Another nail in the W98 coffin?

Have been using MSNBC news as my homepage for quite a few years. Thats MS as
in MicroSoft.
W98 didn't seem to care too much for their new and improved website a while
back and any vid from that site would/will freeze this computer and are
avoided like the plague. No problem with vids on other news sites.

But there has been an odd intermittent problem of late.

MSNBC.com site will open just fine when I get there from the desktop IE icon
but "internet explorer cannot open the site..." if I try to go there
('Home') from some other site AND if I'm on their site and click on any news
story and then go back to the main site page via the 'Home' or 'Back' button
I'll get the same message again. This happens quite often but not always.

Any and all other visited sites work just fine.

Maybe MSNBC made some more "improvements" and cares even less now than
before about W98 users.

Restored Windows to a registry date prior to start of IE error messages and
did the IE repair (reinstall?) from the double click on IE6 in 'add/remove
programs'

W98, Pent II, IE6, 400 Mhz, 256 ram, small HD for OS and programs, larger HD
for files.

Just curious at this point.
Any other 98 users having similar problem with the MSNBC site?

Add me to that short Quantatative list of 98 users.
Great post and thread. Haven't finished reading it all yet.

"keith" wrote:

Have been using MSNBC news as my homepage for quite a few years. Thats MS as
in MicroSoft.
W98 didn't seem to care too much for their new and improved website a while
back and any vid from that site would/will freeze this computer and are
avoided like the plague. No problem with vids on other news sites.

But there has been an odd intermittent problem of late.

MSNBC.com site will open just fine when I get there from the desktop IE icon
but "internet explorer cannot open the site..." if I try to go there

Have you tried the site with Firefox? Firefox version 2.x will work
with Win98, and is *much* more up-to-date than any version of IE that
will work with Win98.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

I have always had trouble with 98 and IE6 since sooo many web sites went
with all this flash (crap). It seems to me that is the biggest problem
IE6 and 98 have.

I must echo Tim's question, Have you tried the site with Firefox?

Being the type of person which really dislikes much change we see, I was
slow to try Firefox but now having tried it, having had time for the
learning curve, really like it! Although painfully slow to load, once
it's loaded what a great browser, highly customizable with plugins, and
there are loads of GREAT plugins.

To summarize, if FF loaded as fast as IE, I'd use FF all the time and
never look back! IE not working properly for you on MSNBC should not be
another nail in the coffin, it's not for me; try FF!.
___

"Tim Slattery" wrote in message
...
"keith" wrote:

Have been using MSNBC news as my homepage for quite a few years. Thats
MS as
in MicroSoft.
W98 didn't seem to care too much for their new and improved website a
while
back and any vid from that site would/will freeze this computer and
are
avoided like the plague. No problem with vids on other news sites.

But there has been an odd intermittent problem of late.

MSNBC.com site will open just fine when I get there from the desktop
IE icon
but "internet explorer cannot open the site..." if I try to go there

Have you tried the site with Firefox? Firefox version 2.x will work
with Win98, and is *much* more up-to-date than any version of IE that
will work with Win98.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

"someone watching" wrote in message
...

To summarize, if FF loaded as fast as IE, I'd use FF all the time . . .

Under Win98SE (reinstalled in January) IE (v.6) loads in 3 seconds,
Firefox (v.2) in 4 seconds -- amply fast enough to prefer all the time.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

wrote in message
...

Under Win98SE (reinstalled in January) IE (v.6) loads in 3 seconds,
Firefox (v.2) in 4 seconds -- amply fast enough to prefer all the time.

My IE6 loads in only a few seconds, but FF2 is terribly slow.
Probably a half minute or more.

Agreed, 30 sec. is intolerable: but does this not suggest
Firefox has been incorrectly installed or configured?

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

My IE6 loads in only a few seconds, but FF2 is terribly slow.
Probably a half minute or more.

Agreed, 30 sec. is intolerable: but does this not suggest
Firefox has been incorrectly installed or configured?


Don, it MAY suggest that but my setup (O-L-D AMD 550MHz, 384MB ram)
loads slowly too, better than 30sec., but it is because of the plugins.
If FF is booted in safe mode (firefox -s -m, I think) it boots
quickly. The other fellow may have loads of plugins accessing the
internet aquiring information too, thus slowing boot time.

Once it's up and running though, it's great!

Thanks, Tim.
Have certainly seen numerous references to Mozilla while surfing but never
really investigated.
DL'd Firefox 2.x with basic set-up and will give it a try.
But still wonder why the MSNBC.com web site is the only one that IE6 is
having problems with.
Maybe I'll ask them. (and see what kind of automated, international reply
bounces back)

"Tim Slattery" wrote in message
...
"keith" wrote:

Have been using MSNBC news as my homepage for quite a few years. Thats MS
as
in MicroSoft.
W98 didn't seem to care too much for their new and improved website a
while
back and any vid from that site would/will freeze this computer and are
avoided like the plague. No problem with vids on other news sites.

But there has been an odd intermittent problem of late.

MSNBC.com site will open just fine when I get there from the desktop IE
icon
but "internet explorer cannot open the site..." if I try to go there

Have you tried the site with Firefox? Firefox version 2.x will work
with Win98, and is *much* more up-to-date than any version of IE that
will work with Win98.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

wrote:
On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:24:28 -0400, "Don Phillipson"
wrote:

"someone watching" wrote in message
...

To summarize, if FF loaded as fast as IE, I'd use FF all the time . . .

Under Win98SE (reinstalled in January) IE (v.6) loads in 3 seconds,
Firefox (v.2) in 4 seconds -- amply fast enough to prefer all the time.

My IE6 loads in only a few seconds, but FF2 is terribly slow.
Probably a half minute or more. Like someone else said, if I am going
to seriously use the web, I open FF, but just for a quickie link, I
use IE because I hate waiting for FF to load.

Similar over here too (maybe not terribly slow, but considerably slower than
IE).
You might also try K-Meleon. It's less polished than FF, but faster.

wrote:

My IE6 loads in only a few seconds, but FF2 is terribly slow.
Probably a half minute or more.

I think the reason for that is that IE uses many pieces of Windows
that are already loaded before you start IE itself. Firefox doesn't,
so it has to load its entire brain when you start it.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

letterman, how come you are not using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.16 which is
currently the latest version for Windows 98 Second Edition and XP if like me
you are currently refusing to move up to version 3 in hopes that version 2
will be supported beyond the end of the 2008 year by Mozilla thus continuing
to have support for Windows 98. The puzzling thing to me is how users keep
saying Opera is so great but I have noticied Opera does not appear to support
256 bit AES encryption and so like Apple's Safari which also only uses a
maximum of 128 bit cipher strength I must ask what makes it so great other
than the fact that Opera is willing to support older outdated operating
systems?

http://secunia.com/product/393/ (Windows 95 moderately critical and less bugs)

http://secunia.com/product/13/ (Windows 98 SE less critical bugs)

http://secunia.com/advisories/31549/ (highly critical bugs for Opera users
and run to get your patch)

In short, users can minimize their risks when using Windows 98 Second
Edition on the 'Net by mainly using an alternative browser like Mozilla
Firefox that is still supported for 98 Second Edition. In addition, tools
such as SpywareBlaster will keep you safe as well. I am amused because
sometimes I try and lure people to hack my PC just for fun now since I have
read up on Steve Riley's research and honey pots and it is just like a long
and amusing game. Sadly, I have only lured script kiddies and no one who
knew really what they were doing but I am on the look out for the big bad
guys like government operatives from China, Russia, even within the U.S.A.
that try to hack computers and steal information but these guys (meaning guys
and girls of course) seem to be wise to me now and seem to just be leaving my
PC alone. Oh Well, there are always others involved in my line of volunteer
work as well. smile

" wrote:

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:45:19 -0500, "someone watching"
wrote:

My IE6 loads in only a few seconds, but FF2 is terribly slow.
Probably a half minute or more.

Agreed, 30 sec. is intolerable: but does this not suggest
Firefox has been incorrectly installed or configured?


Don, it MAY suggest that but my setup (O-L-D AMD 550MHz, 384MB ram)
loads slowly too, better than 30sec., but it is because of the plugins.
If FF is booted in safe mode (firefox -s -m, I think) it boots
quickly. The other fellow may have loads of plugins accessing the
internet aquiring information too, thus slowing boot time.

Once it's up and running though, it's great!


I'm running this on a Pentium III 1ghz with 512megs Ram. Not the
slowest, but not fast either. I have about 12 plugins in FF.
Of course IE does load faster because part of it is already running in
Windows. FF is installed properly. I have the 2.0.0.14 version. It
DOES work great once it runs, but its still terribly slow to load.
I just keep it loaded once I get it open. If I'm not using it, I just
keep it on my homepage, which is a html file of links on my own
harddrive.