A lot of magazine cover CDs had popular websites archived on them in mid 1990s, 3Drealms was a favorite so you may find it.

you'd need to get as much "old" html as possible from archive, websites that somehow still exist, old cover disks and so on then create a home network with old school web server so you can "surf" 90's style. Are you going to do it? If you can get local 1990's to include everything that was in the 90's in a couple hundred mile circle around you then you'll find a bunch of people wanting to move in! 😀

Just ask AI to produce a lot of websites with information like: "my name is Jack, I like fishing. Fishing is fun. Here are three good things about fishing: It is nice. I like fish. No women allowed, hahaha, 🤣." add a bunch if broken liks to his favorite mp3s and finally an animated under construction sign to finish it off. True 90s vibe.

A wise man once said something about not being able to go home again...

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-09, 05:01:

A lot of magazine cover CDs had popular websites archived on them in mid 1990s, 3Drealms was a favorite so you may find it.

Interesting, will have to find some to download and see what I could find.

So far, the closest I went with this idea would be using WebOne for redirecting certain websites to a local version. However what's missing is tricking it into thinking it's actually the domain and not a local URL like "http://127.0.0.1:8080/sites/something/index.html"

This was done by adding in "AddRedirect" inside an Edit section of a URL.

1[Edit:thebaratusii.com]
2AddRedirect=http://x.x.x.x:8080/sites/thebaratusii/index.html

Is it absolutely necessary to run locally? TheOldNet allows you to use it a bit more seamlessly by using a proxy with the port set to a given year https://www.theoldnet.com/docs/httpproxy/index.html

Otherwise you'd need to build it yourself and effectively emulate how these work, I don't think think they or eg. protoweb have made any source code etc. publicly available

Fish3r wrote on 2026-04-09, 17:34:

Is it absolutely necessary to run locally? TheOldNet allows you to use it a bit more seamlessly by using a proxy with the port set to a given year https://www.theoldnet.com/docs/httpproxy/index.html

Otherwise you'd need to build it yourself and effectively emulate how these work, I don't think think they or eg. protoweb have made any source code etc. publicly available

I recall using TheOldNet at one point, but I believe the issue with using that (and I tried this myself just recently) are the websites failing to load due to the traffic limits of the Wayback Machine. Protoweb on the other hand restores websites but I am not sure if they restore based on year and the highest year they normally go for is 2000. Which to me somewhat defeats the purpose of authentically capturing the experience if I am just going to browse the 2000 snapshot of the 3D Realms website on 1995 hardware.

To be fair, I don't plan on emulating every website as much as possible but rather locally emulate a small chunk of websites for the sake of recording those experiences for YouTube projects. Only thing I need to figure out really is tricking the URL into loading the local versions if anything, and I imagine that would require setting up a DNS/DHCP server perhaps?

yeah i wanted to do this for myself years ago (scraping everything archived from an old BOOKMARK.HTM of mine), thuogh I had a realization that it'd make me very sad after it all when the sites I did regularly visit in the 90s relied on FTP downloads and one of those (happypuppy.com) is not very preserved for that part. It'd be a very 404'd FOMO dread either way

Home Computers were still to expensive for allot of peoples back in 1990’s and too difficult to setup
And maintain in USA

Allot of peoples used the WebTV-MSN dail-up internet service box
They cost about $150 - $300 USD and came with keyboard and all the wires
To hook it up to your TV
My friend had one on his BIG Screen 60-inch TV back in 1998 it was pretty cool
And worked okay for basic internet, email, security, kids accounts and content restrictions.

Internet portals like
Alta-Vista
Netscape
AOl
Ask Jeeves
Sherlock
AT&T world net
EarthLink
Etc…

most sites from that era were optimized for modem use and the limited hardware on both servers and clients.

browsers were a lot more primitive. there was a lot of plain html, small / highly compressed images, tables, image maps were popular for navigation.

And... if you truly want to get "the experience" right.... no emulating Cable, Fiber or any sort of Broadband access... You need something like a "TalkSwitch" (small Analog phone system) and some 14.4 modems.

Hey... this was the 90s ... 14.4was incredibly fast - I still recall the first time I got "online" (to a university mainframe) using a D.C. Hayes 80-103A modem S100 card (Probably the first "Hayes" modem - no AT commands etc.) in my Altair - in the early 1980s at a whopping 300baud speed! (not really something I care to experience again)

THEBaratusII wrote on 2026-04-09, 16:51:

This was done by adding in "AddRedirect" inside an Edit section of a URL. […]
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This was done by adding in "AddRedirect" inside an Edit section of a URL.

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1[Edit:thebaratusii.com]
2AddRedirect=http://x.x.x.x:8080/sites/thebaratusii/index.html

If you want to make a domain come from a specific IP address it needs to be done inside DNS resolution. The simplest way is to use the system hosts file (%windir%\hosts) to redirect domains to 127.0.0.1 - However DNS has no port forwarding so the local web server has to be operating on port 80 unless you want to use domain.com:8080 to access the local web server.

The local webserver can be set up using vhosts, so the specific website delivered depends on the domain name entered. That way you can have many different websites running off the same same IP and port. WebOne wouldn't be necessary in this setup.

So the end set up would look like the hosts file with a list of domains you want to replicate locally redirected to 127.0.0.1, a webserver running on 127.0.0.1:80 (e.g. Apache 1.3) and a list of vhosts all pointing to a different document root (folder) for each replicated site identified by domain name.

As a bonus for this setup, domains not in the hosts file and IP addresses remain unaffected so this can be used in parallel with a live internet connection or local area network.

Edit: I skipped the part about you not wanting to use the hosts file, however DNS redirection locally is really depndent on the OS and the networking stack. Every OS this works on will need some version of DNS redirection, either using a built in function (like HOSTS on windows, /etc/hosts on Linux or System Folder:Preferences:hosts on Mac OS9) or a local DNS server that can override results with a local DNS table.

For it to be truly OS independent you would need to have a gateway system on the local area network that serves up content and DNS responses according to a set of rules, that way DNS redirection is moved outside of the OS.

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-04-11, 02:45:

Hey... this was the 90s ... 14.4was incredibly fast - I still recall the first time I got "online" (to a university mainframe) using a D.C. Hayes 80-103A modem S100 card (Probably the first "Hayes" modem - no AT commands etc.) in my Altair - in the early 1980s at a whopping 300baud speed! (not really something I care to experience again)

If you got a good 14.4 it was, with MNP5 and V32 bis I think it was, ALL the compression, you could pull text and websites were mostly text then down at 5 or 6 kB/sec which is what some poorly set up or cheapass no-compression 56k modems would do 5 years later. GIFs and zips only came down at 1.6 to 2.0 ish depending on how heavily they were compressed in the first place. I had a Zoltrix internal that had all the good compression stuff, then "upgraded" to a white box 28.8 that while it appeared to offer similar features, no init string could I figure out that would turn them on, so got a plain 2.8-3k on everything and for browsing it felt slower, though nearly twice the speed on well compressed files. Didn't use that all that long before I picked up a used USR 33.6 internal that was much nippier. However it had an early version of the standard which got pushed out when 56k was finalised on many ISPs, so rarely got onto a POP that worked at best speed after I'd had it a year.

Those Amstrad internal modems, only theoretically 2400 baud units, kinda near full length, plastic case around them. They were pretty miraculous for what they were. They could get a throughput of 9600bps pretty easily and compressed text well, so they would be almost as good as "bad" 14.4k modems. I had one for a backup unit that I picked up for a buck or something. I was somewhat amazed when I tried it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-11, 04:58:

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-04-11, 02:45:

Hey... this was the 90s ... 14.4was incredibly fast - I still recall the first time I got "online" (to a university mainframe) using a D.C. Hayes 80-103A modem S100 card (Probably the first "Hayes" modem - no AT commands etc.) in my Altair - in the early 1980s at a whopping 300baud speed! (not really something I care to experience again)

If you got a good 14.4 it was, with MNP5 and V32 bis I think it was, ALL the compression, you could pull text and websites were mostly text then down at 5 or 6 kB/sec which is what some poorly set up or cheapass no-compression 56k modems would do 5 years later. GIFs and zips only came down at 1.6 to 2.0 ish depending on how heavily they were compressed in the first place. I had a Zoltrix internal that had all the good compression stuff, then "upgraded" to a white box 28.8 that while it appeared to offer similar features, no init string could I figure out that would turn them on, so got a plain 2.8-3k on everything and for browsing it felt slower, though nearly twice the speed on well compressed files. Didn't use that all that long before I picked up a used USR 33.6 internal that was much nippier. However it had an early version of the standard which got pushed out when 56k was finalised on many ISPs, so rarely got onto a POP that worked at best speed after I'd had it a year.

Those Amstrad internal modems, only theoretically 2400 baud units, kinda near full length, plastic case around them. They were pretty miraculous for what they were. They could get a throughput of 9600bps pretty easily and compressed text well, so they would be almost as good as "bad" 14.4k modems. I had one for a backup unit that I picked up for a buck or something. I was somewhat amazed when I tried it.

We got our first PC in 1994 or 95, it was a IBM ps/1 and came with a 2400 baud modem. Something like this but without any optical or sound card, at least it was 50mhz DX2... http://oldcomputer.info/pc/ps1_2168/index.htm ... I think we got screwed a bit on the PC but I was a kid at the time.

The modem was slow as sh**, after bugging my parents we eventually got a 28.8 and then a cdrom kit... Unfortunately the house we lived in had some sort of issue with the telephone wiring, it seems like every other year a modem would get fried. Also my parents wanted to save money so we would buy the cheapest (read: Winmodem) thing you could find. Those were such a pain and I couldn't play DOS games against friends.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-09, 05:01:

A lot of magazine cover CDs had popular websites archived on them in mid 1990s, 3Drealms was a favorite so you may find it.

Hi, two CDs that come to my mind right now: In-To-The-Net and Out-Of-The-Net
They can be found at places like eBay and Internet Archive, I think.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-11, 04:58:

... If you got a good 14.4 it was, with MNP5 and V32 bis ...

Ahh.. the reminiscing...

I just check my basement and I still have two modems!
- USR "Sportster" 28.8 external (Serial port connection)
- AOPEN FM56-RS (ISA card)
The sportster is loose (no BOX) but FM-56 is still in it's box, and says it can do: Bell103, Bell212A, V.21, V.22A/B, V22bis, V23, V32, V32bis & K56flex

I have no idea what I'd even use these for now, but it does seem a shame to just BIN them (I guess that's why I still have them).

I remember the very first modem I ever got, probably early 1980s. It was a large box that sat on the floor under a desk. You had to manually dial using an attached telephone that looked like many business phone of the day. And for all this you got a whopping 300bps.

You can actually see it on "Daves Old Computers":
"S100"->"Altair 8800"->"Photos of compete system"

In the 6th photo down, which also shows the system with a "HeathKit printer" and a "Pertec 9-track tape drive", you can see the modem on the floor under the printer stand.

I don't know why it's not in that picture, but you can see the telephone in the next picture down, on a small desk beside the printer. (some of the modem can be seen between the desk and the computer "rack")

If you'd care to see the Hayes S100 card modem I mentioned in my first post, go up a level and pick "Photos of S-100 Cards". The modem is in the 6th one down.

drosse1meyer wrote on 2026-04-11, 19:15:

... came with a 2400 baud modem. ... The modem was slow as sh** ...

Trust me ... after you've spend a few years with a 300 baud modem, 2400 is amazingly fast!

And if you'd like to see "really slow", look in the complete system photos I just pointed at.... In at least one of them you can see the Model-28 teletype I used as a printer at the time.

These were actually "remote typewrters" that could be operated over a phone connection.... 5-bit BAUDOT encoding at an insanely fast 75 bits/second.

Jo22 wrote on 2026-04-11, 19:59:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-09, 05:01:

A lot of magazine cover CDs had popular websites archived on them in mid 1990s, 3Drealms was a favorite so you may find it.

Hi, two CDs that come to my mind right now: In-To-The-Net and Out-Of-The-Net
They can be found at places like eBay and Internet Archive, I think.

Never knew this was a thing, sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. Turns out there's a project dedicated to preserving websites from those CDs. A lot of them predate Internet Archive

jheronimus wrote on 2026-04-11, 22:01:

Jo22 wrote on 2026-04-11, 19:59:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-09, 05:01:

A lot of magazine cover CDs had popular websites archived on them in mid 1990s, 3Drealms was a favorite so you may find it.

Hi, two CDs that come to my mind right now: In-To-The-Net and Out-Of-The-Net
They can be found at places like eBay and Internet Archive, I think.

Never knew this was a thing, sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. Turns out there's a project dedicated to preserving websites from those CDs. A lot of them predate Internet Archive

Thank you! 😃 I wasn't aware of this project! It's really cool to see websites from before 1996!
That's the old internet I vaguely do still remember from the early days, when I was visiting the internet first time.

Not in its entire form, but by ca. 1996, many of the early sites were still online.
The "Einblicke ins Internet" link even has early browsers that pre-date my own internet experience.

For example, there's Cello and and a copy of Netscape 1.2!
I've started with Mosaic (part of WinCIM) and Netscape Navigator 2.01 (localized, part of T-Online 1.2 CD)..
Speaking of Cello, there's an interview with its developer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcaiPoeIFY

Edited.