With the weather starting to break, I have been wanting to
get back into the office and get back to my various new and
unfinished projects. There are quite a few on the docket now, but
lately I'm tinkering around with my Windows 98SE machine,
specifically with connecting it up to the home lab and indirectly
to the internet via various means.
Currently, this machine has access to the internet by
telnetting into a Raspberry Pi 4, and from there I can access SSH
or Lynx like any other terminal without worrying so much about
the security implications of using the telnet protocol in the
modern day. The Pi is also set up with Browservice proxy
capabilities, meaning I can connect to it via the old version
(5.5) of Internet Explorer on this machine and access https
websites in relative security as well, just like any modern PC
except a lot slower, haha. I have been using it primarily to
install older Win98 programs without needing to first write them
to 3.5" disks or CDs and to access Discord. The Pi only accepts
telnet requests from the local network with Browservice going a
step further and only accepting requests via Ethernet, and is
wired directly into the Win98 machine. It accesses the outside
internet through WiFi.
The Raspberry Pi 4 definitely seems to struggle with
Browservice, which is no surprise since it seems to struggle just
running an Xserver and a browser tab on its own, haha. It is a
nice tool for prototyping though - I will likely replace it with
an X86-based miniPC I salvaged from a digital signage unit a few
months back (did I write about that one? If not, I will soon)
once I get a few more parts to ensure I can get some decent
uptime out of it. Getting that unit going would be a big step up
towards some of the other big projects I want to try to tackle
this year as well.
Next time, I'll go into more detail on this Win98SE machine
itself. It was a pretty neat find, very capable for its time, and
I haven't actually done much to it yet, haha.
