A piece of internet history is on the auction block. A surviving IP packet from a 2001 experiment that used carrier pigeons to transmit data has attracted a $4,000 bid at Christie's. The packet comes from a test by the Bergen Linux User Group, which took an April Fools' RFC seriously and built a working—if highly unreliable—pigeon-based network.
The experiment was inspired by RFC 1149, published on April 1, 1990, by network engineer David Waitzman. The document, titled "A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers," described in deadpan technical language how pigeons could carry IP datagrams. While most readers treated it as a joke, BLUG decided to implement it for real.
On April 28, 2001, the group printed IP packets as hexadecimal strings on paper strips, attached them to racing pigeons, and flew them between two lofts about 5 km apart. The results were less than stellar: nine packets were dispatched, but only four replies came back, giving a packet-loss rate of roughly 56 percent. Despite that, the surviving packet is now a collector's item, with bidding already at $4,000.