A DELNI is a fan-out box that goes in a thickwire network between a transceiver (which connects to the female D-shell on the DELNI) and up to eight computers. These devices allowed DEC computers to be combined into Local Area and Inter Networks. The more common name for a DELNI today is 'hub.' Text by Ian Brown, Synchronics, Inc. Ottawa, Ontario: "There have been three generations of Ethernet hardware: - the original "thickwire", a.k.a. 10base5, which uses transceivers to tap into thick coax; each transceiver has a 15-pin D-shell male connector which connects via a four-shielded-pair transceiver cable to a 15-pin D-shell female connector on the computer. - "thinwire", a.k.a. 10base2, which daisy-chains computers with runs of thin coax using BNC connectors; - "unshielded twisted pair" (UTP), a.k.a. 10baseT, which uses 8-pin RJ45 connectors on runs of two-pair wire; each run connects a computer to a twisted-pair hub." "A DELNI is a fan-out box that goes in a thickwire network between a transceiver (which connects to the female D-shell on the DELNI) and up to eight computers. It's possible to run a DELNI without a connection to the thickwire backbone, as a very local hub--there's a switch beside the female D-shell to disable that connection if you want to run your thickwire network with no thickwire. That's what I do, since my ancient computers all have the thickwire D-shell Ethernet connectors.