Attached Resource Computer NETwork (ARCNET or ARCnet) is a communications protocol for local area networks. ARCNET was the first widely available networking system for microcomputers; it became popular in the 1980s for office automation tasks.
<networking> A network developed by DataPoint. ARCnet was
proprietary until the late 1980s and had about as large a
marketshare as Ethernet among small businesses. It was
almost as fast and was considerably cheaper at the time.
(1995-01-16)