Hindsight is indeed 20/20. Even though we didn't build the products that have changed the way networks do business in the last 20 years, our birds'-eye view of those developments gives us a license to pinpoint which 20 products have had the most impact on the network industry.

When we solicited input from our Network World Lab Alliance members about which products should be noted, we amassed a list of more than 50 wares that helped bring us increased infrastructure speed, access to the brave new world of the Internet and applications beyond our wildest dreams. In whittling the list down to a mere 20, we may have missed products or technologies that you deem worthy. Join our online forum and argue the merits of your own top 20).

Now, let's move on to our list of products and technologies and their companies, listed in chronological order, starting with the earliest:

SNIFFER

Network General
1986

While very expensive (in the $60,000-plus range), this product, in its original Compaq II portable incarnation, was the first easy-to-use network diagnostic tool. The company then shipped Sniffer Distributed in 1991 and has since produced versions that peer into Gigabit Ethernet, wireless networks and even into the applications riding over them.

NOTES

Lotus (now IBM)
1989

As the first true commercial workgroup application, more than 35,000 copies of Lotus Notes 1.0 were sold during the first year it was on the market. The system requirements were either DOS 3.1 or OS/2 on the client and either DOS 3.1, 4.0 or OS/2 on the server.

THE WORLD

Software Tool & Die
1989

The World is reputed to be the oldest commercial ISP. This outfit was founded in Brookline, Mass., by current CEO Barry Shein to give interested public parties access to Usenet News.