non tcp/ip network protocols?

[Sam111]

I am wondering if I can get a list of all non-tcp/ip protocols that existed.
I have come across only IPX , appletalk, and netbeui googling but it seems everything else is tcp/ip based.

I know TCP came out in the early 1970's and IP around the 1978 era.
But before that I am curious what networking protocols they had if any for computer systems.

I am assuming computers in the 1960 below where mostly standalone an electromechanical in nature. So their probably wasn't any networking involved but correct me if I am wrong.
Curious though if the 1960 - 1970ish (before ARPANET and tcp/ip protocol was defined) if they had other protocols that where used for computer networking. Or maybe computer networking didn't exist (i.e all standalone computer) until arpanet.

Anybody have knowledge on the history of computer networking.
Perhaps somebody that lived thru that area.

[Sam111]

what year did the first personal computer come out with networking capabilities.
And what was the networking interface like was it serial port , RJ11 , RJ45...etc
I am assuming it used the phone lines probably in some way.

I was think it was some commodore version

curious

[Combuster]

I can't help you with an approximation of a protocol list - nor is it possible to make a complete list for the sole reason that everybody could put anything on some link and if the receiving end could recognise it you'd have communication. Many old DOS apps with serial networking used their own protocol directly on top of RS232.

That said, your list is notably missing PPP and the related dial-up modem infrastructure (which in turn can be connected to a serial port or be built into the computer directly).

And this has nothing to do with the wiki.

[Thomas]

Hi,
You can count Decnet in

--Thomas

[Owen]

X.25 and OSI are, of course, notable (they are also closely related; X.25 predates OSI, and OSI could be run on top of it. Both were developed by ITU-T. Both are now obsolete). GPRS, the tunneling protocol of the GSM stack, probably also deserves note (Though the role of GPRS is more analogous to PPP or L2TP than IP).

You might also consider the specialized protocols (Such as ProfiBus) that run on specialized industrial/embedded networks (Such as CAN, Controller Area Network) in this category. They certainly fall in the same place in the OSI model. The same applies to the constituent protocols of the BlueTooth stack.

The 802.15.4 standard for 'low powered wireless personal area networks' probably comes closest to the old days of 'lots of different protocols running on Ethernet', however. In common usage on top of it are the protocols ZigBee (Somewhat heavyweight device-device protocol), MiWi (A lightweight and proprietary alternative) and 6lowPAN (An encapsulation for IPv6 on top of the 802.15.4 and an adaption layer - something needed when your underlying transport has a maximum frame size lower than IPv6's minimum! )

Finally: NetBEUI isn't a protocol. It is the name IBM assigned to an extension to a DOS API called NetBIOS when it released an early network card, to support existing apps designed for NetBIOS (introduced by a competing company). This card spoke NetBIOS Frames (NBF) on top of Ethernet. As the world moved towards unifying behind a TCP/IP transport, an RFC was standardized specifying a protocol for transporting NetBIOS data on top of IPv4; this standard is called NBT.

The only user of NetBIOS in the recent past has been Microsoft, but they have dropped support for it from Vista (and good riddance to that! NetBIOS is a mess!). For some reason they have always called NetBIOS NetBEUI in their implementation. This is how that name confusion got started.

[Sam111]

I am wondering almost all LAN networks are using ethernet.

But do all personal computer NIC use the same line codes / modulation scheme.
Since I have 2 routers/switches and they where both purchased about 8 years a part. If I use either route/switch with my PC they work fine. So I am assuming their must be a universal line code/ modulation scheme for all NIC cards.

If not, I don't understand how the NIC would be able to interpret different modulation/line codes ...etc ?

Is the firmware for the ethernet nic cards and routers/switches program/wired for multiply different line codes/modulation schemes? ( I cann't see how this could be done easily)

This question is really bugging me.

question 2
This question is really a continuation of of the above.
If I plug my computer directly into the modem. The modem must understand how to send/recieve data from my nic card so on the lan side it must use some universal standard line code/modulation scheme which would answer the above question. Obviously the wan hardware side of the modem is just using the ISP providers modulation/demodulation scheme which is QAM. They could only change this provided they change your modem and their equipment to interpret your modem (CMTS) to use the same modulation scheme .
On the lan side they must know that all ethernet device use some universal line code else their modems couldn't be used with all NIC / ethernet devices.

[JackScott]

You're looking for the Ethernet standard, which is IEEE 802.3. It specifies the signalling protocols for use on Ethernet LANs (used by pretty much all wired LANs today).

There are a couple of cabling pinout schemes for the actual physical cables, known as TIA 568-A and TIA 568-B.

The cables used are defined by specifications known as Category 5, Category 6, etc. Google will find them.

Edit: And for external 56k modems, it will be a combination of the RS-232 specification and a few de-facto standards for cables.

[Sam111]

ok, gotcha

Just wanted to make sure that all the ethernet devices where using the same line codes/modulation schemes. If they weren't I was having trouble understanding how manufactures of routers , modems , or any lan network device could be compatible if they weren't all using the "same codes"

I know 802.11 wireless ethernet standards use different modulation schemes but the wireless routers/access point's must demodulate and re-modulate using the 802.3 standards you mentioned when it comes to the wired interface of the ethernet network.

Correct me if I am wrong. All pc's nic cards or onboard network interfaces that support a rj-45 wire must use the 802.3 line code /modulation to be compatible with the network devices such as routers , switches , hubs ,...etc

[Sam111]

wait for 802.3 it uses Manchester encoding as it's line code but different version/standards of ethernet such as 10Base2 , 100BaseTX ,...etc
can use different encoding like 4B5B , 8b/10b ,...etc

So even though all the nic cards , router , ethernet networking device ,...etc are use all the same line codes how do of them work if they are using different encoding schemes ?

One device that sends character A could be a B in another encoding schema in theory.

Unless their is a particular substandard of 802.3 that is used for lan networks that I am missing? Or a universal encoding that I am missing for these devices ?

The speed of transfer would only depend on the ethernet network chips clock/data frequency and encoding used. Meaning realistically that if their was a universal encoding the only way to increase the speed of transfer without sacrificing compatibility is to increase the clock/data frequency. Once this is taken to it's limit ethernet devices would have to sacrifice compatibility to increase speed/performance.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[MasterLee]

List of network protocols
All list of something start with „List of“ in Wikipedia.