Wunderbar98

Hi Gansangriff. You have a sweet setup, thanks for sharing. My router is proprietary from my internet provider. I've always wanted to flash or 'open source' a router but haven't done so yet. So aside from the hardware firewall (proprietary, query backdoors) most blocking is done at the system level. Lots gets on my nerves, thanks for asking. Don't use Flash, no Smartphone or closed-source 'apps', disable most software update checking and online access, use a custom user.js file for Mozilla-based browsers, disable "features" like 'pocket' and 'sync', avoid the "cloud", don't trust password managers, minimize JavaScript, block advertisements, encrypt sensitive data, etc. Probably be living out of a van soon, pay cash for everything and use a read-only OS with a roaming laptop. Now where did i put my medication ;) All systems here (GNU/Linux, Windows 98, Windows XP) have their own software firewalls. All browsers either don't support JavaScript or have it fully or partially blocked. My Windows 98 system uses an ~13,000 entry HOSTS file from MVPS. On GNU/Linux such a large HOSTS file would slow down the system, so NoScript and Bluhell Firewall is used there with SeaMonkey. I coded a Bash front-end for youtube-dl, which allows quick terminal access to various video sites. I coded a Bash scripted web browser that parses as much data as possible from Wget fetches. Also coded some web scraping scripts to avoid visiting bloated sites and automate daily data collection (news, weather, comic strips, etc). Fair amount of coding and upkeep but it's a hobby anyway. For now it's all good, don't get much bloat either and systems have little overhead.

Hi RamonUn. Still no success using full pathways, null sound and null video. Tried Windows 98 CD msvcrt.dll and your linked SDL.dll - together and separate combos. All same error output as earlier.

Thanks for the github link RamonUn. Unfortunately still didn't work, tested numerous variations, known working mp4 file, system otherwise works fine using Windows 98 ere SMPlayer/MPlayer. For me no big, happy using an old version of MPlayer, just wanted to point out in case others have issues too. Examples trialed: mplayer nhL.mp4 -vo sdl -nosound mplayer nhL.mp4 -vo directx -nosound mplayer nhL.mp4 -vo direct3d -nosound mplayer nhL.mp4 -vo gl -nosound mplayer nhL.mp4 -vo gl/directx/direct3d/sdl -nosound COMMAND.COM output: MPlayer Ringo 2021-01-08 (ffmpeg N-100581-ga454a0c) (C) 2000-2021 MPlayer Team Playing nhL.mp4. libavformat version 58.65.101 (internal) libavformat file format detected. [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 014036c0]Protocol name not provided, cannot determin if input is local or a network protocol, buffers and access patterns cannot be configured optimally without knowing the protocol MPlayer interrupted by signal 8 in module: demux_open - MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM. Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and disassembly. Details in DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports_what.html#bugreports_crash. - MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen. It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your gcc version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html and follow the instructions there. We can't and won't help unless you provide this information when reporting a possible bug.

***** E-66 wrote: At this point I guess I either take it somewhere local and have them test the CPU and/or board, or just order a new board, unless there are any other suggestions? ***** It's not clear you tried someone's earlier suggestion - remount the CPU? Simple task provided you have thermal paste. Query whether the system is cycling due to an instant overheat. There is possibility motherboard capacitor(s) died in storage. Personally i think it's better to use hardware regularly to keep it powered up and active. One possibility may have been loose connective debris on the motherboard or lodged between the motherboard and case but presumably you would have noticed this when you tested the motherboard on a box. Have you ruled out a faulty power or reset switch on the case? If not already trialed disconnect the power and reset switch leads from the motherboard. Identify the two motherboard pins for the power switch and short them together with a flathead screwdriver (conductive tip, insulated handle) to start the computer. Off chance that a switch is flaky. Personally i don't think it's worth taking old hardware to someone who intends to get paid to take a look. If it comes to this the money is better spent buying additional hardware, at least you'll have something to show for the money. Good luck.

Logging in Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.14 was figured out, the issue was briefly mentioned here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020-and-beyond/page/36/?tab=comments#comment-1192449 The firewall notifies about all incoming and outgoing connections without rules via popup. Once the user defines a rule (deny or permit) by default the firewall does it's job in the background and no longer notifies. If the user wants ongoing feedback for connection attempts select either 'log when this rule match' or 'display alert box when this rule match'. To set up logging, double-click the firewall icon in the system tray -> select Firewall tab -> Advanced -> filter rules tab. My current setup has 24 incoming and outgoing rules defined (9 deny, 15 permit). Select a filter rule -> Edit -> check 'log when this rule match' -> OK -> Apply. This must be done individually for every filter rule you want logged. Then in the Advanced -> Miscellaneous tab ensure 'log into file (filter.log)' is checked. When a filter rule gets triggered by network activity it then gets logged to file. On a default install this is C:\Program Files\Tiny Personal Firewall\filter.log. If a log file is not desired but you still want notifications, then instead of selecting 'log when this rule match' for a desired filter rule, select 'display alert box when this rule match'. This will provide a message popup with a connection attempt. As logging causes increased disk activity and popup alerts get tiring, i will likely just log connection attempts at random intervals or only for connections set to 'deny'. Logging can help determine how frequently a connection gets triggered or whether specific software may be 'calling home'. This firewall also has an MD5 feature that allows checking the path and MD5sum for each defined application executable. A little bonus protection against undesired intrusion. Of course if someone has physical access to your machine then none of this matters. On these old systems it is easy to reset the BIOS or BIOS password, bypass a Windows 98 login or read/write FAT partitions with a liveCD. Probably overkill for internet facing systems used for hobby purposes, nonetheless better safe than sorry. As mentioned previously some system components and software applications that attempted network connections were surprising.

In RetroZilla the forum is still useable as long as View -> Use Style -> None is selected, including log in, log out and post messages. The only things that never worked in RetroZilla was running the forum with JavaScript enabled and adding attachments and screenshots, which i just perform from a newer OS. This makes me sound old and grumpy but change for the sake of change i never understood. To me don't fix what isn't broken, similar to physicians 'do no harm' - rule number one. This forum has always been the most bloated of the various forums i visit. I can live with that but the style really should be changed to something more useable for everyone, not just Windows 10 users running the latest whatever. Old Windows users are already having a hard enough time keeping their systems alive, not sure why this forum of all forums would intentionally hinder them. Examples of forums that always work fine here regardless of browser. Maybe site administrators can choose a less problematic 'style', blessings in advance if you can. http://coursedownloads.com/forum/index.asp http://forums.debian.net/search.php?search_id=active_topics&sid=1708667252a61125e9db90d26115a8ea http://dev1galaxy.org/search.php?action=show_recent http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/

As per title. Used various browsers last few days on various OS'. Currently logged in via DOS using Links, effectively no style so the site is still useable. The presentation on more feature rich browsers here is not good, including poor layout, poor use of whitespace, poor readability, etc. Just providing feedback. Maybe admins can test with various browsers and tweak the design further. Forum members here obviously use a wide range of browsers. This topic has been mentioned in other non-Win9x threads, just notifying it's a big issue in Windows 9x land too. Thanks in advance for any possible tweaks.

Thank-you RamonUn for providing these builds. Most Windows 9x users won't be able to download from mega.nz natively without using another system. I tried one of your previous builds and it did not run in vanilla Windows 98. Will try again someday, it may have just been my configuration. Take care.

Wunderbar98 (December 10th): It's okay Santa pre-approved a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. Happy new year all. Christmas came and went and as usual there were no presents, just some lights. Can't remember what year my household purchased anything new aside from socks, underwear, food and rare home/vehicle maintenance items. Live a low profile, work from home, prefer staycations. Entire year only washed the truck once and burned two tanks of gas. Single vehicle household, would like to get rid of that too but suburbia requires driving for everything. The 20+ year old bread maker died last year, we've reverted to baking bread the old fashioned way. Also got serious about machine knitting house socks. As usual the neighbour's oversized garbage bin is overflowing long before garbage day, can't even close the lid. May skip taking the bin to the curb this week to set an example but they'll probably think i threw my garbage into their bin :( So needless to say no Raspberry Pi - happy! Configured the 11-year old SSE2 capable netbook to handle all banking needs with a modern non-Windows OS, re-routed some DSL wire and everything's good. Hopefully can keep this existing setup for 5-10 years. So no need for a Raspberry Pi or newer computer, which would have opened a big can of worms (another KVM switch, HDMI -> HDMI-mini and VGA -> HDMI adapters, etc). Keeping on with the old hardware. May spoil myself this year and upgrade the primary system to a faster tower presently in storage (800MHz/384MB RAM to 1.7GHz/1.5GB RAM). Reluctant as this Windows 98 setup is the best i've ever used. Will perform another full image backup of this Windows 98 install then just continue to enjoy the system. It's been fun, thank-you everyone for your input and feedback. Lately have been busy with other projects and probably won't post much anymore. Have been going through years of old online forum logins and memberships, attempting to either cancel or gibberish/harden the data, not an easy feat. They make it easy to sign up then keep your data for years. Also started tinkering with other non-Windows/Apple/ proprietary OS', gotta keep moving. Thread title updated to 'Running vanilla Windows 98 in 2020 and beyond...'. Feel free to post your modern day Windows 98 experiences here, or not. It's great that there are still some users out there. Personally i think Windows 2000 Professional was the best MSFT ever produced, though my nostalgia remains loyal to Windows 98. It is very versatile and still surprisingly useful today, despite occasional clunkiness, which adds to the charm.

Reporting for duty. Vanilla Windows 98 SE is currently installed on two early 2000 era towers, nothing special, real hardware only thanks. The primary install is 800 MHz with 384 MB RAM, 32 MB graphics, 19" CRT monitor and PS2 mouse/keyboard that multi-boots with modern GNU/Linux. Boot into Windows 98 or it's DOS 7.10 almost daily for light internet (education, news, forums), YouTube, streaming music, games and nostalgia. Have enough old hardware to run Windows 98 indefinitely, hope to always have at least one install available.

Hi again Areba21. The above post was edited, the childhood dirtbike was a Honda XR100 (not CB). I also owned a Yamaha trail bike in there somewhere but don't recall the model. If you go the motorcycle safety course route and there are competitive schools, all things being equal pick the school that provides a variety of motorcycle makes and models for practical training. This should help with your street vs dirt/dual-purpose decision.

Back in the day my better half and i were motorcycle safety instructors. Since childhood i've owned and ridden bikes from all the major Japanese brands and can't say one is any better than the other. Bikes owned in childhood were, for example, 50cc Honda minibike and XR100 Honda dirt bike. Motorcycles owned in adulthood include Kawasaki Ninja 600, Kawasaki Ninja 750, Suzuki GSXR 1100 and a Suzuki DR650. They were all very reliable. The DR650 was my favourite, dual purpose 'thumper' engine, but sitting upright wasn't more comfortable. At highway speeds, anything more than ~80 km/hr, the upright position and lack of windscreen made for an unpleasant and tiring ride. The sportbike allowed alternating between semi-upright and laying down on the tank but is harder on the wrists. So maybe depends on how much future highway riding vs slow, short trip city riding. I'm older now but aside from that i would not ride a motorcycle on the streets anymore. Where i live car drivers have gone crazy last 20 years, busier roads and lots more tailgating, speeding, hit and run accidents. Not worth losing your life or being permanently injured for a bit of fun - video games are safer :) The bikes you are looking at are relatively small displacement so your physical stature shouldn't be a big issue. If, however, you can't keep both feet flat on the ground while sitting on the bike stationary then look for something else. Dual purpose motorcycles typically have a taller seat height, primarily off-road suspension travel, so if you can't pass the sit/feet flat test don't bother. Also IMHO if you don't have the physical strength to pick up the bike if it's laying on the ground, you're over your head. Again only IMHO, not everyone has the aptitude to ride and many 'bikers' should stick with four wheels. This forum isn't the best place to ask for this advice. It's unclear how much riding experience you have. If you haven't already, take a motorcycle safety course that offers practical training before making a decision. Here most courses provide bikes for learning. Then you will know better if getting a motorcycle is still what you want.

Hi UCyborg. Yeah having a compatible network card with a good packet driver is probably the biggest limitation today. On one Windows 98 system i had to swap out an otherwise perfectly working network adapter because it was causing a shutdown hang. Went through all the troubleshooting steps, just something about the card Windows 98 didn't like. Just an aside, FreeDOS links to Links v2.18. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/links.html ... but v2.21 is available, last updated August 2020. http://links.twibright.com/download/binaries/dos/

Believe Links is included in FreeDOS full fat releases. I've used both Links and FreeDOS, just not together. There is a recent quickie FreeDOS review in the 'Running vanilla Windows 98...' thread. Hyperlink below shows Links is referenced in FreeDOS' networking software section, their users must be utilizing the browser. The nice thing about Links is that it's still receiving periodic updates, even DOS ports. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.2/repos/pkg-html/index.html

Thanks for the feedback RainyShadow. Good call with today's isopropyl alcohol pricing. I've done it both ways myself, depending on how clean my pliers are - to avoid contaminating the bottle.

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all stay healthy and have a good new year. Time for eggnog and Grumpy Old Men with my better half. Read an informative article entitled 'How to make technology greener? End planned obsolescence'. Here in the great white north it was +7 Celsius on Christmas Eve. This is so wrong, not just a rare blip. Last week it felt like the roof may blow off, had to check for missing shingles. Unfortunately most in my community seem to take it in stride, thinking a warm winter is more pleasant, even a longer growing season. Hopefully an enlightenment switch will eventually flick on, sadly maybe too late. https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/planned-obsolescence-1.5847168 Just refurbished my Windows 98 hardware. The power supply and components were dirtier than my other systems, gets quite a bit of daily use. Recently encountered input output errors with a USB stick. The stick and filesystems are good. Thinking this may be a connection issue, the computer was unplugged. A cotton tip was dipped in isopropyl alcohol then 'flattened' with pliers to fit inside the computer's USB slots. A repeated poking action was used to clean the ports. The tip came back dirty so the cleaning action was repeated. Maybe shouldn't be surprised, 20 year old hardware. Hopefully this fixes the connectivity issue, time will tell. Cotton tips with cardboard or wood sticks work best, plastic sticks do not grip the cotton well. The cotton tip flattening technique is good for other fixes too. I once had an extension cord that would spark/arc whenever plugging something in. Cleaned the plug slots, like new again. Survival tip: unplug before maintenance.

Just 'view source' of this page and filter 'find any local Slovenian law'. The first instance does not have obvious tags, additional instances include 'font-size:1.3rem'. Chrome must display this, other browsers maybe ignore. span style="font-size:1.3rem;"according to this directive , let them show it . I can't find any local Slovenian law with such requerement, no matter how hard I try. Can you ?/span Edit: tag arrows removed to get this silly stuff to display

Thanks for the information @jim2029, just providing a frugal alternative, all the best. To me $25/month isn't cheap, especially since it's a perpetual payment. FTP would be very accessible to old Win9x users. To be ultra-frugal just start a member project thread here instead and post links to your software. Then just maintain the post and links. If the software is no longer available update the link to Wayback Machine's. If still not available, upload software for free using something like http://tinyupload[dot]com. HTTP so easily accessible, free, hosted 'forever', 50 MB per file. Of course if this forum or TinyUpload disappears.. but so could any web service. Donating $25/month to MSFN may be more useful than just hosting a single site. Also when searching around there is actually an incredible amount of software still available, even old DOS stuff.

There's a current Microsoft anti-competitive class action lawsuit in my country going way back to 1998. At this stage of life it's not worth giving up personal contact information for a few dollars. Nonetheless lots of people must have been riled, admitedly i was too. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canada-class-action-settlement-microsoft-1.5840305 Microsoft got a fair amount of my money back in 1999 when i built my first 'modern' PC. As i built the PC myself, the Windows 98 SE operating system was purchased standalone for about $100 CDN. To me this seemed reasonable as a basic new desktop cost $1000-$1500 for the hardware, especially if you wanted some RAM :) For me the issue was Microsoft Works and Microsoft Works Suite. In all fairness this is just as much my ignorance, with the 'help' of a know-it-all big box salesperson. So my fancy new PC needed Word, that's what everyone used, standard stuff. The salesperson convinced me that i had to purchase both 'Microsoft Works' and 'Works Suite 99'. I was told that to get Microsoft Word, first install Microsoft Works then install Microsoft Works Suite 99. Those were my busiest years, didn't have time to doublecheck and argue. Funny how Microsoft entangled an OS with a built-in browser but couldn't provide a full featured word processor. Combined these 'Works' purchases cost far more than the actual Windows 98 operating system and all i really used out of the collection was Word (briefly). Since i paid so much money for this stuff it was never thrown away and is still in pristine condition. Probably the last time i paid for software, aside from games. Can't be bothered to load the CDs, the 'Microsoft Works' stamp indicates: - Microsoft Works 4.5a - Microsoft Works Calendar - Internet Explorer 4 Microsoft Works Suite 99 includes: - Microsoft Word 97 - Microsoft Works 4.5a [1] - Microsoft Works Calendar [1] - Internet Explorer 4 [1] - Microsoft Money 99 - Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99 - Microsoft Graphics Studio Greetings 99 [2] [1] See basic Microsoft Works list and insert red angry face here. [2] Better half still actually uses this on occasion. Of my other Windows operating systems, Windows 95 was purchased used from a nice fellow in about 1999, retro you know, for $5 CDN. Fortunately i was gifted Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional. Of course now so much free, open source software is available, which to me is just as good or better. Back then GNU/Linux didn't exist to me, not until 2006. A freshly built PC with a Windows OS was just how it was done. Back then i also did not yet know about Star Office or any of the great office suites to come.

Tiny Personal Firewall was briefly mentioned by myself back on page 2 of this thread. A mistake was made, my systems use v2.0.14 not v2.0.15. Can't remember exactly but this was contentious to someone, apparently there was a significant (negative) change after v2.0.14. After running it for years it's been good, minimal system resources, sits in the system tray, easy to configure. This system is online everyday. In GNU/Linux i tend to use basic iptables firewall and just set it and forget. Tiny Personal Firewall is good at notifying about connection attempts without rules, both in and out. It's easy to temporarily disable all network activity and specify software access rules. The only concern is that firewall logging appears broken, not trivial. No 'filter.log' file ever appears to get created or appended. If anyone has tips, appreciated. Users may use some applications listed below to access online data though some entries are surprising. All of these applications requested and were denied network access. Didn't bother tracing or researching any of them, they've been blocked forever and the system runs great. Not even sure what some of them reference, example SYSTEM or Windows Kernel core component. They do not appear related to running 'ping' or any TCP/IP networking used here. SYSTEM (in/out) Windows Kernel core component (in/out) ICMP (in/out) IP Protocol 2 (in) Microsoft HTML Help Executable (out) Java 2 Platform Standard Edition binary (out) OpenOffice.org 2.4 (out) From what i can tell running anti-virus is pretty much obsolete, keeps the system lean. I think most important is running both a hardware and software firewall, avoiding JavaScript and other unauthorized code execution, regularly clear cookies and cache, careful about software installs and exercise common sense.

The Windows 9x Web Helper (9xweb) project is discontinued. Thanks to those who participated. The eventual discovery of several TLS v1.2 capable browsers makes much of the script unnecessary. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/33/?tab=comments#comment-1189203 As of today video fetch functionality is still possible in vanilla Windows 9x using Enhanced Cygwin Lite and a hacking spirit. echo "### RIP 9xweb ###" > C:\cygwin\bin\9xweb

Thanks for the information @dencorso. Unfortunately i don't purchase online and there is no longer a bricks and mortar here. There is, however, a large hoard of tediously salvaged capacitors in the basement. If the set gets worse will need to find the closest match. The leaker is the largest capacitor on the board, grouped in a too tight cluster of other capacitors, right beside the warm and cozy heat sink of a bridge rectifier. Now i'm no electrical engineer but there's lots of real estate under a picture tube to design a spacious board so all components can maintain ventilation and temperature. The television sizes were added to my post above. Lots more current and heat through a 7 year newer same-size 27 inch set. Proabably not coincidental, the same time period users are noticing more failed computer hardware (2000 vs 2007).

Most recent WayBackMachine search indicates the account is suspended: http://web.archive.org/web/20201030011053/http://www.gregorybraun.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi From 2019 probably provides the information you seek. Substitute the date string '20191226112558' with '2018' or '201001' or whatever to go further back in time, WayBack provides the nearest date. Hope this helps. http://web.archive.org/web/20191226112558/http://gregorybraun.com/

Just reburbished 3 CRT televisions that may reflect the power requirements, load and capacitor quality of 1980-1990s vs 2000 era hardware. The older sets work like new and the capacitors appear immaculate. The newest set requires more warm-up time, sometimes has a fluctuating image and one of the primary capacitors was bulged and leaking. The oldest sets have the most runtime by far. 1987 92-Watt 21" Zenith (perfect) 2000 110-Watt 27" Sharp (perfect) 2007 180-Watt 27" Sony (capacitor issue) Aside from the above, a <10 year old LCD television was received as a giveaway a couple years ago. The set would sporadically turn itself off. After spending way too much time replacing capacitors, there was minimal improvement in runtime and the problem persisted. Finally gave up and sent it for recycling. Does this mean today's engineers can't design a decent capacitor? Of course not, it's probably the easiest component to manufacture that works well for about 12 months then starts to fail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineered_failure

Just a 404 Page not found here, query down for editing. Last time i checked some links were active but not functional. Not sure why the author decided to create links this way, guessing a work in progress with too little precious free time.