| 8088-80286 WEB BROWSING WITH DOS LYNXS |
Okay, it's 2022, you have one of the oldest PC's ever made, a PC/XT Class 8088/8086, or a PC AT class 286. Links won't run on it because Links needs Protected Mode and a 387 to run and use all the fancy schmancy TLS Protocols "modern" computers use for internet security and secure HTTPS websites. Does this mean that your PC is finally "too old" to get on the internet. Time to let the "dinosaurs" turn to oil to make new, soul-less, Ryzen Threadrippers with? HECK NO! I'm here to tell you, the modern internet in DOS on a pre-386 16-bit real-mode system like a IBM PC, AT, XT, Jr, or Tandy 1000, or a clone of such - is totally doable.
We just need a different browser - DOSLynx 0.44b. We also need mTCP Suite for networking. But since DOSLynx does not handle TLS, we also need to take a new approach to browsing as well - in this case, FrogFind as our search engine since it can do some things to allow us to connect one of these vintage 16-bit systems to an HTTPS website WITHOUT actual compatibility with it. But beforehand, check on my page on setting up mTCP suite. You'll need this to connect to the internet. This document only handles connecting over Broadband/LAN, because that's what most everyone has these days. There might be some more instruction needed say, you're a Farmer in the middle of Wyoming trying to get your Compaq Deskpro 8086 back on the internet so you can go to local CO-OP website that's still in HTTP and looks like it was written in 1990 by Tim Berners Lee himself on your 14.4K Dial-up connection. And use that old DBASE III Database that has not changed in 30 years for some crop-related stuff. Setting up DOSLynx 0.44b on a Pre-386 system Just like anything pre-386, there is no "SETUP.EXE" or "INSTALL.BAT" file that will automatically generate a batch file for you or create entries in the config based on inforamation you give it about your system. Working on a 8088-286 system is a lot like working on a car from the 10's-50's - Carburators, janky manual adjustments, and you actually have to at least know a little bit about how this stuff works to really know how to get it working. This means editing plaintext files. The basic rundown is we will be making basic settings changes for DOSLynx to allow it to connect to the internet and not strain your machine to death while doing it. There are two versions of DOSLynx, a "real mode" client - which is for 8088/8086 machines. And then the "Protected Mode" Client DOSLYNXP.EXE - which can use EMS and works on a 286, allowing you to make use of the extra memory your 286 system has. This can make things extra pleasant actually. On all machines, I will set "my_IP=" to DHCP so "my_ip=DHCP", as it's usually preset to BOOTP. This tells DOSLynx to use the DHCP IP Address assigned by mTCP. On 8088/8086 I disable EMS and XMS so that it does not look for that and freak you out with errant warning messages. Duh, were running this in 640K here....or even as low as 384K or 256K. On a 286, you want to enable EMS and/or XMS - that way you can use the memory above 640K, which will improve performance a lot. My GEM 286 on DOSLynx runs like my 486 DX2-66 does running Links. Surfing in DOSLynx on a Pre-386 system One particularly important thing to remember is we are talking 16-bit systems here, often without a math co-processor, and these systems are not that beefy, as the majority run in the sub 16MHz processor speed bracket, with many being 10MHz or below. These machines also don't have a lot of RAM. My GEM 286 having 4MB of RAM is a LOT for that time. It's essentially the 286 equivalent of a Monster Truck with all that RAM and a fast 12MHz Co-Processor overlcoking the 10MHz CPU to 12MHz. Most 286 systems had between 512K to 2MB of RAM, and 2MB would have been in some kind of monster-truck Math-CAD Workstation 286. 1MB was pretty much the norm at the peak of the 286's short life. Basically, your web habits will need to be changed quite a bit from the norm of slapping in www.google.com, and then going searching for something and clicking on a link, because even on my 386SX-20 running Links it's like that. One of your best friend will be FrogFind. Frogfind is a search engine designed for vintage computers. It has the capability of doing the TLS work on a HTTPS page for you before sending it to the computer - basically it "wraps" the site for low resource usage on an old computer. How about that! So this is a good place to start. It basically is a wrapper for the DuckDuckGo search engine. |
