Most Recent IE for WfW3.11

[JorgeA]

Friends,

Does any of you know what is the most recent version of Internet Explorer that will run on Windows for Workgroups 3.11? (Yes, I'm still tinkering with that "museum piece"...)

The machine has IE 3.0, but when I went to test the machine on Steve Gibson's "Shields UP!" security page, I discovered that it won't go on sites featuring 128-bit encryption. (At least, that's what I speculate the problem is. The Shields UP! page on grc.com is https. The computer seems to have no trouble loading regular http pages, even on the grc.com site.)

I found a version of IE5 in German somewhere, but not an English version. Can anybody point me to a safe place from where I can download it? Are there any other versions of IE that will do https AND work on WfW3.11 ?

My Web surfing on this machine would be extremely limited, basically to test its security on grc.com and to go to specific sites (found to be safe by my more modern systems) to download utilities.

Thanks for any help you might offer.

--JorgeA

Edited September 21, 2010 by JorgeA

[Kelsenellenelvian]

http://www.oldapps.com/internet_explorer.php?old_internet_explorer=12

[Mijzelf]

@Kelsenellenelvian, that is a 32 bit version. This is the right one.

Edited September 21, 2010 by Mijzelf

[Glenn9999]

I discovered that it won't go on sites featuring 128-bit encryption.

And if this is an issue, you'll probably need the 128-bit encryption pack as well. (they probably should list that in with IE on the oldapps site...)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/downloads/recommended/128bit/default.mspx

Edited September 21, 2010 by Glenn9999

[GrofLuigi]

Here's what I used some time ago on such a machine:

IE30sp1

OperaWin362_16bit

Arachne170

Don't remember the specifics why and from where...

GL

[JorgeA]

@Kelsenellenelvian

@Mijzelf

@Glenn9999

@GrofLuigi

Thanks very much for all the ideas and suggestions!

I downloaded IE 5.01 16-bit. But when I tried to install it, I got a "System Memory Check" message informing me that, "Microsoft Internet Tools for Win 3.1/NT 3.51 requires a configuration larger than 4 megabytes for reasonable performance. On smaller machines, please continue to use previous version of Internet Explorer."

Scratching my head at this -- I have 128MB of RAM in the PC, which is just a tiny bit larger than 4MB.

Is there a way around this?

An alternative (assuming that I don't run into the same memory issue) might be to try IE4 and the corresponding High Encryption Pack. Too bad they don't have one for IE3. I'll try it if we can't solve the memory issue for IE5.

Much appreciated!

--JorgeA

[Glenn9999]

Scratching my head at this -- I have 128MB of RAM in the PC, which is just a tiny bit larger than 4MB.

Is there a way around this?

WFW 3.11 runs on top of DOS. This means you have DOS drivers running which provide memory. You would need to check those and the amount of memory they provide. Some of the older ones would have trouble with huge amounts of memory (by the standards of those times - 128MB would qualify).

See if you can shut down WFW 3.11 to DOS and then check the amount of memory it reports (main, EMS, XMS). If it reports odd stuff, you might have to update the memory drivers (HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.EXE) from newer stuff.

If you are stuck from there on what to do (MEM.EXE doesn't report odd stuff, upgrading those drivers doesn't work), post your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and I'm sure we can help.

[dencorso]

Which version of DOS are you running WfW 3.11 on top of, BTW? And which versions of HIMEM and EMM386 are you using?

[Svenne]

IE5 can't be installed on systems with more than 64 mb RAM.

[jaclaz]

Well well:

1. using IE on Win 3.x
   
2. using IE to access the "ShieldsUp!" page
   

you are lucky that we live in the 21st century, if you did the same in say the 14th you would have probably been processed (and condemned) for blasphemy!

Things to try:

1. Opera! (3.62 should be the "right" one - though NOT free as recent versions)
   http://www.oldapps.com/opera.php?old_opera=12
   
2. stay clear of grc.com
   

Let's say that the consensus on Steve Gibson's work is NOT unanymous , expecially when it comes to internet security

http://attrition.org/errata/charlatan/

http://attrition.org/errata/charlatan/steve_gibson/

jaclaz

[Steven W]

You may need the High Encryption Pack

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/downloads/recommended/128bit/default.mspx

Ignore the fact that the link includes the words IE6 -- look on the right side of the page and download the one labeled "Internet Explorer 5 for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51".

HTH.

Sorry, just noticed someone else already mentioned this!

Edited September 22, 2010 by Steven W

[JorgeA]

WFW 3.11 runs on top of DOS. This means you have DOS drivers running which provide memory. You would need to check those and the amount of memory they provide. Some of the older ones would have trouble with huge amounts of memory (by the standards of those times - 128MB would qualify).

See if you can shut down WFW 3.11 to DOS and then check the amount of memory it reports (main, EMS, XMS). If it reports odd stuff, you might have to update the memory drivers (HIMEM.SYS, EMM386.EXE) from newer stuff.

If you are stuck from there on what to do (MEM.EXE doesn't report odd stuff, upgrading those drivers doesn't work), post your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and I'm sure we can help.

Glenn9999,

Thanks for the idea. Here's what I have:

MEM.EXE reports the following:

Memory Type Total = Used + Free

Conventional 640K = 48K + 592K

Upper 123K = 123K + 0K

Reserved 0K = 0K + 0K

Extended (XMS) 65,349K = 2,357K + 62,992K

BIOS Setup does correctly report the whole amount of RAM installed (130,000-odd KB). But even 64MB is plenty more than 4MB.

What do you think?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Which version of DOS are you running WfW 3.11 on top of, BTW? And which versions of HIMEM and EMM386 are you using?

dencorso,

Great to be in touch again!

It's MS-DOS 6.20. (Yeah, not even 6.22.) The timestamp for both HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE is 11-03-93, and the file sizes are 29,136 and 120,926, respectively.

Hope this helps in figuring things out. Let me know if you need any more info on those two files.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

IE5 can't be installed on systems with more than 64 mb RAM.

Svenne,

Well, that would settle it for IE5. I'll give IE4 a shot (it IS newer than IE3) and if that doesn't work either, then I'll do IE3.

Thank you.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Sorry, just noticed someone else already mentioned this!

Steven,

Thanks anyway!

--JorgeA