What browser works in OS 9.1 ?

[MacGuy]

The browsers installed by OS 9.1 installer seem out of date.

What browser works in OS 9.1 ?

[Protools5LEGuy]

Classilla? http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/
To my knowledge is the more modern browser for OS9.
From a XX number version it used a Nokia mobile handset N90 user agent, so webs are saw as in a handset, making web browsing faster...
For desktop user agent, use an older version or change it.

[part12studios]

so I just got my Quicksilver Mac online using a repeater (brilliant solution suggested on this forum) and I'm of course running IE5 out of the box.  so classilla is the latest browser available for it?  I've never heard of it. 

I don't expect to be doing everything I would on a modern computer, but I did hope I could at least run the Mac OS 9 Lives forum, which wouldn't work (even when I clicked the link for OS Classic users.  got some kind of gateway error or something.  However google worked so I know I'm talking to the internet in general. 

[GaryN]

It's a sad fact of life that there are NO/none/nada/squat/zero good OS9 browsers anymore.
The internet has evolved far away from all of them and old Mac OS hardware in general.

Install Classilla. It's as good as you can get in OS9. It will far outperform IE and while there will be sites it may barely function on - or not at all - this site will NOT be one of those. On sites where it gets "stuck", you can sometimes improve it by using a different User Agent selection in the prefs. At the end of the day however, you simply need a modern browser on the modern internet. There's no way around it.

[Greystash]

If you're planning on browsing purely for information you can disable stylesheets (CSS), images and javascript on most browsers - meaning it will only load page text. I did this for a while on Internet Explorer but kept hitting barriers with HTTPS (little support in Classilla and pretty much none in IE). Google still works over HTTP but almost every modern site built and managed today is served over HTTPS.
I ended up building a web scraper that pulls info/news/posts etc. from the sites I wanted and served it on an HTTP only site for myself. It served static content over HTTP and updated every hour or so which works great on IE and Classilla (super fast!).

[ovalking]

>The browsers installed by OS 9.1 installer seem out of date.

You seem surprised!

As you've found this site does not work with IE for some unknown reason. It does work with Netscape (I'm using it now).
Turn off Style sheets (stupid invention!) and put the cache on a RAM disk.

Classilla will work with more sites than Netscape, but overall it's an unimpressive experience.

[Mat]

Classilla is the most modern option for browsing the web. 2nd one is iCab.

To speed up browsing, the most helpful thing you can do is to create a "hostfile" and put in all the known advertising companies. That hostfile in your systemfolder puts than all requsts to google, facebook, twitter and a few hundret others to 0.0.0.0 and speeds up browsing a lot. Everything feels 2 times faster. There are websites online that collect all advertising URLs so that you can simply copy&paste them.

I ended up building a web scraper that pulls info/news/posts etc. from the sites I wanted and served it on an HTTP only site for myself. It served static content over HTTP and updated every hour or so which works great on IE and Classilla (super fast!).

Could you give us more informations, or share this one?

[Greystash]

That's a great tip! Will definitely try that one out.

Previously I ran a private site for this but ended up moving it to http://mac-classic.com/ a while back. I haven't added anything for a while, I need to find some time.. I also plan on merging it with http://www.mac-attic.com/ eventually, but has been neglected for several years.

Both sites are fully static HTML websites built using Jekyll (a static website compiler). I manage and host these websites on CloudCannon (who I also work for), which allows build scheduling etc. which runs my plugins every hour and can serve the new content over HTTP.

The plugins I built are very simple Ruby plugins that scrape specific elements from external websites, and add the data to the website during each rebuild. If you would like examples let me know and I can post them.

[chokobo]

There are websites online that collect all advertising URLs so that you can simply copy&paste them.

Here's one: the BlackList

[ovalking]

To speed up browsing, the most helpful thing you can do is to create a "hostfile" and put in all the known advertising companies.

Hi Mat, please could you perhaps supply an example of this file to help us get started with this tip.
Thank

[Mat]

Hi ovalking, It is stunningly easy!

Create an file called "hosts" with a texteditor. For "customizing" the DNS put one domain per line into this textdocument followed by ".   A 127.0.0.1" (including the period!). Save this document inside the preferences folder or the system folder (both should work). As soon as TCP is initialized the file is parsed, and you can "redirect" all the crap into Nirvana! Technically it is a loopback at "localhost", means the OS detects that this domain request shall never be sent to the internet, but to the own computer. You can also use the IP adress "0.0.0.0" so that absolutely nothing happens.

Here is a recent (still maintained!) list with advertizing domains, ready in Mac OS 9 format (unix and win hosts-format is a little bit different). Just copy this list, ad all the facebook-, twitter-, google-crap to the list, and save the file inside your preferences. http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/serverlist.php?hostformat=machosts

More informations:

"Open Transport/TCP supports a Hosts file that may be used to supplement and/or customize the Domain Name Resolver's initial cache of information. The Hosts file is found in the System's Preferences folder. This file is parsed when Open Transport/TCP is initialized. As in MacTCP, the supported Hosts file features follow a subset of the Domain Name System Master File Format (see RFC 1035 page 33)."
https://web.archive.org/web/20000831101418/http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n75085

"Under Mac OS 9 and earlier there is a hosts file in the root level of the system folder. If you're using Open Transport it can also be located inside System Folder:Preferences, although either will work. Or you can just open the TCP/IP control panel and go into Advanced under User Mode in the Edit menu. Then you have the option of choosing whatever hosts file you like and it will be put where it needs to be. I've also been looking at the syntax for host files under this system, and you should use for this either SITE_NAME. A 127.0.0.1 (the period is required) or SITE_NAME CNAME 127.0.0.1."
http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/news.php#macinfo

[IIO]

there are still websites you can reach from OS9?

[Mat]

As I never started to use all the modern crap like FB&Co. I am fine. For the absolute need of modern site usage (sadly my bank for example changed last year to a "smartphone website") I have a MiNT-PPC at my MDD as well, but I don't like it and avoid it whenever possible.

[ovalking]

Here is a recent (still maintained!) list with advertizing domains, ready in Mac OS 9 format (unix and win hosts-format is a little bit different). Just copy this list, ad all the facebook-, twitter-, google-crap to the list, and save the file inside your preferences. http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/serverlist.php?hostformat=machosts

Thanks Mat, I've already seen the benefit.
One site I like to visit was plagued by 'Classilla and xxx.com cannot communicate securely...' errors. Now added xxx.com to the list and the problem has gone away!
That collated hosts list is pretty big. But I note the tech info recommends keeping it as short as possible so will experiment with it....