting drivers working, ARP, and so forth.  Not all of them were on the “connected” Internet; some were either using mail relays or Usenet to post their questions.  Others had accounts on machines on the “connected” Internet, but were referring to systems that weren’t.  

Anyway, it was just a thought.  Perhaps Bob Purvy could give some more details about his inquiry.  Is it just idle curiosity, or part of a formal study?

For what it's worth, it’s possible to submit keyword queries for net.unix-wizards posts from that time period in Google Groups, to get an idea of what I’m referring to.  Some examples:

https://groups.google.com/g/net.unix-wizards/search?q=ethernet
https://groups.google.com/g/net.unix-wizards/search?q=tcp

--gregbo