I once got rid of a floppy disc drive because I thought it was broken. Later on I realized I just had the cable on backwards.

The shame is still real.

You can't beat my stupidness level when I was ripping my hair out trying to power on a machine.

Only to find out it wasn't even plugged into mains. 🤦

I was testing a motherboard over the weekend and wondering why I couldn't get it to POST.

Forgot to put the CPU in the socket.

I got a hold of the old 28MB Creative Labs GM SoundFont and am testing it with my game music files. It's shockingly good.

I decided to treat my DOS/Win31 SS7 rig with network card.
Wanted to have Fast Ethernet (TX) on PCI bus. I encountered this one (attached) on my local auction site. Initially it buzzled me with MPX EN5048 chip. Quick googling revealed link to Accton Technologies. I was back in the days Network Admin but could not recall this brand. 3Com, D-link, Realtek but not this brand. Anyways it looks like they are still around.

As admin in Win3.11 times it was all about NetBEUI networks. I have NAS with SMBv1 support for my Win98 box. Need to investigate if modern Ubuntu can set up with NetBEUI.
Vogons browsing hinted for simpler networking solution - mTCP. Packet driver for this card is available on Vogons. Install was breeze. I was surprised that latest mTCP version was actually released this year. So I assume from security standpoint I should sleep better.

So I spent yesterday evening logging into still existing BBS-es via telnet. Good old times ascii graphics text scrolling slowly behind 15" CRT...

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-09-05, 16:36:

I got a hold of the old 28MB Creative Labs GM SoundFont and am testing it with my game music files. It's shockingly good.

Is this an official soundfont? I thought they only made a 2mb, 4mb, and 8mb one?

There is a 28mb one but honestly the 8mb is better balanced and overall more pleasant to me..

vutt wrote on 2023-09-05, 17:11:

I decided to treat my DOS/Win31 SS7 rig with network card. Wanted to have Fast Ethernet (TX) on PCI bus. I encountered this one […]
Show full quote

I decided to treat my DOS/Win31 SS7 rig with network card.
Wanted to have Fast Ethernet (TX) on PCI bus. I encountered this one (attached) on my local auction site. Initially it buzzled me with MPX EN5048 chip. Quick googling revealed link to Accton Technologies. I was back in the days Network Admin but could not recall this brand. 3Com, D-link, Realtek but not this brand. Anyways it looks like they are still around.
Nic.jpg

As admin in Win3.11 times it was all about NetBEUI networks. I have NAS with SMBv1 support for my Win98 box. Need to investigate if modern Ubuntu can set up with NetBEUI.
Vogons browsing hinted for simpler networking solution - mTCP. Packet driver for this card is available on Vogons. Install was breeze. I was surprised that latest mTCP version was actually released this year. So I assume from security standpoint I should sleep better.

So I spent yesterday evening logging into still existing BBS-es via telnet. Good old times ascii graphics text scrolling slowly behind 15" CRT...

mTCP is still regularly updated, but make no mistake, that system has zero security how we understand it today. And telnet is completely unsecure method for data transfer no matter what application you use.

It is still very unlikely that this vintage PC is the first one that gets compromised in your network as long as you handle it with common sense. First and foremost is that no one targets these ancient OSs so there are no malware in circulation that can run on these systems and no one is developing such malware anymore. This means that the only security you have is through obscurity, not through security practices all the way to application level we know today.

@CharlieFoxtrot
Well with mTCP client tools like telnet,ftp,irc network stack is up only when I'm using client. So potential exposure is for limited time. mTCP is also open source so no sneaky backdoors...
That's why I'm keeping my Win98 box with enabled LAN out of internet.

None of the mTCP programs support encryption. Within your own home you are probably fine unless you have an adversary directly in your home, which is highly unlikely. When connecting to servers outside of your home do the following: Don't send sensitive information.

Honestly, using FTP to download software from an old shareware repository should be pretty safe. If you are using FTP to upload your banking records somewhere that would be bad, but I doubt anybody using FTP for retro computing is on the same machine as their banking records. Or even has a place to FTP them to.

When using Telnet do the same thing you would do other places - don't reuse passwords. Somebody sniffing the network can see the data easily because of the lack of encryption, but sniffing packets is harder than it used to be because of the move from hubs to switches. For typical retrocomputing activities (playing Tetris over the network, BBSing) Telnet is probably fine.

The beautiful thing about DOS is that a buffer overrun vulnerability probably is going to crash the program, not reveal your banking records. And none of the mTCP program execute arbitrary code, so they are not virus vectors.

vutt wrote on 2023-09-05, 18:26:

@CharlieFoxtrot
Well with mTCP client tools like telnet,ftp,irc network stack is up only when I'm using client. So potential exposure is for limited time. mTCP is also open source so no sneaky backdoors...
That's why I'm keeping my Win98 box with enabled LAN out of internet.

Yes, everything behind NAT is that common sense. My main point is that your premise to security is wrong, if you think that regularly updated mTCP or it being open source provides security. This is something I wanted to highlight so there is a real basis on the apparent sense of security. Or lack thereof.

In fact, mTCP has very little to do with the security here because there is zero security in DOS and there is zero consideration for it in the design. Only security it has is through obscurity and you might argue that it being a single user OS also provides some security compared to more modern OSs, but that is certainly not a security feature in itself. And again, Telnet is a pure clear text protocol without any security and mTCP doesn’t change that. But then again, you most likely don’t use telnet for online banking…

This doesn’t mean that these old systems and OSs are a huge security risk. Nowadays people have fridges, home automation systems, weather sations, countless of mobile and smart devices and whatnot and which have 24/7 connectivity and they are all complete black boxes, that is people don’t know what is inside of them, where they connect, what data they send or receive and what program they execute. So some obsolete shitbox PC that is networked for file tranfers in your network and occasional Telnet to BBSs is hardly the actual problem in these days.

Sometimes I wonder what the actual security implications there are now even old 16-bit operating systems still being connected to the Internet. What kinds of viruses would run it even be useful to run on such anemic hardware? It's not like there is any point in running a Bitcoin miner on a 486 with Windows 95.

I would be more worried about being infected by something from a rogue floppy disk than the Internet.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-09-05, 19:06:

Sometimes I wonder what the actual security implications there are now even old 16-bit operating systems still being connected to the Internet. What kinds of viruses would run it even be useful to run on such anemic hardware? It's not like there is any point in running a Bitcoin miner on a 486 with Windows 95.

I would be more worried about being infected by something from a rogue floppy disk than the Internet.

What you described is practically security through obscurity. Yes, biggest risk is still probably getting infected by some vintage old-school virus when using old media and even downloading some infected old program from internet and executing it on a vintage system. Good thing is that your modern hardware can’t execute this code. Another risk is that you indeed send some sensitive data with it, such as passwords which are used in somewhere else. It is common sense not to do that.

Risks with these systems are low, again with just common sense. I still wouldn’t connect these directly to internet, though. Not that I’d expect something especially bad to happen, but because that simply doesn’t make any sense and it doesn’t benefit how networking capabilites are used in these systems in general.

vutt wrote on 2023-09-05, 17:11:

I decided to treat my DOS/Win31 SS7 rig with network card. Wanted to have Fast Ethernet (TX) on PCI bus. I encountered this one […]
Show full quote

I decided to treat my DOS/Win31 SS7 rig with network card.
Wanted to have Fast Ethernet (TX) on PCI bus. I encountered this one (attached) on my local auction site. Initially it buzzled me with MPX EN5048 chip. Quick googling revealed link to Accton Technologies. I was back in the days Network Admin but could not recall this brand. 3Com, D-link, Realtek but not this brand. Anyways it looks like they are still around.
Nic.jpg

As admin in Win3.11 times it was all about NetBEUI networks. I have NAS with SMBv1 support for my Win98 box. Need to investigate if modern Ubuntu can set up with NetBEUI.
Vogons browsing hinted for simpler networking solution - mTCP. Packet driver for this card is available on Vogons. Install was breeze. I was surprised that latest mTCP version was actually released this year. So I assume from security standpoint I should sleep better.

So I spent yesterday evening logging into still existing BBS-es via telnet. Good old times ascii graphics text scrolling slowly behind 15" CRT...

I got one of these in an old ME Compaq and was pleasantly surprised that Windows 2000 PS4 had drivers built into it.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-09-05, 15:05:

I'm an idiot. Trying to install Vortex drivers. Why won't it work!?
DSC_6020.JPG
Oh it's a Vortex 2, all this time I thought it was a Vortex 1.

lel, thats a dell turtle beach variety, nice

Cleaned a 286 board.
Some green corrosion won't come off and I don't know how to remove it without a few more vinegar runs.
Varta is the best to teach you trace rebuild 😀

Spent the day installing WinNT4, Win2k, WinXP and Win98 onto the same Optiplex GX270 to see what onboard sound drivers each would want to use.

Ive found an ADI sound chip that doesnt seem to mind using VIA drivers in Win98 and Win2k3 while everything else wants the ADi drivers.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-09-05, 17:25:

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-09-05, 16:36:

I got a hold of the old 28MB Creative Labs GM SoundFont and am testing it with my game music files. It's shockingly good.

Is this an official soundfont? I thought they only made a 2mb, 4mb, and 8mb one?

Yes, it is an official SF and I forgot that it existed, until I remembered that I downloaded it. It was only distributed on the Sound Blaster software discs and not in the software package install web downloads from Creative. In addition to a pile of GM files, I tested it with XG and GS files and it sounded pretty good with those. They also made an MT-32 SF and a GS one.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-09-05, 20:06:

It was only distributed on the Sound Blaster software discs and not in the software package install web downloads from Creative.

Which discs was it included with? AWE64 I'm assuming?

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-09-05, 20:06:

Yes, it is an official SF and I forgot that it existed, until I remembered that I downloaded it. It was only distributed on the Sound Blaster software discs and not in the software package install web downloads from Creative. In addition to a pile of GM files, I tested it with XG and GS files and it sounded pretty good with those. They also made an MT-32 SF and a GS one.

Can you share the file names so we know what to look for? I wasn't aware of these larger soundfont files either.