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IE6SP1 wont' load secure sites


Chris46

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I hope I’m not duplicating a prior thread, but I couldn’t find one on this topic

IE6SP1 won’t load secure (https) sites anymore.  Firefox3.5, mostly Firefox2.0, and Opera12 work OK with secure sites, so the network connection is not likely the problem

In IE6, SSL3/TLS1 is enabled, security settings are set to default, cleared the cache, added secure sites to trusted sites, etc.  I have installed the last Microsoft 2009 root certificates.  I have reinstalled.  The problem continues.

It feels like secure sites are blocking IE6

I know IE6SP1 is obsolete: But I’m trying to get AOL9.0 to work.  I think AOL9.0 is actually an Internet Explorer overlay.

BTW, this bug also exists in my Win2K build

Anybody else have experience with this bug?  Any hints would be appreciated ....

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Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 seems to be a better choice for Windows 9x now than IE6SP1. I don't think 5.5 suffers from some of these issues. As you suspect some sites purposely block IE6 and I am not aware of any ways to circumvent this problem. At this point there's no real advantage to using 6 over 5.5, and if you really want most sites to even halfway function you will need Firefox 3.5 or later anyway. I have no experience with Opera.

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4 hours ago, dencorso said:

What IE8 barely does, if at all, IE6SP1 probably cannot do anymore at all... then again, read this thread (<link>) in full and see whether something on it can be of any help.

Thanks, I read the thread and understood most of it

The proxHTTPSproxy idea is worth a try.  I noticed in the thread it was tried with WinXP successfully.  It remains to be seen how much my PIII 550Mhz machine will be taxed when installed.  I seem to recall trying a similar app "'HTTPS for all" on my Win2K build (same machine) and it really made the build pokey

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16 minutes ago, LoneCrusader said:

Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 seems to be a better choice for Windows 9x now than IE6SP1. I don't think 5.5 suffers from some of these issues. As you suspect some sites purposely block IE6 and I am not aware of any ways to circumvent this problem. At this point there's no real advantage to using 6 over 5.5, and if you really want most sites to even halfway function you will need Firefox 3.5 or later anyway. I have no experience with Opera.

I read your prior post after searching further for threads.  As I recall from the thread, since IE5.5 doesn't have SSL3 some of the issues go away.  I also read that in IE6 unchecking SSL3 and running only with TLS1 might help, that's also worth a try.  I recall in Firefox2.0, I couldn't load https://www.google.com unless both SSL3 and TLS1 were enabled, but on the other hand Firefox and IE deal with secure sites differently.

I think AOL9.0 will work with IE5.5

My only concern with IE5.5 is getting updates:  I don't know if I can still get them from the Microsoft Update Catalog? 

Where can I download the full IE5.5SP2 version?

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37 minutes ago, Chris46 said:

I read your prior post after searching further for threads.  As I recall from the thread, since IE5.5 doesn't have SSL3 some of the issues go away.  I also read that in IE6 unchecking SSL3 and running only with TLS1 might help, that's also worth a try.  I recall in Firefox2.0, I couldn't load https://www.google.com unless both SSL3 and TLS1 were enabled, but on the other hand Firefox and IE deal with secure sites differently.

I think AOL9.0 will work with IE5.5

My only concern with IE5.5 is getting updates:  I don't know if I can still get them from the Microsoft Update Catalog? 

Where can I download the full IE5.5SP2 version?

Here's the full package:

http://browsers.evolt.org/archive/ie/win32/5.5-sp2/ie55sp2.exe

I'm not certain offhand about the updates. Definitely check the Update Catalog. It may be worthwhile to check for updates to Windows 2000 as well since it shipped with IE5 and there may be more updates listed this way. Some of the Windows 2000-devoted sites may also have archived these. If you can at least get hold of the file names of the updates it is usually possible to find the file somewhere out there.

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17 hours ago, dencorso said:

The Microsoft Update Catalog now works also with Opera and Firefox, but I'm not sure the old versions able to run on 9x/ME are enough to browse it, nowadays. 

I also have WinXP, Vista, and Win7 machines.  In fact I use Firefox42 to get my Vista windows updates since automatic windows update hasn’t worked for 6 months.  But I don’t know what to do with the .cab updates:  The .msi and .exe updates I just run. The Standalone Windows Update Installer seems to work only for my Win7 machine, which in the past also had a bug with automatic windows update.

When I checked MS Update Catalog, there were no updates for IE5.5 or IE5.  And, the only updates for IE6 were for Win2K and above.   

Looks like I’ll have to write down the KBx and Qx updates installed on my IE6SP1, then manually look for them one by one.  I’m guessing they’ll work for IE5.5SP2 since IE6 came soon after and became the de facto MS browser.  MGDX had only a single IE5.5 fix.   Maybe SP2 contained most of the critical updates, I hope I hope?

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9 hours ago, Chris46 said:

I also have WinXP, Vista, and Win7 machines.  In fact I use Firefox42 to get my Vista windows updates since automatic windows update hasn’t worked for 6 months.  But I don’t know what to do with the .cab updates:  The .msi and .exe updates I just run. The Standalone Windows Update Installer seems to work only for my Win7 machine, which in the past also had a bug with automatic windows update.

When I checked MS Update Catalog, there were no updates for IE5.5 or IE5.  And, the only updates for IE6 were for Win2K and above.   

Looks like I’ll have to write down the KBx and Qx updates installed on my IE6SP1, then manually look for them one by one.  I’m guessing they’ll work for IE5.5SP2 since IE6 came soon after and became the de facto MS browser.  MGDX had only a single IE5.5 fix.   Maybe SP2 contained most of the critical updates, I hope I hope?

SP2 is probably a big step in the right direction, but a quick Google search for "cumulative update for internet explorer 5.5" yielded this Security Bulletin with at least one Cumulative Update. The link of course produces Microsoft's "smarterror" trash that should more aptly be named "stupiderrorbecauseyoumustupgrade". :realmad:

The Wayback Machine yields the page, this shot circa 2008, but the Download button doesn't work. But it does yield the KB number and file name, so one must use these to track down the right copy of the file for the right OS and right IE version. :unsure:

EDIT: Got the file here by pulling the download address out of the page source code from the Wayback Machine. <_<

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On 2/11/2017 at 6:44 PM, LoneCrusader said:

Here's the full package:

http://browsers.evolt.org/archive/ie/win32/5.5-sp2/ie55sp2.exe

I'm not certain offhand about the updates. Definitely check the Update Catalog. It may be worthwhile to check for updates to Windows 2000 as well since it shipped with IE5 and there may be more updates listed this way. Some of the Windows 2000-devoted sites may also have archived these. If you can at least get hold of the file names of the updates it is usually possible to find the file somewhere out there.

I installed IE5.5SP2 successfully. 

There was no uninstall for IE6SP1 in add/remove, so I panicked because I didn’t want to do a clean Win98SE install again.  IE5.5 setup reported that there is a newer version of IE installed and exited.  MS sometimes makes things very tedious.  But then I found IEradicator2001 from PCLite and it did the job, including the registry entries (I ran a registry repair app afterwards).  Many of the desktop settings were defaulted so I had to re-customize them.  Then the IE5.5 install went pretty smoothly.

But, no joy with IE5.5: HTTPS sites still won’t load.  I tried the many tricks in the May2016 forum thread ‘IE6SP1 and secure sites’ but none worked.  I couldn’t get BlackWingCat’s 2016 root certificates to install in Win98SE, although they installed OK in Win2K. I’d export/import them but I don’t know exactly where in the registry they are. The URL for Google with no-SSL also failed.  So between May2016 and Feb2017 things have changed?

IE5.5SP2 had no critical updates included as attested to by viewing  ‘about internet explorer’

One thing I did notice is that the OS is much faster with IE5.5 than with IE6

I’ll try ProxHTTPSproxy .....

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18 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

SP2 is probably a big step in the right direction, but a quick Google search for "cumulative update for internet explorer 5.5" yielded this Security Bulletin with at least one Cumulative Update. The link of course produces Microsoft's "smarterror" trash that should more aptly be named "stupiderrorbecauseyoumustupgrade". :realmad:

The Wayback Machine yields the page, this shot circa 2008, but the Download button doesn't work. But it does yield the KB number and file name, so one must use these to track down the right copy of the file for the right OS and right IE version. :unsure:

EDIT: Got the file here by pulling the download address out of the page source code from the Wayback Machine. <_<

Install failed: A message appears that IE5.5 SP2 is required.  What?

I re-read the security bulletin and under 'affected software' Win98 was not included.  Only NT, 2000, XP.  It appears the IE55SP2 product ID must be different with different operating systems. 

Thanks for the old college try, but no go

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2 hours ago, Chris46 said:

Install failed: A message appears that IE5.5 SP2 is required.  What?

I re-read the security bulletin and under 'affected software' Win98 was not included.  Only NT, 2000, XP.  It appears the IE55SP2 product ID must be different with different operating systems. 

Thanks for the old college try, but no go

It works for me. You must have some leftover(s) from IE6 somewhere in the Registry that's preventing it from running. It even shows up the KB number after SP2 on the "About Internet Explorer" dialog.

Never take MS Security Bulletins or KB articles from the 9x-era at face value. They have a nasty habit of reverse-editing them to leave out information and/or fixes for 9x and in some cases give misleading or completely false information. If you parse through the article, note that they forgot to remove a section for Windows ME... :whistle:

2 hours ago, PROBLEMCHYLD said:

Good point here, I haven't tested this but I read about it before and forgot it.

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18 hours ago, LoneCrusader said:

It works for me. You must have some leftover(s) from IE6 somewhere in the Registry that's preventing it from running. It even shows up the KB number after SP2 on the "About Internet Explorer" dialog.

Never take MS Security Bulletins or KB articles from the 9x-era at face value. They have a nasty habit of reverse-editing them to leave out information and/or fixes for 9x and in some cases give misleading or completely false information. If you parse through the article, note that they forgot to remove a section for Windows ME... :whistle:

Good point here, I haven't tested this but I read about it before and forgot it.

Any hints on where to look in the registry for these IE6 bits?  As I said, I ran registry repair after using IEradicator and didn't find any references.  Also, I have no way of knowing if the IE6 security updates were also uninstalled when IEradicator ran. 

Edited by Chris46
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer shows version 5.50.4807.2300, same as about internet explorer.
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