Sick Ethernet is not what one would expect the ancestor of modern networking to be named, but alas, it is: also called 10BASE5, it was first commercially standardized in 1983, an implementation that used "thick, stiff" coaxial cable, hence its name It was so named because it used "thick, stiff" coaxial cables.

It's a bit of a quirky computing history, but as a child of the early 90s, I was completely unaware of it until recently.

Even better, this thick net employed a very satisfactory method of connecting devices to the network. Instead of plumbing in common RJ45 connectors, the easiest way to connect a new device to the network on the Thick Net was to drill a hole in the outer shield of the cable and probe into the conductive cable inside. This was known as the vampire tap.

The vampire tap was actually designed to save the user the trouble of cutting the cable from both ends and wiring new connectors every time a new device was added.

I came across this iconic information while scrolling through TikTok. In the video you can see the actual connector used to drill holes in the cable and "bite" it tight. This is a great video and a look at the amazingly brutal beginnings of Ethernet as we know it today.

Indeed, it looks like just a little more work than plugging in an RJ45 connector on each end.

How could we have come this far without running into two of the grandest names in computer history? And looking at this, wouldn't you think that today's networking cables are thick enough and far from vampiric?

Thick Ethernet (thicknet) was then replaced by thinnet in the 80s. Thinnet was the dominant standard for connections up to 10 Mbps until the early 90s, known as 10BASE2, cheapernet, or thin Ethernet if you are bored (that is what 10 in 10BASE2 means). One reason for this was that its thin cables were generally cheap to buy and easy to install.

Then came 10BASE-T, which used twisted pair cable instead of coaxial cable and is still in use today; 10BASE-T became 100BASE-TX (appropriately named Fast Ethernet - I love these factual names). Then came 1000BASE-T, and then 10GBASE-T. The latter has increased in speed to 10 Gbps and continues to the present day.