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What is the slowest computer you have had on the internet

J

jjzcp

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2005
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on the bald a$$ prarie
What is your oldest computer you have, or had on the internet? This include the type of processor and MHz of the processor. My oldest computer on the internet is an AST 486 50 MHz running win 95, and a 14.4 kbps modem. In fact i am using it to post with right now.
 
Depends what ya mean by "on the net"? I used to use a "shell account" at the ol' Detroit Free Net, and I would sometimes login with my TRS-80 Model 100, but that was operating as a "dumb terminal" and not really as a computer (the ghawds of the GDFN had the M100 termcap installed on thier server).
OTOH, until just recently, I had an (1987) AOL 5.25" floppy for the Apple II, but I've donated it to a (future) museum. I know one of my friends has been on daNet with his Apple IIGS many times before.

--T
 
If you mean with some kind of browser, then I had a Compaq laptop with a 386 proc@20mhz and 12mb ram online. Do BBS dialing count? I used a Tandy 1000 once for that. If I really tried and dug up all the disks, I could get my T-1200 "online" to do some telnetting or something like that.
 
Back when the net consisted of machines using uucp to exchange email and net news
I had a Sony SMC-70 (4 MHz Z80, 64KB RAM, dual 268KB floppy drives)
running David Goodenough's UUCP software for CP/M.
Do I win? ;)
 
ahm said:
Back when the net consisted of machines using uucp to exchange email and net news
I had a Sony SMC-70 (4 MHz Z80, 64KB RAM, dual 268KB floppy drives)
running David Goodenough's UUCP software for CP/M.
Do I win? ;)
Click to expand...

Kewl! Where can I get a copy? Is it on the CD?

--T
 
a guy at my work has a brother who just stopped using his TI99 a few months ago, and was using it for practically everything, including getting his e-mail etc..

i wish the guy had taken pics of his setup, because it sounded pretty wild.

chris
 
I have used a stock C64 on the internet with Contiki (web browser, server) connected via Retro Reply + RR-Net. No serial port, just directly connected to my router. :D

Cheers,

80sFreak
 
I had an old Toshiba T4400 SXC the processor and modem speed is not known but I used Windows 3.11 and some random version of Netscape.

-Vlad

EDIT: I found it! It has a 486 of some sort. I might run a program to give ma a system report later to find out the specs... At a blind shot in the dark, I would guess the modem at being 14.4 or 28.8 Kbps.
 
You have to make a distinction here.

Using a computer as a terminal to something else really shouldn't count. For example, my PCjr makes an excellent serial terminal to a Linux box, but it really isn't 'on the net' when used like that.

On the other hand, my PCjr running telnet over ethernet would count. Not that telnet is that strenuous, but having a TCP/IP stack and using ethernet makes it far more complicated.

If you take it to a different level, having a machine serve as a client vs. a server is another distinction. A PCjr using telnet as a client is relatively easy. A PCjr running an ftp server is more difficult. A PCjr running an http server is possible, but sloooow ...

I wouldn't count any solution that uses a 'mothership' machine to do any of the processing. It has to be all native.
 
The C64 with Contiki has a TCP/IP stack with either web browser, http server or telnet all in 64K.. Plus it is written almost entirely in C.

Cheers,

80sFreak
 
And you won't see many computers clocked below 1 MHz, so that one might be a winner (although the RR-Net does a bit raw Ethernet package handling and acts as a buffer, IIRC). Sometimes it is said that 1 MHz 6502 equals 3 MHz Z80, but that is a figure that appears only in computer wars. Also, I'm not sure which 8080 or Z80 machines were clocked below 3 MHz.

Personally, I have only been online in the WWW era. The slowest telnet PC would be some 386-based PS/2. The slowest browser PC would be either Compaq ProLinea Net1/33 (AMD 486SX2/66, later upgraded to 486DX2/66) or Apple Mac LC475 (68LC040/25).
 
Re: What is the slowest computer you have had on the interne

Re: What is the slowest computer you have had on the interne

"jjzcp" wrote:

> What is your oldest computer you have, or had on the internet? This
> include the type of processor and MHz of the processor. My oldest
> computer on the internet is an AST 486 50 MHz running win 95, and a
> 14.4 kbps modem. In fact i am using it to post with right now.

For Web Browsing I got my 386sx-16Mhz Laptop to do some. It had 61Mb Hard Disk, DOS (used Arachne Web Browser), initally I just had running on 1Mb, but upgraded it to 4Mb (which was far better) & 14.4kbps modem (although I think it would have been slightly better with a 28.8 for picture downloads) - but it was managable.

Also had OS/2 Warp v3 on a 386DX-33Mhz, but none of the Web Browsers were at all good for viewing web pages. The Best Web Browser for OS/2 Warp was Netscape (which needed a 486 for some reason - did anyone here get Netscape working on a 386?). I had a 486DX2-66Mhz, put 16Mb on it & with Warp & Netscape it worked a charm.

CP/M User.
 
I have browsed the web a few times looking for drivers using a mac IIfx (68030 40Mhz 32MB RAM) and a 386/40 with 32MB RAM.

Those two machines would be the slowest ones that I have tried getting on the web to browse.

Anything pre 386/68030 would be very slow trying to browse the web in my opinion.
 
"Unknown_K" wrote:

> Anything pre 386/68030 would be very slow trying to browse the web in
> my opinion.

Really depends IMO. I mean there's obviously websites out there which I
was questioning performance wise when my Pentium based machine was
my main computer (uptil Oct last year), I'm still on Dial-up & it's slightly
limited when it comes to downloads - but some sites simply go too far for
this.

Though in terms of software I think if something can be written within
reason for viewing webpages on anything downto an 8bitter - it's
feasable. Text-Based browsers seem to be the think a few years back
with XT-Based machines - slightly limited, but still it's the web! ;-)

CP/M User.
 
Slow computers can do google searches, and older websites but anything newer requiring SSL , flash, magor graphics, etc will either not work at all or take forever.


My older Macs are limited to IE4 while my Win 3.1 machine can use IE5. I find Netscape to be buggy unless you have quite a bit of ram. Having an up to date browser is sometimes more of a problem then having a fast machine.
 
Oldest Machine In Clock Speed - Micro Configurations Corp 0A XT Clone, running on a 30 MB RLL hard drive, with MS-DOS 6.22, and Net Tamer through a 33.6K external modem, sucking through an 8250 Serial card.

Slowest Machine By Modem - 1987 Zenith SuperSport 286/12 laptop, 2400 Baud Modem, Net Tamer, took FIVE MINUTES TO LOAD YAHOO! SEARCH!

Slowest Machine that had Graphics Viewable - 1986 Compaq Deskpro 386/16 running DOS 6.22 and Arachne on a 14.4K Modem.

Oldest Windows Internet Surfing - Creeping Net 1 - Flight 386 SX w/ 486/33 CPU, DOS 5.00, and Windows 3.1 in 16 colors running AOL 3.0 through an 8250 Serial to a US Robotics external v.90 56K faxmodem.
 
Unknown_K said:
Slow computers can do google searches, and older websites but anything newer requiring SSL , flash, magor graphics, etc will either not work at all or take forever.


My older Macs are limited to IE4 while my Win 3.1 machine can use IE5. I find Netscape to be buggy unless you have quite a bit of ram. Having an up to date browser is sometimes more of a problem then having a fast machine.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's been pretty much my experience too. I can get on daNet with EI 3.-something under 95, but I cannot access websites that require SSL (like eBay, my credit cards, or bank account). I haven't even figgered-out how to d/l a newer version of IE (just won't work, for some reason. Every time I click-on "download", it just cycles me back to the "homepage".).

--T
 
Terry,

I have IE 5.5 SP2 and IE 5.5 SP2 update (84.5MB and 2.55MB respectively). Not sure if they'll work on Win95 as I've only used them on Win98SE, but I can make them available for FTP if you want them.

EDIT:

Confirmed, they both work on Win95. Took a while to install 'em on the old 486 :D

Browsed this website perfectly whereas a fresh install of Win95b will not.

Kent
 
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