History

The first FTP server I ever connected to (ftp.funet.fi) is still going strong. The README is a fun read, especially the history part. Here are some of the early entries:

1988

First of December Finland gets it's first internet link of 56Kbit/s via the NORDUnet co-operation and major part of the traffic was from FTP

1989

Funet saw the need for a FTP-server that would allow better access to the internet content (web was still a dream) from Finland. Decision to set up NIC.FUNET.FI was made and Request for Proposals sent out

1990

First NIC.FUNET.FI, a SUN 4/330, with dual 40Mhz SPARC processors, 128MB RAM and 6GB of usable disk space which made it then among the largest FTP servers in the Internet.

Our international internet connectivity for whole Funet was 64Kbit/s so mea develops an ftpd with speed limits

More hardware details are available in /pub/files/Historical/staff-docs/historical/First-NIC-Hardware.txt

1991

Linus Torvalds offered a small OS for public distribution which our volunteer Ari Lemmke decided to call Linux and the name stuck... International connection was upgraded to 128Kbit/s

...

https://ftp.funet.fi/README

#funet #history #computinghistory