Can I connect a Windows 95 computer to the internet?

[RetroB1977]

1 minute ago, Gemintronic said:

If the main point was to see old versions of web sites there are handy options:

 

https://web.archive.org/

 

http://oldweb.today/

 

https://www.loc.gov/

Thanks but that isn't my goal.

[wierd_w]

52 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

I saw the bit about KernelEx; have you ever worked with the Unofficial Service Pack for 98SE?

I have tried it exactly one time. I found that it made the install even more unstable than a win98 machine already is.

 

I am familiar with KernelEX, and believe I properly captured the severity of how much it messes stuff up in my humorous writeup, but maybe I was mistaken... LOL

[wierd_w]

I have been approaching this from the standpoint of:

 

"Hey, we have this bit of <Name vintage manufacturing equipment> that runs on a custom interface board, that only works on Windows98.  That machine **REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY needs to be able to parse webpages with something more modern than IE6. The webpages will be wholly intranet, but the browser needs functions not present in ones from the era. Do you know how to make this happen?"

 

Or something similar.

 

This is why I worded my reply to CS1 the way I did-- "If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in a position where you MUST do this..."

 

If *I* were in such a position, I would also heavily leverage isolinux and memdisk. (because the win98 deployment will be HELLA unstable, and prone to eating itself.)   I would create a drivespace3 compressed disk image of about 500mb in size, with windows, the installed browser, KernelEX, and any other "Mission critical" software, in a clean, healthy state-- put it in an EXT3 partition on an IDE->CF adapter, and have isolinux load it into memory and boot it using memdisk. The computer would need about 1gb or RAM to operate. (500 for the disk image in memory, and 500 for windows to function.)

 

This way, it could eat itself every goddamn day-- and it would be a simple reboot to "Fix" it.

 

 

[Sir Guntz]

This is such a silly question, yes obviously you can still take Windows 95 online, it supports TCP/IP with all its built-in Windows networking and even old Netscape Navigator and IE can load at least a few websites. you could also get Firefox 2.0.0.20 which has a bit more compatibility with current day sites. Ethernet still works fine on Windows 95, many period PCs of the late 90s can run Windows 95 and have driver support for most ethernet cards. As for Wi-Fi, believe it or not, there do exist some USB Wi-Fi adapters that have a client program and driver that works on Windows 95/98. For those I think you do need Windows 95 OSR2 though.

[+OLD CS1]

11 hours ago, Sir Guntz said:

This is such a silly question, yes obviously you can still take Windows 95 online, it supports TCP/IP with all its built-in Windows networking and even old Netscape Navigator and IE can load at least a few websites.

Is it really all that silly to ask nearly 30 years after the operating system was introduced, by someone who was possibly not even alive at the time, in a community of grey-beards who can not only give useful answers but full blown demonstrations to boot?

 

11 hours ago, Sir Guntz said:

you could also get Firefox 2.0.0.20 which has a bit more compatibility with current day sites. Ethernet still works fine on Windows 95, many period PCs of the late 90s can run Windows 95 and have driver support for most ethernet cards. As for Wi-Fi, believe it or not, there do exist some USB Wi-Fi adapters that have a client program and driver that works on Windows 95/98. For those I think you do need Windows 95 OSR2 though.

Where were you two pages ago?  Or did you just twitch at the silliness of the OP and not bother to read any of the rest?

 

In any case, yes, you either need the USB supplement, OSR2.1 or later for USB support.  You will also need to locate the original driver CDs for the devices (LinkSys and D-Link are very easy to obtain) as they often contained a client for 95 and up.

[wierd_w]

There is also the "Odyssey client"

I happen to have a copy...  However, it is commercial software that was never opened by the OEM.  Technically, the installer defaults to a "30 day enterprise evaluation" unless you present it with a valid license key. I dont have sufficient knowledge of the rules here to know if sharing it would be kosher.  It's a bit of 'hard to find' software, all the same.

 

It is a "Universal Wifi connectivity manager" that also happens to have support for WPA2.  It does not care one iota about the chipset, as long as it has a properly configured 802.1a/b/g/n/ac ethernet driver loaded.

 

Hang on, I will install it in the win98 VM, and take a picture.

 

 

 

Of course, there are no 802.1x devices in my virtual machine-- but I can confirm it works with USB dongles, PCI cards, and just about anything else I have thrown at it.

Edited February 26, 2022 by wierd_w

[Reaperman]

I found with getting my XP systems online, the big trick was finding a browser for win32 that could also handle the modern TLS levels, since falling back to SSL really stopped being a valid option about half a decade ago. Almost every modern site will push from http to https and then fail when the browser asks for basic ssl.

 

I ended up using MyPal which is based on Pale Moon. (pale moon itself stopped supporting 32-bit some time ago)

However I think both of those only ever went back to xp, not 9x. But with them, an XP machine feels pretty modern/usable again. 

 

Slightly off topic--as bad as the ssl/tls shift is to deal with on PC, it's an especially bad hassle on older android devices. It's very difficult to get those connecting to their stores, etc, and they depend on their ecosystem more than most devices. Getting a new-old-stock mad catz mojo going was truly more hassle than it was worth.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Reaperman

[+OLD CS1]

9 hours ago, wierd_w said:

I happen to have a copy...  However, it is commercial software that was never opened by the OEM.  Technically, the installer defaults to a "30 day enterprise evaluation" unless you present it with a valid license key. I dont have sufficient knowledge of the rules here to know if sharing it would be kosher.

The company, Funk, is still alive as Pulse Secure, now apparently part of Ivanti, so probably a good call.  The company has an interesting history: started in 1982, bought by Juniper Networks, spun off from Juniper, &c.  We used Funk's "Steel-Belted RADIUS" at our ISP for dial-up and xDSL authentication.  From what I can tell, the Enterprise version was supposed to be discontinued around 2019 but it looks like the Carrier edition is still sold and supported.  And it ain't cheap as it conforms to just about every government security standard and supports everything including the kitchen sink, and I am pretty certain there is nothing else comparable on the market.

 

One of the things I find particular interesting about Odyssey is its support for FIPS-140 way back then.  I have had so many problems at sites with 802.1x wireless only to find the problem is the client wireless devices which do not support FIPS mode.  I mean, c'mon, it is 20-and-current year!

 

8 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Slightly off topic--as bad as the ssl/tls shift is to deal with on PC, it's an especially bad hassle on older android devices.

This is what made my beloved SonyEricsson Java-based feature phone nearly obsolete.  If it were not for the fact that I run my own servers and set up a special legacy ecosystem for it, and OperaMini for J2ME, it would be only minimally useful as a camera, organizer, media player, and a phone.  (AT&T's 3G shutdown is the final nail in its coffin as a phone. )

[RetroB1977]

The goal has been completed after me searching for drivers all day. Thanks for all your help!