My best guess is, add a java script interpreter.

Yeah I ran into the same problem. Duckduckgo doesn't work either so I'm unsure what to use right now.

A solution could be this: http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/?p=3910

But the server has to run on Mac OS X or Linx. No Win32 version. 🙁

My best guess is, add a java script interpreter.

Nope that isn't it. Google still works in Opera 3.6 with JS disabled
Although a DOS browser with FULL CSS and Javascript would be wicked cool

Yeah I ran into the same problem. Duckduckgo doesn't work either so I'm unsure what to use right now.

A solution could be this: http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/?p=3910

Kind of feels like cheating to me. This is really a big blow to the ability of browse in DOS
Atleast you can still use Opera 3.6 in win3.1 or better yet Opera 8 or Opera 9 in Windows 95

Arachne's code hasn't been touched in a couple of years and nobody appears to want to step up to the plate and fix it's shortcomings. Until/if it happens you could try Dillo (never had much luck with this browser, personally) or try the web proxy method.

I have successfully built Arachne from source before. And I do know C
But I have never been good with debugging large projects.

I use an old Linux laptop to relay from wireless to ethernet on the 486 machine so I can fire up wireshark
and monitor the traffic pretty easily. Maybe if I get time I will do that later and see where it is going wrong.

I've built it from source before too and know some C but debugging under DOS can be a real pain and it's out of my league plus I'm unwilling to learn 😜 If you get somewhere with it, update this thread. Good luck!

Is it even mildly safe to browse the internet on DOS or early versions of windows? 🤣
I've always wanted to hook my Win98 machine up but I was afraid it would compromise my LAN.

King_Corduroy wrote:

Is it even mildly safe to browse the internet on DOS or early versions of windows? 🤣
I've always wanted to hook my Win98 machine up but I was afraid it would compromise my LAN.

DOS is perfectly safe. Try to find malware or exploits that still work on DOS.
98 is slightly more vulnerable although Windows XP is probably actually worse since it has so many users hence a big target.

I've been browsing in seamonkey and opera in Win98 here and there. You really needy a faster machine (like P3 or later) to really enjoy it or else the CPU gets hung up processing all the javascript garbage out there.

Opera is pretty quick. Though you don't need a P2.

I browse on my 486/120

Sluggish but usable

It's usable at those speeds but I wouldn't say enjoyable. An OK workaround is to enable opera turbo. This will use their proxy server to precompress the data for you. Normally meant for dial-up users, but usually works OK on larger sites that take longer to process.

Another thing you can do sometimes is load up the mobile versions of these sites (for example m.facebook.com). Some of these sites even load fairly quickly under IE6 if they allow it.

I've been using Opera 3.6 and besides several GPF's, it works rather nicely (hahaha no)
Its a bit slow on a 66MHz but it will browse some websites. I've learned that when it hits an error, get off that site. It's likely to GPF on the second request for it.

I looked at that WRP script, its really cool. You can modify the WIDTH of the image it generates, and with a few quick replacements, have it generate PNG's (It does jpeg by default)

Beyond good rendering, its quite useless for anything like textboxes, animations, or interactive javascript.

(Side note, if anyone knows a fix for Opera GPFing, please tell. I believe it has to do with OPNG16 but not sure.)

EDIT: Just remembered after posting this 😜, WRP does not like it when you cancel the request. It gives a python error and then you have to restart the script.