I would avoid exposing the Windows 98 box to the Internet if you can. If you don't want to bog it down with Antivirus/Firewall software, you could give it a static IP (or use the network adapter MAC address) and use your router to prevent WAN access.

Yeah, I suspected that would be the correct answer. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Would be a nice way, of playing a game of "Russian roulette". 🤣

No one is going to hack your win98 PC.... in 2015. 🤣 No need for such complicated security measures.

For all I care a hacker can have a field day with my Windows 9x machines. What will they get? Save games?

As havli said, I doubt anyone is targeting win98 now. Anyway, a cheap 20 EUR home router with NAT will do the trick if you don't surf the web too much (but then again...you won't be able to anyway 😁)

I use my 98 computer on the internet, the stuff I was required was a
1)a notebook
2)A Windows 98 desktop
3)A pci ethernet NIC.
4) 2 ethernet cables.
5) a cheap switch.

so the thing I do is, I get the wifi signal to my notebook, then I connect it btw a ethernet cable to the switch, then the swtich is connected to the 98 machine and voala, the internet is shared to the old computer 😁
also, it's required to make a internet bridge into your internet files (so if I get it, the notebook will be transformed into a switch, and it'll route and give a new ip to the old computer)...

It's not the best solution ofc, I gave up from wifi pci boards since they use alot of processor and most of them only support wifi g or are unstable.

The best solution that I found was using switch replicator, so it can take the wifi signal from other wifi switch and share it btw their ethernet port and even by wifi (doing a wifi extension).

I gave up from anti vírus on that machine, most of the vírus only affect new os, and also I'm only downloading stuff from places like abandonia and oldapps.com, so the chance of getting something dirt is low...

EDIT: I think on the notebook solution, the notebook act as a firewall too, since the antivírus that is running on it filters the stuff that the other computer gets

I don't think an Anti-Virus monitors raw traffic at all, so it is probably doing nothing. Only the notebook's firewall is helping there.

If you can find one, a router that supports acting as a WiFi client will allow you to condense the switch+notebook combo into a single equipment, but as long as it works fine, it is a valid solution.

http://www.mdgx.com and http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/patch.htm
Had information on NT4 when I was attempting to do the same thing with an old server. While not even close to being the same OS I'm sure some of the ports they say to block, etc still need doing for a 9x machine.

In the end I didn't bother. Early OS's aren't fun on the internet anymore and like mentioned above aren't being actively targeted anymore. Simply due to lack of space all my PC's are using the same network as my internet, and very occasionally browse. Haven't picked up anything nasty yet 😀

Which online game servers you using? Can imagine those requiring software or something that wont run on 9x

I'd not think that modern browsing is much more nice, considering the octa-core-gigabit system you need nowdays to just read some text after hundreds of mb of ad/animations.
Internet today is probably the heaviest benchmark ever..Crysis would run easier on a 386SX-16 / OTI037C system.

Don't give it access to your Gateway, (Don't set a Route)
And use a Proxy Server to access the Internet (With Virusscanner/HAVP)
You can even reduce Image Quality with a Proxy, and remove unwanted Content, Speedup Browsing etc.
Convert to Mobile Format.. and and and..

Does anyone else feel at least a twinge of regret at the fact that the internet has become the last word in bloatware?

Remember back when a computer that was too old to do anything else was still good enough "to get online and check your email?"

There are some cool sites out there, but I can't help but feel most of the extra resource drain has gone into useless flash and no real substance.

https://www.grc.com/su-rebinding9x.htm
when done correctly there should be no uneeded opened ports, you can check for open ports using following command line:

1C:\>NETSTAT -na | FIND "LISTENING"

yes, its possible to have file sharing for your win9x LAN without opening those ports.
Thats however are increasingly more difficult to do in newer Microsoft OS because non TCP/UDP protocol (like NETBEUI) are deprecated thus can't be used properly anymore,
and more newer network hardwares can accept TCP/UDP only.

For me i'd rather bring back WinXP from the dead rather than Win98. I was reading that even typing some kind of bad link address, when clicked on by a Win98 user will give them a BSOD. Windows 98 was never too stable back in it's day. I don't understand how people are able to use it online today despite it's antiquated and no current browsers have supported it for many years. I was testing IE 6 back on an XP machine a short while ago and many sites won't work well or load at all. Good luck on this. No offense meant.

Runicen wrote:

Does anyone else feel at least a twinge of regret at the fact that the internet has become the last word in bloatware?

Remember back when a computer that was too old to do anything else was still good enough "to get online and check your email?"

There are some cool sites out there, but I can't help but feel most of the extra resource drain has gone into useless flash and no real substance.

Yes yes yes a hundred times this 😒

This is coming from a web developer, BTW. I hate what the internet has become.

I barely use antivirus software tbh... I've got MSE on all my Windows 7 machines and anything older is not protected. I am yet to see a single attack on one of my machines. The best antivirus software is in your head. If you feel a tingling in your butt before pressing the download button, just don't do it. And besides, I would love to see a modern virus try and start on windows 98 with only MMX instructions 😀

Actually I used Opera 12.02 yesterday on my 512mb ram Windows 98 Tualatin rig with KernelEx and it was surprisingly snappy.

I even got it to work with the latest Flash on Youtube. The video was a bit slow though.

In fact, I miss the snapiness of the OS governor in 98 compared to all the newer operating systems. It's a lot more responsive.

I wouldn't really worry anymore, the virus's are all for newer versions of java and flash, and most now target IE8 or newer. Windows 98 is no longer really a target it makes up less than .03% of computers on the internet, so like 3000 total maybe

I use the latest Firefox that 98 support, it runned facebook and even youtube (it was a slide show xD).
But at the same system, running xp showed to be faster, even with only 128mb of ram