Yes, the AGS that I found was a nine slot chassis AGS. Exactly the same as the one pictured but wasn't fully populated. I think the Proteon was long gone, I'd hate to now think I threw it out, but came to a collection of old Cisco routers (only 10 years old at the time). I found a couple of pictures but can't see any chips with the pins clearly straightened out, but I've heard the story. Aaron Scott was involved at that time. On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 22:00, Don Stokes wrote:

Hi Lindsay,

The original router was a Proteon. John H wanted a Cisco, because they were already in country and maintenance was available.

The reason Ciscos were available is because VUW took delivery of five in early '89. They were ordered as four-slot MGSes, but three of these were delivered as nine-slot AGSes due to lack of stock. The one that originally terminated the Kawaihiko links UoW-VUW, VUW-Massey and VUW-Canty and managed the VUW core network, and was later re-configured as an access router for the VUW Internetworking Group (and its successors, NetLink and Telstra NZ) is in my possession: http://www.don.nz.net/wordpress/nzs-oldest-internet-router/

I don't know the final fate of the Proteon, but I believe it was disposed of. If it is still out there somewhere, I'm sure folk would like to know.

-- don

On 16/04/19 6:02 PM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

That' would have been the old Cisco AGS switch that I found in the network storeroom back when I worked at University of Waikato. It still worked at the time when I powered it up, CMOS battery (which was an AA alkaline battery was stuffed). Got some photos somewhere.

Nice piece of history.

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 16:57, Don Stokes wrote:

...

Since nobody else seems to have noticed ...

... today is the 30th anniversary of the Internet reaching NZ. On 16 April 1989, John Houlker plugged in the PACCOM link connecting the University of Waikato, via an analogue circuit on the ANZCAN cable, to the University of Hawaii and thence to the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98xdUWja_aM

Also of note was that on 1 April 1989, the Telecommunications Amendment Act 1988 came into force, formally ending the century-old NZPO/Telecom regulated telecommunications monopoly. (The de-facto monopoly took a bit longer to dismantle.)

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072 _______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072

-- Lindsay Druett. Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

Hey Steve, Photos look familiar ? On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 23:53, Steve Lang wrote:

Hey.

Fascinating. I remember working night shifts in the Waikato DC and dealing with the occasional proteon outage. Later on, when we had cisco's, I helped JH do a Cisco IOS upgrade - had to replace 12 (or was it 100?) eproms - flash wasn't around then. It wasn't fun.

Back then, I was visiting family on Norfolk Island, popped into the ANZCAN cable station - there was a viewing window where you could see the three cables, 1 from Au, one from NZ, and one heading to the US... Lots of copper man. Every 6 months, they would give the petrol (or was it diesel?) from the generators away to the locals, as it had hit it's storage life and if it wasn't used, it needed refreshing so they had to 'get rid' of it...

I feel old now.

Cheers - On 16/04/19 10:11 PM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

Yes, the AGS that I found was a nine slot chassis AGS. Exactly the same as the one pictured but wasn't fully populated. I think the Proteon was long gone, I'd hate to now think I threw it out, but came to a collection of old Cisco routers (only 10 years old at the time).

I found a couple of pictures but can't see any chips with the pins clearly straightened out, but I've heard the story. Aaron Scott was involved at that time.

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 22:00, Don Stokes wrote:

...

Hi Lindsay,

The original router was a Proteon. John H wanted a Cisco, because they were already in country and maintenance was available.

The reason Ciscos were available is because VUW took delivery of five in early '89. They were ordered as four-slot MGSes, but three of these were delivered as nine-slot AGSes due to lack of stock. The one that originally terminated the Kawaihiko links UoW-VUW, VUW-Massey and VUW-Canty and managed the VUW core network, and was later re-configured as an access router for the VUW Internetworking Group (and its successors, NetLink and Telstra NZ) is in my possession: http://www.don.nz.net/wordpress/nzs-oldest-internet-router/

I don't know the final fate of the Proteon, but I believe it was disposed of. If it is still out there somewhere, I'm sure folk would like to know.

-- don

On 16/04/19 6:02 PM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

That' would have been the old Cisco AGS switch that I found in the network storeroom back when I worked at University of Waikato. It still worked at the time when I powered it up, CMOS battery (which was an AA alkaline battery was stuffed). Got some photos somewhere.

Nice piece of history.

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 16:57, Don Stokes wrote:

...

Since nobody else seems to have noticed ...

... today is the 30th anniversary of the Internet reaching NZ. On 16 April 1989, John Houlker plugged in the PACCOM link connecting the University of Waikato, via an analogue circuit on the ANZCAN cable, to the University of Hawaii and thence to the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98xdUWja_aM

Also of note was that on 1 April 1989, the Telecommunications Amendment Act 1988 came into force, formally ending the century-old NZPO/Telecom regulated telecommunications monopoly. (The de-facto monopoly took a bit longer to dismantle.)

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072 _______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

_______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing listNZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nzhttps://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

-- Lindsay Druett. Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

Hi Lindsay, Steve Michael Newbery & I did a full scale upgrade of all the AGS and MGS boxes on the VUW backbone once, to get them all up to IOS 8 (the last that would run on the CSC/2 CPU card - 68020, 1 MB memory). I think it was 8 EPROMS plus a PAL on each CPU, plus 11 (or was it 13?) PROMs on each interface card, for a total of around three hundred chips, and since the routers were scattered around campus in various utility spaces, work conditions were often less than ideal. I had a /lot/ of those little black chip boxes lying around. That's on top of later upgrades to boxes that had CSC/4 CPUs (68040, 16MB), chip-swaps on modems (we had a couple of hundred CTL MD1290s in service between VUW and NetLink), ND/Securicor 3net/Telesys boxes and so-on. We got very good at swapping chips... (the chips' pins were always splayed a little, so if you just shoved them in the sockets without bending them inwards first, you risked accidentally inserting the pins into the adjacent socket. We only did that once, and fortunately the only consequence was that the affected card wouldn't light up until we'd corrected it.) ... and let me say I much prefer flash. Re swapping out fuel, ask your facilities people about "diesel bug". Cycling the fuel periodically is standard practice for anything that leaves fuel unused for extended periods. One of the guys who does generator maintenance around here takes waste diesel fuel to Steam Incorporated in Paekakariki, because steam locomotives are remarkably unfussy about what they burn. That card in the photo looks like the CBUS controller card out of an AGS+. The AGS+ was a later upgrade of that line, and added a high(er)-speed CBUS backplane to slots 5-9 - you had the CBUS controller in slot 7, and the other four CBUS slots could take "high-speed" interface cards, e.g. 6-way (10 Mbps) Ethernet or FDDI, which could talk among themselves over the CBUS. You could still use old MCI cards compatible with the AGS/MGS/CGS, but they had to communicate via the slower Multibus (as did the CPU). The card edge connector in the pic is the Multibus, and the large plastic connector is the CBUS. -- don On 17/04/19 8:26 AM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

Hey Steve,

Photos look familiar ?

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 23:53, Steve Lang mailto:steve(a)spl.co.nz> wrote:

Hey.

Fascinating. I remember working night shifts in the Waikato DC and dealing with the occasional proteon outage. Later on, when we had cisco's, I helped JH do a Cisco IOS upgrade - had to replace 12 (or was it 100?) eproms - flash wasn't around then. It wasn't fun.

Back then, I was visiting family on Norfolk Island, popped into the ANZCAN cable station - there was a viewing window where you could see the three cables, 1 from Au, one from NZ, and one heading to the US... Lots of copper man. Every 6 months, they would give the petrol (or was it diesel?) from the generators away to the locals, as it had hit it's storage life and if it wasn't used, it needed refreshing so they had to 'get rid' of it...

I feel old now.

Cheers -

On 16/04/19 10:11 PM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

...

Yes, the AGS that I found was a nine slot chassis AGS. Exactly the same as the one pictured but wasn't fully populated. I think the Proteon was long gone, I'd hate to now think I threw it out, but came to a collection of old Cisco routers (only 10 years old at the time).

I found a couple of pictures but can't see any chips with the pins clearly straightened out, but I've heard the story.  Aaron Scott was involved at that time.

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 22:00, Don Stokes mailto:don(a)nz.net> wrote:

Hi Lindsay,

The original router was a Proteon. John H wanted a Cisco, because they were already in country and maintenance was available.

The reason Ciscos were available is because VUW took delivery of five in early '89. They were ordered as four-slot MGSes, but three of these were delivered as nine-slot AGSes due to lack of stock. The one that originally terminated the Kawaihiko links UoW-VUW, VUW-Massey and VUW-Canty and managed the VUW core network, and was later re-configured as an access router for the VUW Internetworking Group (and its successors, NetLink and Telstra NZ) is in my possession: http://www.don.nz.net/wordpress/nzs-oldest-internet-router/

I don't know the final fate of the Proteon, but I believe it was disposed of. If it is still out there somewhere, I'm sure folk would like to know.

-- don

On 16/04/19 6:02 PM, Lindsay Druett wrote:

...

That' would have been the old Cisco AGS switch that I found in the network storeroom back when I worked at University of Waikato. It still worked at the time when I powered it up, CMOS battery (which was an AA alkaline battery was stuffed). Got some photos somewhere.

Nice piece of history.

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 at 16:57, Don Stokes mailto:don(a)nz.net> wrote:

Since nobody else seems to have noticed ...

... today is the 30th anniversary of the Internet reaching NZ. On 16 April 1989, John Houlker plugged in the PACCOM link connecting the University of Waikato, via an analogue circuit on the ANZCAN cable,to the University of Hawaii and thence to the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98xdUWja_aM

Also of note was that on 1 April 1989, the Telecommunications Amendment Act 1988 came into force, formally ending the century-old NZPO/Telecom regulated telecommunications monopoly.  (The de-facto monopoly took a bit longer to dismantle.)

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net mailto:don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072 _______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz mailto:NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz mailto:lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net mailto:don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz mailto:lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

_______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz mailto:NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

-- Lindsay Druett.

Wired Networks Ltd lindsay(a)wired.net.nz mailto:lindsay(a)wired.net.nz +64-7-974 9301 +64-21-92 90 92

-- Don Stokes, don(a)nz.net mailto:don(a)nz.net, 021 796 072