Newer Browser Needed for Some Web Sites

[98 Guy]

I am a big fan of Win98se, and I use FireFox browser V2.0.0.20.
For 98% of my web browsing, this is fine. However, if I want
to place an order at www.amazon.com, I have to use FireFox V3.6
in my WinXP computer.
Note: FireFox V3.6 is incompatible with Win98.

I don't know if FF 3.6 runs with KernelEx installed.

I assume you are familliar with KernelEx.

Do you know of any type of web browser, compatible with Win98,
that I can use at www.amazon.com to place orders, as well as
www.youtube.com?

If you don't already have (or if you won't install) KernelEx, then
you're shooting yourself in the foot by handicapping your win-98 system.

With KernelEx, you can run Opera verion 11.61 on your win-98 system. I
use Opera 11.61 for any website that doesn't function properly using FF
2.0.0.20.

You might want to install the FF add-on "User Agent Switcher" and set it
so that it makes your version of FF-2 appear as a newer version of FF.
That might be all you need to do to get Amazon.com to function properly.

[98 Guy]

Do you know of any type of web browser, compatible with Win98,
that I can use at www.amazon.com to place orders, as well as
www.youtube.com?

You do know that this is THE single most often asked question in
this group?

I wouldn't necessarily say that. But it is frequently asked (and
answered - mainly by me).

I won't say what my answer is because I'm certain that no-one's
going to listen to it anyway.

To my recollection you've never given a proper answer to the above
questions in the past.

I've already explained that youtube:

1) wants you to be using flash 10 at a minimum, and if you don't
want to get a nag message you should be using flash 11.

2) wants to be seeing you using IE6 or FF-2, even though FF-2 works
just fine with youtube, and I've already explained that the
"user-agent switcher" add-on will give FF-2 the ability to appear
as if it's anything you want (specifically, a more recent version
of FF) which will satisfy youtube such that you won't get a nag
message.

And I've already explained how to install Flash version 11 on a win-98
system.

Just read the past 7-days worth of my posts here in these win-98
newsgroups.

[Lostgallifreyan]

Post by 98 Guy

You do know that this is THE single most often asked question in
this group?

I wouldn't necessarily say that. But it is frequently asked (and
answered - mainly by me).

Well, that was one reason I didn't. :) The other being that if I mention
OperaUSB v10.63, things usually get into another long discussion about
browsers in general, and I really don't want to go there...

[none]

Post by 98 Guy

Do you know of any type of web browser, compatible with Win98,
that I can use at www.amazon.com to place orders, as well as
www.youtube.com?

You do know that this is THE single most often asked question in
this group?

I wouldn't necessarily say that. But it is frequently asked (and
answered - mainly by me).

I won't say what my answer is because I'm certain that no-one's
going to listen to it anyway.

To my recollection you've never given a proper answer to the above
questions in the past.
1) wants you to be using flash 10 at a minimum, and if you don't
want to get a nag message you should be using flash 11.

Hmmm, I'm using FF2 (Bon Echo v2.0.0.22) on YouTube and do not see a Flash
NAG (using Flash v10.0.45.2), have NEVER seen a Flash NAG. I -DO- see a
banner saying "Your browser is not supported by YouTube and it needs to be
updated. Learn more." And BTW, what's with FF saying Flash 11 is MALWARE?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/

I won't go near Flash 11

As far as FF2 and Amazon ... I use it constantly (order from Amazon a lot).
No problems!

[none]

Oh, one last thing; I use BoA (financial) and have ZERO problems with their
website accessing all my account info (eg. business, personal, CC's etc).

I -DO- have problems with one site (which really bugs me), it's an iHeart
site:
http://www.iheart.com/#/live/2149/?autoplay=true

If anyone can figure out how to fool iHeart into allowing FF2 (and even 3.0)
into playing I'd appreciate it!

[98 Guy]

Post by none
I -DO- have problems with one site (which really bugs me), it's an
iHeart site: http://www.iheart.com/#/live/2149/?autoplay=true
If anyone can figure out how to fool iHeart into allowing FF2
(and even 3.0) into playing I'd appreciate it!

Just FYI - my default browser is Firefox 2.0.0.20.

I posted this earlier in either this thread or some other related
thread. The answer is to use the fire-fox add-on "User Agent Switcher".

It adds an option on the Tools drop-down list that in turn opens up a
list of alternative user-agents. The list contains all manner of
web-devices, from search robots to smart-phones to mac and PC-based
browsers. I frequently set firefox to report that it's "Googlebot 2.1",
but I do find that some sites (web-forums) don't seem to like that one.

I visited your iHeart site with my user-agent set as default, and I got
this page:

http://www.iheart.com/help/not-supported/

I then changed the user-agent to "Googlebot 2.1" and got what appears to
be the main or default page.

Download link for user-agent switcher add-on for firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

Or try this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/

After it's installed, click on this link:

http://techpatterns.com/downloads/firefox/useragentswitcher.xml

Then click File, Save Page As, and save that page somewhere.

Then click Tools, Default User Agent, Edit User Agent, Import, then
select the XML file you saved in the previous step. Then click OK.

Then close all firefox windows and restart firefox.

Go to Tools, Default User Agent, and select the user-agent of your
choice. For example, try Browsers - Windows, Firefox 3.0.10 (XP). Any
website you visit will now think you're running Firefox 3.0.10. Your
browser will now appear to other websites as Firefox version 3.0.14 and
you won't get any more nags.

If you want to test it to see if it works, go here:

http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

The user-agent switcher has the quirk that it won't keep your custom
user-agent setting after firefox is shut-down. To fix that, open
Firefox, and in the address bar type about:config (enter). Right-click
somewhere in the white space and select "New - Boolean". Enter
useragentswitcher.reset.onclose for the preference name, and select
false for the value. That's it. Now set your desired user-agent and
that setting should stick.

[none]

Post by 98 Guy

Post by none
I -DO- have problems with one site (which really bugs me), it's an
iHeart site: http://www.iheart.com/#/live/2149/?autoplay=true
If anyone can figure out how to fool iHeart into allowing FF2
(and even 3.0) into playing I'd appreciate it!

I visited your iHeart site with my user-agent set as default, and I got
http://www.iheart.com/help/not-supported/
I then changed the user-agent to "Googlebot 2.1" and got what appears to
be the main or default page.

98 Guy, before trying the addon and configuration routine, does iHeart audio
play when you access the page? I manually changed a about:config setting to
make FF2 look like v4. iHeart's page then loads (no 'not supported' redirect
page) BUT the audio will not play! After a short while, maybe a minute, a
screen pop's up saying there was a streaming error. I've tried fooling
iHeart with FF2 on multiple PC's but none ever play iHearts audio. Do you
hear audio?

[98 Guy]

Post by none
98 Guy, before trying the addon and configuration routine, does
iHeart audio play when you access the page?

I hear no audio when I bring up their site or try to navigate it.

I have a lot of entries in my HOSTS file that is messing up the
formatting of their main web-page and (probably) the general
functionality of their site. I'm not able to do much when viewing it
using FF 2.

I have Opera 11, and I can get further into the site, but when I try to
play a radio station, I'm geo-blocked (I get "streaming playback error -
the iHeart radio service is only available in the US).

If you have a non-US IP address, then it won't work for you either
(without using a proxy).

Sites like that are heavily advertizing-dependent, and I'm not surprised
that it renders and works so badly on my system.

Interestingly, that site doesn't like any version 3 of Firefox. I have
to set my user-agent to FF4 in order to not get the "not supported"
page.

[Sanity Clause]

Post by 98 Guy

Note: FireFox V3.6 is incompatible with Win98.

I don't know if FF 3.6 runs with KernelEx installed.

Yes, it does. I'm using 3.6.24 at the moment, with KernelEx 4.5

Post by 98 Guy
You need to update it. What you've got is really old.

Just DL'd 4.5.2. I'll install it later.

[Lostgallifreyan]

Post by 98 Guy
You might want to install the FF add-on "User Agent Switcher" and set it
so that it makes your version of FF-2 appear as a newer version of FF.
That might be all you need to do to get Amazon.com to function properly.

Proxomitron is also worth a mention here. You don't have to use all the
complex web filters and popup stoppers, browsers are often good at this now,
but it really pays to use it for generic header stuff like user-agent,
referrer, and also to control cookies. If you have a large hosts file, it may
be faster to browse with Proxomitron because it has regular expressions which
a hosts file does not, so you can reduce entry counts by blocking whole
domains while allowing specific exceptions, all with a single entry. To block
banners, it may be better to use a browser's own filter because it's easier
to make the browser 'learn' than it is to write RegEx, but even then it may
be possible to convert a browser's blocklist fairly efficiently to Prox,
which might then handle it faster, and with cleaner page rendering.

I meant to reinstate Proxomitron here, but haven't yet, but I have been
thinking about the most efficient way to use part of what it does in
combination with the browser, and the above stuff is some of the thought I
had about that.

Prox also optionally handles HTTPS, but it's probably better not to, as some
sites will refuse to serve secure pages if they think something is decoding
them between server and viewer.