Getting Windows 3.1x ready for the present and (near) future 2/3

<= Back to the previous page... =>

1.6 The connection to the 'net

Of course this chapter is only useful for people who already have a "primary system" (Windows 95 A [B/C/ and Win98 with a patch], another OS [OS/2, Linux, Windows NT...] or another computer with Internet access or who want to support other people who try to get onto the 'net.

1.6.1 Prelude: Serial (COM) ports and their little problems

(Especially useful for owners of external modems)
When aquiring a modem you'll have to be aware of the fact that an external modem should be connected to a COM port with a reasonable UART chip (16550A); a 16450, 8250A or even an 8250 isn't too good for modern modems (those older UARTs have no FIFO buffer, for example). You can tell what kind of UART is installed by using the program MSD.EXE that comes with both DOS and Windows (in case there are two or more versions, use the newest one).
If you've got a UART 16550A, you'll have to face another problem: Unfortunately the COM driver of "ordinary" Windows 3.1/3.11 is a medium catastrophe especially for people using COM ports with modern UARTs (16550A): It only supports speeds up to 57600 bps (bits per second), which wouldn't be so terrible normally, but in addition to that, its FIFO handling lacks a lot to be desired: It supports the FIFO only when receiving data, and this quite inefficiently. The result are frequent "buffer overruns" with speeds of more than 19200 bps, which can make surfing the net a torture. Fortunately there's a replacement driver called cybercom.drv.
With Windows for Workgroups 3.11 it's entirely different: here the driver underwent a total redesign and never caused buffer overruns on my system, although it's still recommendable not to use speeds higher than 57600 bps. You should update serial.386, as the original version still contained a few bugs.
If you've got WfW 3.11, then you should modify the following entries in system.ini, [386enh] (n is the number of the COM port referred to):
COMnFIFO=1* ; enables the RX-FIFO
COMnBuffer=128* ; buffer size, here the standard size has been chosen, enlarge the buffer size if apps "lose" characters while sending/receiving from a COM port (my notebook needs 2048 bytes or more, current setting: 32767 bytes)
COMnTxFIFO=1 ; the transmit FIFO isn't enable by default, so you should enable this option! (16550A)
COMnRxTrigger=4 ; After so and so many bytes of data an interrupt is generated - 8 is quite a good value (cybercom.drv's default), but 4 is even better (16550A)
COMBoostTime=20* ; that's the time a VM has to process a COM interrupt; the default is 2; should only affect DOS terminal programs in windows

*) this also exists with "ordinary" Windows 3.1
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1.6.2 Accessing the internet

So how can one get into the "mother of networks" now?

1.6.2.1 Part 1: Hardware issues

It isn't without reason that the previous chapter (1.6.1) is dedicated to serial ports, as the probably most popular means of accessing the 'net is a modem. These exist as external and internal versions: The external ones are connected to a serial port of the PC, the internal ones are extension cards that plug into a slot of the PC and behave like COM ports (it's nice if the parameters of the COM can also be selected by jumpers, not only by plug'n'pray); the way of communication with the modem is the same for both types (with the exception of some internal modems). The internal ones are cheaper and don't have UART problems, however, you can't see what they're doing at the moment, and in addition it's possible that they are unusable "budget variants". This has the following background: Part of the internal modems is totally unusable with Windows 3.1x and the hardware it typically runs on: These are the so-called "softmodems" or "win-modems" (often to be recognized by a "HSP" in their name), which leave part of their work to the PC's CPU. They can only run at full speed when a fast computer is used, and even more important is that they need Windows 9x (there used to be HSP modems for Win 3.1x as well, but the computers were slowed down as well, and modems weren't that fast back then). Internal modems for the PCI bus are mostly unusable as well.
For the surfing itself a V.34(+/bis) modem with 33600 bps is sufficient; if downloads are to be somewhat faster, a 56k modem is to be recommended - however, the upload speed stays at 31200 bps.
You'll only get the latter kind of modems nowadays, which support one are multiple protocols for data transmissions with up to 56000 bps (however, 50666 bps are the most one is likely to get in practice), such as the ITU standard V.90 (which came out pretty late, as usual) and/or a proprietary protocol such as USR's x2 (supposed to be more robust than V.90) or Rockwell's K56flex. With V.90 it was pretty similar to what happened when V.34 (in the original version with up to 28800 bps) was to come out: The ITU standard had to be waited for, which caused the manufacturers to use a protocol called V.FastClass (short V.FC), which had been developed by Rockwell.
BTW: It isn't unusual at all that one reaches only V.34 typical speeds (28800-33600 bps) or even lower speeds, such as 16800 bps, with a 56k modem. Before we moved I even used to have only 12000 bps (!) with V.34 and with V.32bis at least 14400 bps with a 33600 bps modem. The reason for this are always the "lines": noise, signal loss, distortion, bad frequency response, multiplexers,... Here in Germany the Telekom guarantees a NF bandwidth of 300-3700 Hz and an attenuation of at least 3 dB and at most 9 dB. Now we've got ISDN (Euro-ISDN [DSS1] at 64 kbit/s :).
The use of ISDN cards in Windows 3.1x is relatively difficult except if one's ISP is Compuserve or AOL (both ship an OEM copy of the COM port emulator cfos). Otherwise one needs a COM port emulator such as the mentioned "cfos". Unfortunately, it's anything but cheap. That's pretty much everything I know about the topic, since my ISP's software has built-in ISDN support and uses the CAPI.
An existing network can also be used to access the 'net. For more details see the next section.
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1.6.2.2 Teil 2: Software that's needed

Now that the hardware issues are solved, we can go to the software. f you've get some 16-bit access software from your provider/ISP or if you've got some PPP stack and dialer (Trumpet Winsock or the Shiva dialer that shipped/ships with various browsers [MSIE/NN]), then you're lucky, as most of the connection problem is solved (well, not quite if you're using a dialer). At win3x.tucows.com, you can download IE 3.02 with PPP stack and dialer, for example. If you've got IE5 on a CD or such, you could also install the dialer only - Active setup doesn't work (is it a wonder?). Quite widespread is Trumpet Winsock, though it's a bit cryptic.
If you'd like to connect to the 'net via an existing network, you'll have to install the TCP/IP protocol, however it's for WfW 3.11 only.
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1.6.3 Browsers

Now the only thing that's missing is a web browser. The newest - and also most demanding - ones are Netscape Communicator 4.08 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 (the 16-bit versions of both, of course). IE can be downloaded at win3x.tucows.com, Netscape from various sources (see 1.6.3.2.3). If you don't have the fastest connections or a fast computer (486DX/4 upwards), you should have a look at the older versions of both browsers or Opera.
You should have a look at my table "When should I use which browser?"
BTW: It is to be recommend that you use the program Fix1MB or syshook.drv which I mentioned in 1.1.6.

Interestingly the 16-bit versions of both NC 4.08 and IE5 don't support PNG images, although the 32 bit versions do (NC-32 from 4.04 on, IE-32 from 4.01 on).

1.6.3.1 Internet Exploder alias Microsoft Internet Explorer

1.6.3.1.1 Introduction

I used to wonder a bit why M$ chose to develop a Win 3.1x version of IE5. But IMO it's because they didn't want to stop supporting NT 3.51 yet. Maybe it's also because the development of Win16 versions of Netscape Communicator has been stopped?

1.6.3.1.2 Components

With IE5 you get various things: a browser - IE itself - , a mail/news component - Outlook Express - and a dialer (the one from Shiva); however, the HTML editor Frontpage Express doesn't come with the 16-bit IE. The system requirements are a 486SX-25 with 16 MB RAM (the README file says 12 MB for Windows 3.1 and 16 MB for NT 3.51) and 30 MB with all components and Java - at least on the page for the German language IE. The US page.

1.6.3.1.3 Setup

IE is installed via so-called "Active Setup", which means that at first only a relatively small setup program is downloaded, which downloads the components that are to be installed by itself and installs or saves them for an installation on another computer. As to be expected, that doesn't work in this case, so one will have to d/l the whole package, as always...
=> Setup problems?

Download:
IE5 can be downloaded on win3x.tucows.com (8.8 megs, no plugins).

1.6.3.1.4 A comparison to Netscape Communicator

This is what I found out after the (comfortable, but obviously error-prone) install of IE5 from a CD:

Functionality: The loading time is considerably shorter than with the Netscape product, and the memory consumption is lower as well. The way IE displays pages is somewhat unaccustomed to Netscape users (sometimes the contents are only shown when the whole page has been loaded), but considerably faster than with IE4 and somewhat faster than Netscape's. In its taskbar IE only shows how many "objects" are still to be loaded, but not their size; this is less useful than Netscape's display. The download dialog boxes don't display the size of the file that is being downloaded; it must be estimated by the length of the status bar and the remaining time; however, the data rate is displayed with two decimals.
Java/ActiveX/Plugins: The Java VM of IE loads considerably faster than the one of Netscape (hardly noticeable on my P90), however, it's totally outdated - you can't do very much with a Java interpreter version 1.0.2 today. Astonishingly sound effects work in Java applets - but this is about the only thing in which it's better than the one of Netscape 4.03. For example, truecolor images are dithered to 256 colors in applets. This isn't really a wonder since the Java DLL is still from IE4. In addition to Java, IE5 supports VBScript, JScript and more CSS than the competitor from Netscape; in theory ActiveX would work as well, but there simply aren't any 16-bit ActiveX controls: This is because they aren't run in a VM or sandbox, but almost uncontrollable directly on the computer's hardware, which on the one hand leads to high execution speeds, but on the other hand leads to security problems and - important in this context - platform dependencies of the ActiveX controls, which means that one needs an ActiveX control per OS, and in 99% of all cases they only exist for Win 9x and probably NT. Java, however, is the platform independence "in persona", and (according to a theory) that's why IE5's Java VM is so old - things that run on other platforms without even having to be recompiled don't need Windows, and of course Microsoft doesn't like that, but (according to this theory) the danger has only been seen when IE already had a Java VM. BTW: IE supports Netscape plugins, but some don't like the browser anyway (Shockwave).

Mail/news: Concerning mail/news functions there is less positive to be said: At least the default of sending HTML in newsgroups has been changed, but it's still used with e-mail. Although the first impression of Outlook Express with its nice starting page is quite good, newsgroups look quite confusing with it: all threads are to be seen fully extended, and the window for text display is much too small. In addition, text-only messages aren't displayed with a fixed pitch font (for this to happen one has to change the variable pitch font (!) to a fixed pitch font) and citations aren't marked in some way (by another color or font style, for example). The relatively high consumption of GDI resources of OE ion conjunction with IE is a disadvantage; obviously the fact that OE is an external program shows up here. However, I liked the import function of Netscape message folders. I wouldn't recommend using OE anyway: First its quirks (only some of which are stated above) demand an experienced user, but unfortunately most novices use this newsreader, and second the computer can get infected by VBScript viruses embedded in HTML messages.

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1.6.3.1.5 Annotation: Possible setup problems with IE4/5

There's hardly a reason for installing IE4 instead of IE5: It's slower than the newer version and only consumes a bit less disk space.
The following problem almost belongs into a FAQ collection: On system with more than 40 MB of RAM the setup program says that it needs "at least 4 MB of RAM", which of course is nonsense. With IE5's setup program the problem has been solved in the way that it can be started with the parameter /f:16; with IE4 the amount of RAM available to Windows must be reduced, by one of the following means:
a) by setting up a large disk cache with SmartDrive ( => help smartdrv),
b) by setting up a sufficiently large RAMdisk (with ramdrive.sys [=> help ramdrive.sys] up to 32 MB, if you need larger sizes, use XMSDSK) or
c) (only as a last resort; doesn't always work [such as when there is more than 40 MB of RAM even with minimum equipment of memory banks]) by removal of RAM modules. I think I needn't mention that c) is a "bit" dangerous!
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1.6.3.2 Netscape Communicator

1.6.3.2.1 My historical background

Personally I've always been using Netscape browsers. The last version is Communicator 4.08 - the development of the 16 bit versions has been discontinued. The first version I had installed on WfW 3.11 was 4.03[de] (its Java VM still works on my system); the first version I ever had was the Win32 version 4.01[de].

1.6.3.2.2 Components

Netscape Communicator is a fully-equipped Internet communications package that comes with almost everything that can be expected: a web browser - good old Navigator - , a mail/news component - Messenger - , a program for newsgroup administration - Collabra - and a WYSI(a)WYG* HTML editor called Composer; interestingly it's all in one monolithic EXE file, which seems to be responsible for lower resource consumption compared to IE + OE as well as higher loading times (larger file size) and high memory consumption.
A module for audio conferences called Conference is an external program.

*) What You See Is (more or less) What You Get ;)

1.6.3.2.3 The system requirements

...are similar to those of IE5: 16 MB of RAM would be quite useful, and with 20 MB RAM available to Windows on my old computer (24 MB - 1 MB conventional and 3 MB cache) I still had about 4 MB free with one Navigator Window, a Messenger window and two Composer windows; in this state Communicator needed about 10 MB. Messenger alone needs some 1.5 MB (possibly depends on the number of messages in the Inbox folder), a Composer windows with an empty page needs about 0.1 MB, however that can also be 1.5 MB with a larger page! In Navigator-only state Communicator needs some 7 MB. The memory needed for the standalone version is stated as 8 MB.

Download:

On Netscape's HTTP archive page you can download Communicator 4.08 (even with 128 bit encryption)
You can also download the standalone version Navigator 4.08 there, which is much smaller than the whole Communicator package, but doesn't have provisions for newsgroups access and e-mail (only via an external client) and WYSIWYG HTML editing.
On Netscape's FTP archive site you can also download Communicator 4.03 if you've got problem with Java in newer versions.

1.6.3.2.4 Concerning the usability:

When a page is being loaded Navigator shows how many percent of a file have already been loaded, and with larger files it shows the data rate with which they're being received; that's more useable than the number of remaining objects in IE. The download dialog box is better as well: Here the size of the file is being displayed, whereas you have to estimate by the status bar length. There are many Netscape plugins available, even for the 16-bit platform, for example an Acrobat Reader plugin, a RealPlayer plugin, a Shockwave Flash plugin and a plugin for Shockwave für Director (Fix1MB recommended); a few standard plugins (such as those for MIDI, WAV and AVI files) are generally included. While we're at plugins: Composer also supports plugins (from this page), ehich are nothing else than Java applets (so you need to have Java tutned on to use them). These can be used for using frames, editing the source code without additional tools or simply for inserting a "Netscape Now" button. As with the spell checker (64000 characters of text) there are limitations here as well: The page mustn't comprise more than 65530 bytes of source code. IMO the Java VM of Netscape 4.08 is the best one for Windows 3.1x - however, it's a pity that only few people can actually use it (a Pentium is to be recommended)...

1.6.3.2.5 Quirks and Bugs

Of course Communicator also has a number of quirks, which can hardly be avoided with such large programs:

Navigator: For example, Navigator supports less CSS than the MS product, and there seems to be some bug in the display routine that can be seen on certain pages - after so-and-so many KBs the page windows isn't redrawn completely, causing newer content to overwrite old content, which should have been deleted before that (fortunately Netscape doesn't crash). Navigator likes crashing when pages that have been received via a proxy server and are in the cache a reloaded without using a proxy and vice versa; emptying the cache helps here. This page caused Navigator to crash if one scrolled beyond some position (117 KB or so), but only if a background image was used. Generally older Versions (4.02, for example) crash more often than newer ones (4.08).
Special issue VRML: Communicator 4.08 is laid out for Cosmo Player (a plugin for displaying VRML) in Version 2.0 - however, only version 1.0b5 exists for Windows 3.1, which promptly causes Communicator to crash. Version 4.03 can run Cosmo Player 1.0b5 with relatively few problems - at least for a beta version, as neither the display nor the speed are great, and the stability isn't great at all. However, the Live3D plugin, which was originally intended for Navigator 3.0x, is to be recommended; it also works flawlessly with all the 4.0x versions. Unfortunately, both Cosmo Player 1.0b5 and the Live3D plugin only support VRML 1.0 (Cosmo Player 2.0 also supports VRML 2.0, but there is no Win 3.1 version).

Where normally Navigator 4.0x is best, but strikes on my system (and on some others, as I found out recently):
Java: On my computer Java will neither work with Comunicator 4.08[de] nor with 4.05[de], but it does work with 4.03[de] (so obviously the error that causes Communicator to hang must have been built in between the file versions 4.2.1.55 and 4.5.1.48), and not too badly either - with a Java interpreter in version 1.1.2 it can often run applets that are probably enigmas for IE5's 1.0.2 interpreter. However, loading the Java engine can take a few minutes to load on slower machines (on the P90, it was some 30 seconds); dring that time, the computer is totally blocked.

Composer: Composer also has its share of quirks, for example it's seemingly pretty hard to tell it that a background image is supposed to be in the same directory as the page (the source code shows that it works, however), at some places of a page it inserts strange characters or empty lines (only in v4.08, not in 4.03; really unnerving), and sometimes it just crashes without any particular reason. The spell checker only copes with up to 64000 characters of text - this page was already a bit larger than that before it was split. If you want to use Composer plugins, be aware of a limit of 65530 characters of source code. Well, that may be enough for a small homepage...

Messenger: It's not so easy to get Messenger to correctly separate signatures: Instead of "-- " it uses "--" if the option "Always send HTML messages" in Settings >> Mail and News >> Messages is enabled (this option doesn't mean that HTML is always sent, but that HTML is sent to people who want to get HTML mail [this can be set in the Address Book], and otherwise one can choose between HTML, plain text or both). This can only be corrected by disabling this option. Until v4.03 Netscape doesn't get along with long names (and names with quoted-printable encoding), leading to an error "No FROM header". This problem had already been present in v3.01.

For more bugs have a look at my Netscape 4.08/Win16 bug list

1.6.3.2.6 Tips for Netscape 4.0x

The right Usenet settings (translated!!!):
- Set the correct time zone (also concerns e-mail clients/newsreaders etc.)
  - In autoexec.bat a setting of the following form should be present (this one is for Central Europe):
    set TZ=CET-1DST,3,-1,0,7200,10,-1,0,10800,3600
- Edit >> Settings >> Mail & News
  - box "Plain text citations starting with > ...": proposal: bold italic, normal, black
  - box "Show news and articles with": Use "Fixed pitch font" here! HTML messages are still being displayed using a proportional font, which makes it easy to recognize them.
  - Identity:
    - Do not enable "Always send messages with a calling card"
  - Messages, box "Message properties":
    - Do not enable "Always send HTML messages", otherwise the signature is sparated incorrectly
    - Wrap long lines at 72 characters
See my page Netscape 4.08/Win16 as a Standard mode app

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1.6.3.3 Opera

Another alternative is Opera, IMO the smallest wide(r)spread browser - the installation files fit onto a diskette. The current version is 3.62. Opera is an exception among the browsers, since it's shareware (US$40 for normal people $20 for students).
Download:
At http://www.opera.no/, for example.
<= Inhaltsübersicht

1.6.3.4 Altes System? - Ältere Browser sind besser!

1.6.3.4.1 Warum aktuelle Browser so groß und langsam sind

Oftmals werden die Browser der 3er-Reihe (nicht von BMW ;) als die schnellsten angesehen, die heute noch etwas taugen - zu Recht übrigens, denn ab Version 4 wurden die 16-Bit-Versionen der beiden großen Browser mehr und mehr den 32-Bit-Versionen angeglichen, wodurch die reg.dat (die Registry von Windows 3.1x) oft bedrohliche Ausmaße annimmt (meine ist mit NC und MSIE gerade bei 98 KB, was wohl beim normalen Windows 3.1 schon kritisch wäre) und der verfügbare Arbeitsspeicher und teilweise auch die Systemressourcen beträchtlich schwinden, und auch am deutlichen Geschwindigkeitsverlust dürfte das nicht ganz unschuldig sein. Zudem war man gerade bei Netscape bestrebt, auch in Version 4.0x auf allen Plattformen die gleichen Features anzubieten - diese vielen neuen Features brauchen allerdings auch mehr Prozessorleistung und mehr Platz sowohl auf der Platte als auch im RAM, und genau daran hängt's eben bei den meisten Windows-3.1-Systemen.
Es ist somit relativ einsichtig, warum die Weiterentwicklung für Windows 3.1x eingestellt worden ist - nicht etwa nur wegen der - durchaus vorhandenen - Beschränkungen des Systems, sondern wohl vor allem wegen der recht langsamen Hardware, auf der es zum Einsatz kommt (zumindest meistens, Gegenspeibiele auf dieser Seite!). So kann man manche Funktionen des Communicators 4.0x (wie etwa Java) nur dann in akzeptabler Geschwindigkeit nutzen, wenn man mindestens einen Pentium besitzt - nur laufen Pentium-Rechner fast alle mit Win9x...

1.6.3.4.2 Heute noch brauchbare ältere Browser:

Meine Wahl für 486er mit mindestens 8 MB RAM wäre der Netscape Navigator 3.01- auch heute noch ist er ein prima Standard-Browser, mit dem man auch die Newsgroups und elektronischen Briefkästen dieser Welt unsicher machen und - falls es sich um die Gold-Version handelt - seine Homepage mit einem WYSIWYG-HTML-Editor (dem Vorläufer des Composers) gestalten kann. Die Geschwindigkeit des Navigators auf meinem P90 hat mich total verblüfft; er ist garantiert doppelt so schnell wie der 4.08! Die Schriftdarstellung ist zwar nicht immer optimal, aber als Feld-, Wald- und Wiesenbrowser für alle Tage ist der alte Navigator nicht zu schlagen, zumal er mit allen Netscape-16-Bit-Plugins etwas anfangen können sollte. Der Mail-Client genügt auch heute noch den Standardanforderungen; der News-Client ist brauchbar, aber nicht sonderlich komfortabel. Einzig mit dem HTML-Editor ist nicht mehr sonderlich viel anzufangen (es war wohl noch ein weiter Weg bis zum Composer des Communicator 4.08 ;). Der Navigator 3.01 Gold [de] (die letzte "goldige" Variante in deutscher Sprache) inklusive Plugins ist gerade einmal 5,6 MB groß, die Basisversion ohne Plugins sogar nur 3,2 MB. Der neueste deutschsprachige Vertreter der 3er-Reihe ist die Version 3.03, die ohne den HTML-Editor auskommen muß, dem man aber kaum nachtrauern dürfte. Wer keine Probleme mit englischsprachigen Programmen hat, bekommt beim Netscape-Archiv die entsprechenden Versionen von Navigator 3.04 bzw. 3.03 Gold (sogar die mit 128-Bit-Verschlüsselung, aber ob das angesichts etlicher abgelaufener Zertifikate etwas bringt, sei mal dahingestellt). Der 3er läuft auch auf einem 386SX in annehmbarer Geschwindigkeit, braucht aber natürlich recht lange zum Starten.
Den Navigator 2.02 (eine ältere Version sollte man sich wirklich nicht antun) gibt es hier (2,5 MB). Dieser verbraucht weniger RAM, ist aber beim Laden von Grafiken etc. deutlich langsamer als der 3.01, und sein News-Client verhält sich mitunter etwas seltsam (die 2er-Versionen gelten allgemein als etwas buggy). Auch die Übersetzung war damals noch etwas verbesserungsbedürftig: "Größere Puffer bedeuten mehr Daten, können aber den Computer auffüllen." (Netzwerk-Einstellungen, Tab "Verbindungen"). <ROTFL>! Auf meinem 386SX-Notebook ist er sowohl von der Ladezeit her als auch beim Seitenaufbau schneller als der 3er, aber leider ist er ziemlich veraltet.
Wenn man es gerne komplett und einfach hätte, gibt es noch die All-in-one-Lösung Internet Explorer 3.01 mit Dialer - etwas betagt, aber nicht so ressourcenhungrig. Der Dialer (dt. Wahlhilfe) funktioniert - wie auch beim IE5 - übrigens auch mit anderen Browsern und Winsock-Anwendungen (wie z.B. mit dem IMO besseren Netscape Navigator 3.0x), allerdings muß man nach der Deinstallation des IE ein paar Dateien (comctlie.dll aus dem System-Verz. und inetcfg.dll aus dem IE-Verz., mehr dazu stand mal hier) manuell extrahieren bzw. vorher sichern und wieder zurückkopieren (die letztere Variante entspringt dem gesunden Menschenverstand). Es ist zu beachten, daß das IE-Verzeichnis im DOS-Suchpfad (PATH) liegen muß, damit der Dialer von anderen Programmen genutzt werden kann! Den IE 3.02 mit Stack und Dialler gibt's bei Tucows - allerdings nur in englischer Sprache. Auf meinem Notebook benutze ich nur den Dialer - der IE3 ist nicht nur langsamer als der Netscape 3, sondern auch ziemlich instabil.

Alle Netscape-Versionen ab 2.02 sind übrigens offiziell Jahr-2000-tauglich und browsen auch im neuen Jahr weiter fröhlich vor sich hin :) - ich habe erst am 3. Januar 2000 den Navigator 3.01 Gold installiert, und am 13. Januar den 2.02.

1.6.3.4.3 Kleine Verschlüsselungs-Problemchen mit älteren Browser-Versionen:

Nur die Sicherheitszertifikate älterer Brausen (IE vor 4.0 und Netscape-Versionen vor 4.06) können Probleme machen - es erscheint dann immer eine Dialogbox beim Aufruf von Seiten, die Verschlüsselung verwenden, die es zu bestätigen gilt (die OK- und Cancel-Buttons verstecken sich abhängig von der Schriftgröße manchmal ganz unten am Rand und es ist nur ihre Oberkante zu sehen; sind sie ganz weg, muß man die Schriftgröße der Proportionalschrift reduzieren), die Funktion wird aber nicht beeinträchtigt.
Netscape-2.0x/3.0x-Benutzer sind von einem zusätzlichen Problem betroffen: Zum Jahreswechsel 1999/2000 sind etliche Root-Zertifikate ausgelaufen, wodurch oft eine sichere Verbindung ganz verweigert wird. Der MSIE hingegen kümmert sich nicht darum, sondern nur um abgelaufene Netsite-Zertifikate.
Benutzer von 2er- und 3er-Versionen des Navigators können auf dieser Seite das Root-Zertifikat von Thawte updaten bzw. beim 2.0x hinzufügen und damit z.B. wieder auf die (allerdings in Win16-Angelegenheiten wenig hilfreiche) NG secnews.netscape.com/Netscape Communicator oder die (in dieser Hinsicht bessere) NG netscape.navigator auf dem selben Server zugreifen.
Das Root-Zertifikat von Verisign kann man auf dieser Seite updaten - es kommt aber gelegentlich zu seltsamen Effekten damit (die meisten Seiten funktionieren hinterher wieder, aber ein paar andere wollen damit nicht mehr zusammenarbeiten).
Den Communicator 4.08 kann man übrigens relativ leicht auf 128-Bit-Verschlüsselung umstellen; alles, was man dazu braucht, ist eine netscape.exe eines US-Communicators.

1.6.3.4.4 Zeitzoneneinstellung für Mail und News:

Zumindest bei Netscape ist die Standard-Zeitzone die Pacific Standard Time (PST), UTC-08:00 im Winter und UTC-07:00 im Sommer. Das stimmt natürlich nicht mit unserer MEZ bzw. MESZ überein, was durch das Setzen einer Umgebungsvariablen (meist in der autoexec.bat) zu beheben ist:
set TZ=CET-1DST,3,-1,0,7200,10,-1,0,10800,3600

<= Inhaltsverzeichnis

1.6.3.5 When should which browser be used? Feedback would be nice here!

Processor	RAM	Netscape	Microsoft	Opera
386	4 MB	Navigator 2.02 ? Upgrade RAM!	?	3.51? 1)
386	8 MB (+)	Navigator 2.02 / 3.0x	IE 3.0x	3.51? 1)
486SX/DX	8 MB	Navigator 3.0x, possibly upgrade RAM	IE 3.0x	3.60 1)
	12 MB	Navigator 3.0x	IE 3.0x / IE 5.0	3.60 1)
	16 MB (+)	Navigator 3.0x	IE 3.0x / IE 5.0	3.60 1)
486DX/2 (50/66 MHz)	8 MB	Navigator 3.0x, possibly upgrade RAM	IE 3.0x	3.60
	12 MB	Navigator 3.0x, possibly Nav. 4.04 (w/o Java)	IE 3.0x / IE 5.0	3.60
	16 MB (+)	Navigator 3.0x, possibly Nav. 4.04 / Comm. 4.08 (w/o Java)	IE 5.0	3.60
486DX/2-80 486DX/4 Pentium K5 (etc.)	8 MB	Upgrade RAM! Navigator 3.0x	IE 3.0x	3.60
	12 MB	Not too much either, Nav. 3.0x / Nav. 4.04 (w/o Java)	IE 3.0x / IE 5.0	3.60
	16 MB	Communicator 4.08 (w/o Java?), possibly Nav. 3.0x	IE 5.0	3.60
	24 MB (+)	Communicator 4.08 (w/ Java if it works)	IE 5.0	3.60

Annotation:
1) Somewhere I read that Opera from 3.60 upwards requires a numeric co-processor.