VOGONS


WebOne - proxy for old browsers to make them Web 2.0-capable

Topic actions

Reply 240 of 245, by ATauenis

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Start me up wrote on 2025-11-03, 03:48:

Здравствуйте ATauenis,
as you probably know, most people who use old browsers are using old operating systems. Using an old browser is - in most cases - no benefit compared to using a newer version. We just use it, because the new versions don't run on old operating systems. So your main audience are people using old operating systems.

Yes, WebOne is intended to provide Internet access via old browsers from old operating systems and, probably, old hardware.

Most of people who want this, are also using a some other modern PC and a local network router (WiFi or wired, not matter, in most cases that device contains both function). So it is not a problem to connect an old PC and an modern PC to same network, and map Internet traffic from old PC to modern PC. And even if there are no modern PC or if it is more nice to have it turned off when using old PC, WebOne can run on $35 microcomputers like Raspberry Pi (a better choice) or even Android smartphone (an used 2-3 years old phone may cost $0 in some cases, but Android is a bit difficult OS than plain Linux).

I can't imagine any environment where there is only old PC and nothing newer presents nearby.

LSS10999 wrote on 2025-11-03, 04:53:

Don't know if self-contained releases can be made work with Win7/2008 R2, however.

They are starting on Win7, but the main process is eating 99% of system RAM and crashes due to out-of-memory error in few minutes. This is a bug of .NET 7 and up. Microsoft knows this since .NET 7 beta test, but they're don't want to fix.

LSS10999 wrote on 2025-11-03, 04:53:

In fact, even .NET 6.0 normally required some ESU stuffs to work properly with Win7/2008 R2

Hmm, I have tested .NET6-based WebOne (v0.12 and up) on Win7 since start of development, and found no problems on ESU-less systems. The required updates are released near ~2015, and other are released few years before 2020 (updates need to start the app are even included in 2013 ISO image of Windows 7 SP1, which I also used some time, but it lacks modern TLS support).

Also I have used Visual Studio 2019 with some tweak to support .NET6 SDK, and experienced no problems at all (until some last its update, so frozen updates on 6.0.133). Sadly, but the tweak does not work with .NET8 SDK, and I cannot continue use VS 2019 (even however SDK CLI is working, its MSBuild v17 is not supported by VS 2019, and it still using own MSBuild v16, which is banned by SDK code, so the tweak works only on a half).

Theoretically it is possible to continue publish NET6-based releases, compatible with Win7, as before, but this will need a bit difficulty build scripts. As the procedure looks as change "webone.csproj", then build via NET6 SDK, then change it back to original state.

LSS10999 wrote on 2025-11-03, 10:26:

I don't think it's easy to target older OSes directly so as to, like you said, be able to run WebOne on the same machine that would be browsing the web with it.

Also modern HTTPS processing, image files converting, takes a lot of CPU and RAM resources. It is very minor on modern multicore systems starting from Sockets 775/AM3+, but enough fat on older. Even Pi 1B requires a CPU overclock to get a near-reasonable performance.

2×Soviet ZX-Speccy, 1×MacIIsi, 1×086, 1×286, 2×386DX, 1×386SX, 2×486, 1×P54C, 7×P55C, 6×Slot1, 4×S370, 1×SlotA, 2×S462, ∞×Modern.

Reply 241 of 245, by bedrock

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
ATauenis wrote on 2024-05-29, 11:05:

With latest version of WebOne and update of Escargot, now all versions of MSN Messenger (1.0 - 2009) are working on all OSes. Previously there were problems with version 4.7 and up on Windows 9x/2000 and pre-SP3 XP. Now, all are working. So it's now possible to run MSN Messenger 5.0-7.0 under Windows 98 and successfully connect it to Escargot network. As well as "classic" Messenger 4.6.

Hi, I am trying to connect MSN Messenger 5.0 to escargot.chat on Windows NT4
I have setup WebOne proxy, but I am unable to get MSN Messenger 5.0 to login, but I read the above quote that says all versions on all OSes. Is this possible? I also read elsewhere that older OSes do not support the correct ciphers, so I am confused as to which is possible.

I am using WebOne 0.18 running on WinSvr 2025 VM.

Windows NT4.0 is running on physical Thinkpad T42

Thanks

Reply 242 of 245, by bedrock

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Edit, I should of said that MSN Messenger 4.6 is connecting to escargot ok, tried to edit post, but I dont see edit button on VOGONS

Reply 243 of 245, by ATauenis

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
bedrock wrote on 2026-01-13, 14:25:

MSN Messenger 4.6 is connecting to escargot ok

bedrock wrote on 2026-01-13, 14:23:

but I am unable to get MSN Messenger 5.0 to login

This is because you need to configure NT4 to use proxy in Internet Properties (MS IE settings) for all protocols (not via MSN settings), and also need to enable old ciphers in Windows Server 2025 registry:
https://github.com/atauenis/webone/wiki/HTTPS … ws-server-hosts

MSN Messenger 4.7+ uses same ciphers as installed MS Internet Explorer. And 4.6 and earlier are don't using any ciphers (and are using own proxy settings; all newer versions really using system proxy setting, not own).

bedrock wrote on 2026-01-13, 14:23:

I also read elsewhere that older OSes do not support the correct ciphers, so I am confused as to which is possible.

https://github.com/atauenis/webone/wiki/HTTPS … SL#used-ciphers

bedrock wrote on 2026-01-13, 14:25:

tried to edit post, but I dont see edit button on VOGONS

Look to the button with a pencil icon.

2×Soviet ZX-Speccy, 1×MacIIsi, 1×086, 1×286, 2×386DX, 1×386SX, 2×486, 1×P54C, 7×P55C, 6×Slot1, 4×S370, 1×SlotA, 2×S462, ∞×Modern.

Reply 244 of 245, by bedrock

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Thank you for the reply. I believe I have the proxy settings correctly in IE6 on WinNT 4, but I hadn't imported the old ciphers onto my proxy server VM. I have now, but unfortunately it has made no difference. Please let me know if this is the right place for support or I should open an issue on github page?

The attachment Screenshot 2026-01-14 082807.png is no longer available
The attachment webone.log is no longer available

Reply 245 of 245, by ATauenis

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I'm don't see attempts to access MSN login server in log. Below is an example how it should look.

14.01.2026 12:09:10.894+417196 >CONNECT nexus.passport.com:443 (192.168.159.13)
14.01.2026 12:09:10.986+254534 >[nexus.passport.com] GET /rdr/pprdr.asp (192.168.159.13)
14.01.2026 12:09:10.986+285027 Fix to https://msnmsgr.escargot.chat/rdr/pprdr.asp internally
14.01.2026 12:09:10.986+286204 >Downloading content...

Probably this is because the MSN Messenger client attempts to connect to it bypassing proxy.

Try to specify this configuration:

1768382106.1845288192.escargotmsn7xp.png
1768382112.1845288192.escargotmsn7xp2.png

This is under XP, but I have previously tested with NT4, and it worked too.

If this don't help, try to open anything via HTTPS in MSIE6, say, https://google.com. Does it working via WebOne?

2×Soviet ZX-Speccy, 1×MacIIsi, 1×086, 1×286, 2×386DX, 1×386SX, 2×486, 1×P54C, 7×P55C, 6×Slot1, 4×S370, 1×SlotA, 2×S462, ∞×Modern.