sneakernet

Noun

sneakernet (countable and uncountable, plural sneakernets)

1. (historical, humorous, informal, uncountable) A method of transferring a computer file from one computer to another by copying it to a floppy disk, thumb drive, or some other external storage device, carrying the device to the other computer, and saving the file there, in contrast to electronic methods used by networked computers to transfer data.
   • Significant advances are occurring to race past sneakernet. But the ideal computer interconnect solution will always be just around the next bend.1986, Hardcopy, volume 6, Brea, Calif.: Sedlin Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 143, column 3
   • Before complicated networks and E-mail and special-interest bulletin boards, there was Sneakernet. Sneakernet required no special protocol, no special cables and terminal software. To communicate on Sneakernet, all you needed to do was take a disk from your computer to someone else's, stick the...1989 April, David Plotkin, “Compute! Specific”, in Compute!, volume 11, number 4, issue 107, Greensboro, N.C.: COMPUTE! Publications, ABC Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 58, column 2
2. (countable, historical, humorous, informal) The group of computers involved in this practice.
   • NSA feels there is no reason to use sneakernet anymore when you can distribute software to users through the network. (Sneakernet is the network created by physically walking from location to location to deliver software to users.)1999, “An Introduction to the Internet for Financial Services Developers”, in Jessica Keyes, editor, Handbook of Technology in Financial Services, Boca Raton, Fla.; New York, N.Y.: CRC Press...
   • Some companies were able to coerce one department's application to read data files written by another's. These lucky organizations often resorted to sneakernets—transferring data on magnetic tape or floppy disks—to avoid the re-keying process. With the advent of LANs and WANs, electronic file...2003, Doug Kaye, “Application Integration”, in Alison Bing, Cessna Kaye, editors, Loosely Coupled: The Missing Pieces of Web Services, Marin County, Calif.: RDS Press, →ISBN, part II (Concepts), page...