Gansangriff

Ridiculous! Wasting money from the people who work hard to build a technology, that can't reach the one's who are truly endangered by the illness called Covid19. The old staff! The retired ones! Usually, they don't have a smartphone, and therefore can't be traced. What a well thought plan! As we can see, the true virus is worldwide goverment stupidity. Spreads via television, radio, newspapers and the internet. Is that true? Aren't there any banks at all at your place, that let you do your online banking properly on a computer? Without smartphones needed? I opened my bank account three years ago and it was still possible to open an offline account, which would have cost a bit more, because less things are automated. But the online banking is a proper thing without smartphones. If a smartphone would be required for online banking, I'd switch to an offline bank. Absolute No-Go. Wait, I've thought a little bit about this. Actually, there is a root checking taking place on my bank account too. But it is send via SMS! Old technology, you know. Therefore I can still use a Sony Ericsson from 2008. Drops into puddles, drops into toilets, drops on the floor, still operates. The battery in it lasts longer than these modern wipe-o-phones. And you can even exchange it (!!!), when it's broken. I, and only I as the user of the technology, will decide when to retire it! Not you, Apple and Google! Fortuneately alternatives like the finnish Jolla phone exist. A Sailfish OS device would be the only compromise I'd be willing to take. (Edit: Excuse me, I misunderstood the term "root checking" as checking, where the the owner of the bank account is. So that the bank knows, where the root of the login came from. But no, it's checking if a phone was "rooted", improved by the user.)

Oh dear! Is your Windows 7 installation allright? And the hardware, too? What kind of hardware do you use? How strong is it? Any broken capacitors? What's with the graphics card? A new Windows is highly dependant on a good functioning graphics acceleration, else the CPU has to do all the work and overloads quickly. How does the 32-Bit version of New Moon perform on your computer? Maybe even the No-SSE version is worth a try? It isn't the brand new version, but still performs well. Big sites changed quite a lot on the web, so if you want to keep in touch with them, unfortuneately a somewhat modern browser is necessary. For basic text reading with pictures, Netscape is enough of course.

Pale Moon might fit your needs. Try out their current one or maybe "Roytams forked Moon". It's just important, that you ask questions at the right place, because Moonchild Productions, the Pale Moon developer, doesn't support the forked version of his browsers. Of course it's a niche browser, meaning not everything will run. With Google ruling more and more parts of the internet and their browser engine becoming like the standard, things are tough for these guys, but they still stand strong. Palemoon has the good old Firefox addons. I use it with the old NoScript V5 to block JavaScript, when it's needed. Is it all about the RAM the browser uses? If you're short on RAM, then yes. For comparison, let's put the old Pentium 3 on the table. A nineteen years old computer with a single core at 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM. If your computer looks more modern than this machine, then it should be absolutely capable of a good amount of fun on the web. On screen we have Roytams browser (New Moon) in the No-SSE2 version for old processors. It's lightweight and capable of accessing most websites, including my banking website, Invidous Youtube videos, the web flea market ebay-kleinanzeigen (script-heavy web site) and of course the MSFN forum (also with scripts turned on). Some values of various browsers when idling on a blank page. Edge Win10 -> 150-200 MB Palemoon on Linux Mint 64-Bit -> 163 MB Palemoon (from last year) on Salix-Linux 32-Bit -> 155 MB Palemoon on Win10 -> 120 MB Roytams Moon on 32-Bit XP -> 95 MB Retrozilla (old Firefox) on XP-VM -> 23 MB Netscape from 2008 (old Firefox) -> 15 MB Dillo on Salix-Linux 32-Bit -> 9 MB But that doesn't indicate a lot. Because old Firefoxes and Dillo aren't capable of the terrible modern stuff.

Once I've hunted every connection down, that had CDN in it's name and dared to enter my network. But what kind of content is the CDN server actually delivering? Could be some pictures, but could be a tracker or an advert, too. There is no easy solution for this. It always depends on the case. But to be honest, 95% of them are just garbage and slow your internet browsing down. I can say, that on the old Pentium 3 and on slow mobile connections, this saves a lot of bandwidth on plenty of "bigger" websites.

It's about picking the right servers, where scripts should be allowed. addictive-ads.com spyonyou.info soundsfine.com soundslikeenglish.com soundslikespam.com a0a0202.cloudfront.com local-newspaper.com cdn-network.com Being presented with that kind of list, my users think: Now how do I have to decide? What is a "content delivery network"? I've read they offer me spyware! What is "Cloudfront"? The big numbers in front of it look like a hacker attacks me now! "Soundsfine.com", well that does sound fine, doesn't it? These quesitons are very dificult, I know. On a short-term, this configuration gives you headaches, having to configure NoScript for every site and look up every single thing, what it is and what it does. But on the long-term, once you have everything set up, browsing the web actually makes fun again. Of course some scripts are doing a fine job, like here on MSFN (from my point of view). It performs well on the old Pentium 3. It's true, that there are internet connections happening on a fresh Linux machine. Some distributions definetly do much more than giving you updates and syncing the time over the network. Especially if you look at what Ubuntu has done. The free software man Richard Stallman knows, why he points at them (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.en.html). But other Linux distributions are different. My Salix installation doesn't say a word by itself to the outside world (after I've configured it)! It's like with Windows XP basically, although I don't think that you can configure a Windows XP machine on it's own to block all connections, that you didn't ask for. For example the Hosts-file is being circumvented for Microsoft servers (https://www.blabley.org/windows-10-ignoring-the-hosts-file-for-specific-name-resolution/). That's why I use a "hardware" non-Microsoft firewall, the configurable router, which has filters for these cases. But not all web connections are bad! The users would have to update their system by themselves, which they don't want, they just want to use their computer. It's convenience.

Very interesting! Here is the reason, why I asked that. A list with power consumptions from different computers: P2, 400 MHz (1999)*: 52 W (idle power) - 58 W (high cpu usage) P3, 600 MHz (1999)*: 44-48 W P3, 750 MHz (2000): 41-70 W --- Athlon, 1,1 GHz (2001): 93-107 W Athlon, 1,2 GHz (2002): 94-122 W P4, 3,0 GHz (ca.2006): 77-141 W --- Pentium E2220, 2,4 GHz (ca.2008)*: 62-84 W Phenom II, 3,2 GHz (ca.2009)*: 70-95 W * indicates a smaller sized motherboard Obviously the old computers (until the end of the single-cores) used more and more electricity, the more powerful they've got. So the power supplies of the old machines between 1999-2001 were much weaker, but still they look to be much more reliable on the capacitor side. Again, I'd argument with heat, because more power generates more heat, wearing the capacitors quicker... So to conclude, it's not about absolute numbers, it's just good for a mainboard to have some extra Watts in stock.

Difficult topic! I support some users which simply aren't able to use a simple addon like NoScript. Making them understand, which servers they have to block (but only sometimes) is beyond their capabilities. These people are some crazy artists with fantastic ideas, but they would have been better off without computers at all to be honest! And you have to block scripts, because even on the most generic websites that millions of people visit, a hacked advert can compromise your computer all of a sudden! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvertising Not only through that, but these sunday drivers would destroy their online Windows 7 quickly. They use terrible webmail clients, loading spam mails full of adverts, code execution right away and they are screwed then. They need a user-friendly Linux instead (if it's just for browsing the web and no super-special software is needed). A lot less malware is possible then... I'm sorry, but I can't make any appropriate statements about Windows Vista! I haven't used it since 9 years. But it looks like, that there are a lot of current Vista users here. The question is: What did they do right to not get their old systems attacked? And what did they upgrade hardwarewise? Probably the hard drive, which has made big speed improvements in the last 15 years. Best luck with your computer setup for the next 10 years!

Maybe Notepad++? You can switch between your open text files with Alt+Tab. You can also search the contents of all the text files in a folder with Ctrl+F. The screenshot shows an old version of Notepad++ without any icons, but the current version looks very smooth and is a very small program.

Excuse me, what does that mean? Low-power power supplies having more problems with broken capacitors?

The difficulty about Windows PCs of all versions is, that you can't really trust them. They have a broken security by default (since years!). Backdoors open for the intelligence agencies can be used by the intelligent hackers, too. Therefore I wouldn't use a firewall running on my Windows PC. Please correct me, if this sounds irrational! However routers can have backdoors too... search for it online, there are plenty of cases. Even OpenWRT can't be trusted blindly, because they are dependant on the hardware manufacturers too: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/what-are-the-chances-theres-a-hardware-backdoor-exploit-in-many-of-these-routers/22909 I prefer the "hardware" firewall, because it saves RAM on my old machines and it's convenient to configure for all computers. But you are right, it's basically just another computer running vulnerable software. Not 100 % perfect.

That's more than enough power for XP with additional support for SSE and SSE2, as it looks like on Cpu World. Please comfirm, if that could be the processor you have, because there are different browser versions of Roytams browsers (No-SSE for a Celeron from 1999 for example, SSE-only for Pentium 3 from 2001 for example...) I'd like to send you some RAM, but it takes half a year around the globe to arrive... but 1 GB shouldn't be too bad either. Regarding the busload of system services, select "Run" from the start menu and enter "services.msc". The description texts should help you to decide for most of the services, if you want them. Everything that Microsoft encrypted behind an acronym is then a case for the search engine of your choice. I disabled half of the system services and it definetly speeds up Windows XP.

@mattrix: Oh dear! How did this happen? What was it exactly, that destroyed your Windows XP? Maybe evil Javascripts? There are cases, where just loading an advertisement screwed up a Windows operating system. Just because the advertisement company was hacked and the attackers spread the malicious software like an advert! That's why blocking everything, you didn't ask for, is important. I still use the old NoScript V5 as a browser addon, but it is reported to break some sites (which I can't confirm). uMatrix is more common nowadays. UXP stands for Unified XUL Platform. I think this is a program part, that the Firefox used once (however after abandoning UXP, the once bright Firefox was only worth extinguishing...). But the Pale Moon browser was specialised in maintaining XUL. And some of Roytams browsers are based on Pale Moon. Still I highly recommend to ask all questions about the new Windows XP browsers here in the MSFN forum in Roytams Browser thread. The different browsers have a different look and feel. On the screenshot, you can see a 32-Bit New Moon, version 28.6.0, with NoScript V5 enabled (see the bar at the bottom displaying "Scripts Partially Allowed"). It works flawlessly for everything I do online, but you have to try it for your sites. Say, what hardware do you use? What kind of processor?

The paranoid view: There are a couple of things to consider when using Windows XP online. Microsoft definetly put some spyware into it. Your may get very nervous, when you'll monitor, what a fresh installation of Windows XP actually sends over the network. The installation process of Windows XP isn't clean of Microsoft server accesses either. Especially, because you have to activate Windows XP over the internet, or over a phone (which means they get your phone number!). The hosts file, a basic network filter utility on every computer, was infiltrated by Microsoft, which denys now to block their servers. All that wasn't present in Windows 98. I think the use of a hardware firewall, like a router that you, only you, and no one else has control over, is a solution. There you can block unwanted connections and no one can hinder you doing so. That being said, Windows XP is still extremly powerful online, especially thanks to the Roytam browsers. You cannot believe how quick Windows XP is on (from today's point of view) poorly equipped hardware. Just yesterday I used the aging Pentium 3 for Ebay business. Any risks? Of course it's an unpatched system since plenty of years and people will tell you, you're crazy to browse the web with such a security risk like XP. All I can say is from my experience, that if you are using the web carefully, don't click on everything, disable Javascript where you didn't ask for it, then you can run the old machines successful over the years without having to use an antivirus program. Depends on your hardware, but an antivirus would slow my machine down too much. Next advantage of old computers is, that you "feel" it, when something wrong is happening. The hard drive makes more noises than it should be. There is no extra power to let spyware run nearby, if it still should be a fluid user experience. Depends on your hardware of course, as a mini pc from back in the days could be calm, too and hard drives got calmer between 2000 and 2005, too. So there is definetly no guarantee that you can rely on your computer getting noisy when it is into troubles. Anyways, you can always monitor the internet traffic to see, if something suspicious is there.

Maybe you will find the drivers for the mainboard components on the HP home page. https://support.hp.com/ee-en/drivers/desktops I felt lucky this year finding XP drivers from other manufacturers like Acer and Dell on their own homepages.

I pulled plenty of computers from the scrapyard. Much more problems came with the machines of around 2005 to 2008. All of them, except one, died already. Two had blown capacitors, although they sometimes continue to work fine, even if one capacitor is out of order. My old machines (3 in number) around 1999 to 2001 seem to be much more reliable, as I've never spotted a bad capacitor on these boards. It isn't a secret, that heat wears electronics down in every aspect. It is also not a random thing, which capacitors blow up. They are often placed next to spots, where a lot of heat comes from. The mega single cores, like late 3 GHz Pentium 4 (around 2005) were heat-monsters with their giant coolers obviously generated much more heat than the Pentium 3 from around 2000. I wouldn't look for specific boards. Even cheap stuff from back in the day can be reliable. Maybe it's a good thing to have a computer in stock.

Does that mean, that you have 3 GB per day only? Difficult! What happens if you want to download a Linux ISO, not to speak about Windows ISO files?

Advertised as 16Mbit Download and 1Mbit Upload, I recieve 10Mbit download speed. That costs 20 Euro (circa 23 Dollar with the current exchange rates), which is the cheapest way of getting internet in this area. Basically, this is too much internet speed for my needs. Half of that would be fine, too.

Wow. I was just about to have the quickest internet experience in my life. With a DOS browser!? No kidding! The path of progress is... the past itself? Old DOS computers with no mouse and no cooling are quicker than quad-cores super gaming water-cooled Windows 10 machines with a 20-button-mouse? I'm losing faith in computer scientists... no, in fact I've lost that long ago, but this is just another example, how web design should be and how efficent programs can be if intelligent people are behind it. Two things to critisize: The name "Links" is problematic. As it was already said, it can be confused with hyperlinks. Also, it means "left" in German, which will disturb me every time I open the browser. I propose this thing to be called "Megalynx". Secondly, it's not beautiful, that the first screen you get to see when starting an unconfigured Links, is just a blinking cursor. The top bar should be there, like when pressing ESC for example. That will make the user feel, that something is there actually. Else it looks like a stuck BIOS... One last thing to say: COMMENT WRTITTEN WITH LINKS ON MS-DOS ONLINE IN 2020

Old Winamp 2.95 can do that. Click on the top-left corner on the wave symbol, then go to "Play", then to "Location". There you have to enter the webradio stream. I wonder, what the hardware requirements for this task actually are. Must be quite low.

Excatly. Teamspeak 2 did run on the new machine, too. The quality of the voice in Teamspeak 2 is not as good as today's voice chat programs can do. But on the other hand you can select some ridiculously small audio codecs like Speex, which makes a low-bandwith chat possible.

Haha! Makes me remember, how carelessly I flipped the power switch on a terribly dusty computer, resulting in a bright light coming loudly out of the power supply, followed by the smell of burned electronics. The dust must have produced a short circuit somewhere in the power supply! In fact, it was the only ruined part, the mainboard was fine. Must have left me deeply traumatised, as I always wait for my computers to blow up when I flip the switch at the back of a power supply... I have a good Windows XP installation on a Celeron from 1998 with 400 MHz. It's quite useable, but it also uses a newer IDE hard drive. It looks like the hard drive is much more important than the CPU power to improve the computer's speed at daily use. Your P3 is probably well set up for WinXP.

Something else: I wanted to thank you, Roytam, for making the New Moon browser available on Windows XP. It expands the lifespan of thousands of computers on this planet. This picture shows a 19 year old P3 with a weak 1 GHz processor running Windows XP, playing a Youtube video in 2020. Hopefully, people from countries with a less developed economy discover this, so they can use their XP machines much longer. Thanks to Roytam!

Maybe an Invidious server is an option, if Youtube doesn't play well? You can watch the videos from Youtube there, too. Yewtu.be is working well at the moment.

Interesting! What program is this? A DOS program, that lets you manage a complete HTML site?

I'd rather recommend than listening to the FBI but to upgrade your very unique Brain.exe instead. It's the best anti-virus out there. The only downside is, that Brain.exe can't be bought for money and downloading it is impossible, too. It must be fed proper knowledge to grow. And then one day, you will be capable of using the old operating systems online without running into a wall. Would I recommend to average users who use their brain on other things than computers to use Windows XP and Windows 7 for example? No, because that would put them easily in danger. But if you know, what you are doing, then you'll be able to avoid the problems. Use a hardware firewall, that you can configure. Block unwanted Javascripts. Block everything, you didn't ask for. Don't click on everything that sounds like a promising help to your problems. Learn to read links before clicking on them. These things. Also consider that something like Windows XP got more secure over time, as less and less people were using it. Windows 7 is still a very attractive target for mean hackers with circa 15% market share (2020).