ConnNet was a packet switched data network operated by the Southern New England Telephone Company serving the U.S. stateofConnecticut.[1]
ConnNet was the nation's first local public packet switching network when it was launched on March 11, 1985.[1] Users could access services such as Dow Jones News Retrieval, CompuServe, Dialcom, GEnie, Delphi, Eaasy Sabre, NewsNet, PeopleLink, the National Library of Medicine, and BIX.[2] ConnNet could also be used to access other national and international packet networks, such as Tymnet and ACCUNET.[3] Large companies also connected their mainframe computers to ConnNet allowing employees access to the mainframes from home.[4] The network is no longer in operation.
The X.25 network was based on hardware from Databit, Inc. consisting of three EDX-P Network Nodes that performed switching and were located in Hartford, New Haven and Stamford.[5] Databit also supplied 23 ANP 2520 Advanced Network Processors each of which provided the system with a point of presence, a network control center and modems.[6] Customers would order leased line connections into the network for host computers running at 4,800 to 56,000 bits per second (bit/s). Terminals would connect over a leased line from 1,200 to 9,600 bit/s synchronous, 300 to 2,400 bit/s asynchronous or using dial-up connections from 300 to 1,200 bit/s. The connection to Tymnet was established over an X.75 based 9,600 bit/s analog link from the ConnNet Hartford node to Tymnet's Bloomfield node.[7]
