Tech: Win 98SE

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 04:26 AM

Jack Campin -

The use you propose should be safe. My mildly smart-a** comment was directed at Richard, who does intend to browse. (And I'll concede it was a pretty lame comment.)

While there are differences in Mac vs Windows vulnerabilities, several patches have been issued (mostly surreptitiously) by Apple, and they're largely the same sort of things for which Windows gets patched. Firewall and AntiVirus protections are recommended by Apple even for "pure Mac" users.

Much of the safety for Macs is because there are relatively few of them to be attacked. As Mac share of the market increases, increases in attacks are to be expected - and to some extent have already been seen. The same is true for Firefox, where the base of users has increased significantly, and more frequent exploits are beginning to appear. (A "critical" Firefox update was published within the last couple of weeks, I believe.)

Mr Red got my point - there probably are relatively few Win98 machines stil in use, and they're too slow on the internet to be useful; so it's possible that the scammers have lost interest in them - - although I wouldn't bet a bank account on it.

Anyone really seriously interested in the market for cracking programs, bot networks, and stolen data can go to Symantec Report on the Underground Economy and download the .pdf (3.25 MB) Symantec White Paper (Released November 2008). I'd suggest saving it to read at leisure, since it's about 84 pages fairly well stuffed with information. It includes (in the full paper) examples, including prices advertised, for the kinds of programs and data being bought and sold.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: gnomad
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 10:51 AM

You don't say what you want the machine to do, but you might consider having a play with linux in stead.

I had just your dilemma with a WinME laptop, it wasn't my main machine but something I used for a bit of e-mail, surfing, and playing audio in the bedroom. I went with Ubuntu, but many recent Linux systems are windows-y enough to be a pretty simple learning process, at least for the common tasks (if I can do it so can anyone) A great advantage is that its free, and there are also free programmes out there for pretty much any task, also if your old machine is a bit low on resources there are several systems designed with such machines in mind.

Virus-wise there are far fewer to dodge, and free AV software is also available.

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 09:49 AM

Presume you won't be a-wanting broadband with that - Sir.

How many providers support Win98SE?

none I have found.

on the cynical side how many scammers want a Win98 machine that is only on for 10 minutes at a time - assuming they can find it?

vigilence and a good ISP work for me. But I ain't blasé

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 09:06 AM

It's possible that a Win98SE machine might be "Mac Safe" - i.e. nobody cares enough to bug you, but I haven't seen anything very recent on numbers of users still up, and even Apple recommends that Macicists use an AV

It's not a matter of not caring - if the Windows subsystem is unable to access the Internet, it might as well be running on a separate machine in a steel box with only power cables going in. No way for a virus to get at it.

Yes, if you're running a Windows system on a Mac or Linux machine and letting it do stuff like visit random websites using Internet Explorer, of course it's a security risk like any other Windows system and you need to waste time and money on antivirus measures. Just use the thing for non-networked games or highly specialized local-only applications, with the Windows TCP/IP stack connecting to nothing, and you don't need to bother. And running software like that is the only distinctive role Windows has anyway.

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: mrdux
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 02:15 AM

i don't know about how it works on a Win98SE machine, but i've been using ESET AV software on our dozen-or-so XPPro machines at the office and my XPPro machine at home and i'm pretty pleased with it. it's got a relatively small footprint, doesn't take up a lot of memory, doesn't have any annoting idiosyncrasies and its test numbers are pretty impressive. at any rate, we haven't had any viral infections since we installed it about 18 months ago. price for the XP-compatible version was about $60 for a two year subscription.

good luck.

michael

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 11:08 PM

About the only other thing I find in recent references is ESET NOD32. I don't know anything about it, but a couple of different sites have mentioned it, and it appears to be specifically designed for "legacy machines." The comments I've seen were a few months old, but the ESET site still shows it.

The ESET site isn't clear about free/cheap/expen$ive, but on another site one SPGWK complained that "it's a 30-day free trial and then you have to buy it," which was answered with "once you use it you'll want to buy it." No history/references for either genius, but no one else came back to say which one was wrong.

It's possible that a Win98SE machine might be "Mac Safe" - i.e. nobody cares enough to bug you, but I haven't seen anything very recent on numbers of users still up, and even Apple recommends that Macicists use an AV. A year ago, 90%+ of the remaining Win98 machines were reported being in China (it was the most recent thing then with minimal export controls). It seems now that most of the Chinese have bootleg WinXP - or Vista - so '98 may be dwindling there too; and they're not likely to have much since use of the government issued (and monitored) AV and ISP software is "strongly recommended."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Win 98SE
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 08:45 PM

I'm thinking of installing it on a Mac, using the Sun emulation layer What I intend to do is make sure it NEVER, EVER gets to access the Internet. I only have a use for it for one piece of software, the Turkish music software package Mus2okur - anything else I want to do, and in particular anything that needs the Internet, can be done as well or better on MacOS without having to bother with antivirus crap, and a lot cheaper.

Maybe you could do something similar with Linux sitting underneath.

Subject: Tech: Win 98SE
From: GUEST, RIchard Bridge on the computer I'm about to
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 05:20 PM

I just lost (temporarily) a battle with WinXP on a new computer I was given (had an argument with it about passwords, I lost, then about domains and networking, then it locked me out, password crackers not gettin me in - going to have to format C and it came with no XP disc, but was running pro although the Product key on the case is for home - hmm - Product key recovery disc not arrived yet...)

Anyway I've put up a relatively ancient computer on that terminal now - Athlon 2000, and with the W98SE rather than the XP on my main machine (An Intel 2600) it seems to run like greased lightning.

But so far the only free antivirus I can get that still runs with W98SE is Avast. The last version of AVG that did so is no longer supported.

Open to suggestions of what I might want to put on this thing that still work with 98SE!