Retro networking is a different community, and all is still done behind a modern router. They are a subset of the retro computing community, but they don’t run such systems as their daily driver.
Most of the legacy OS enthusiasts running on as their daily driver are not interested in matching their networking to be period correct, they just want it to work well and quickly like everybody else. For that you need basic modern equipment, that is often included into ISP plans.
Are they? If they’re irresponsible enough to run an ancient OS it wouldn’t shock me if they’re also running “retro” network equipment
They are not, come on now.
Retro networking is a different community, and all is still done behind a modern router. They are a subset of the retro computing community, but they don’t run such systems as their daily driver.
Most of the legacy OS enthusiasts running on as their daily driver are not interested in matching their networking to be period correct, they just want it to work well and quickly like everybody else. For that you need basic modern equipment, that is often included into ISP plans.