4 ms·

This is really a nice point. My parents' home computer is about 12 years old. They have a Windows XP machine, which is too basic to install Windows 10, so even

by sn41 6y ago

This is really a nice point. My parents' home computer is about 12 years old. They have a Windows XP machine, which is too basic to install Windows 10, so even upgrading Chrome and Firefox is not an option. (They cannot use Linux, let us not go there.) Many websites don't load because the desktop supports only legacy SSL, which the server (rightly, if it is serious about SSL), does not support. However, I feel that the point that the author makes about many websites not needing SSL is to the point. The author seems to suggest the right approach, since it leaves the choice to the user.

anthk 6y ago
k-meleon supports XP. http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmeleon/files/k-meleon/75.1/K-Meleon75.1.exe/download http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmeleon/files/k-meleon/75.1/... Older versions of Otter Browser too, I think. https://sourceforge.net/projects/otter-browser/files/otter-browser-1.0.02/otter-browser-1.0.02.zip https://sourceforge.net/projects/otter-browser/files/otter-b... Uncompress it in a folder, and run.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
I was running into similar problems running OS X 10.9. What I eventually did was set up a proxy server which MiTMs all https traffic and re-encrypts it. This totally worked, suddenly reviving all sorts of apps that I'd thought were broken forever. Since other people were also having this problem, I ultimately put together a nice little installer. It's very Mac-focused, but if you have access to a Mac, you could extract the pkg to see how Squid (the proxy I use) is configured: https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/wowfunhappy-https-proxy.dmg https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/wowfunhappy-https-proxy... It's probably not worth the effort to set up something like this for your parents, but I do think these sorts of proxies are a good (if imperfect) solution for old systems. You could plausibly set them up at the router level too.
userbinator 6y ago
Proxomitron can also do "SSL upgrade" thanks to OpenSSL, and being a MITM is useful for the usual things like adblocking and custom page styling. That said, an IE6 user agent connecting to a TLS 1.2-only site showing up in server logs is probably a source of amusement and perplexion for some...
Ayesh 6y ago
Have you tried Firefox 52 ESR? it no longer received updates, but it should work on XP (SP3 at least), and supports TLS 1.2, which almost every site should support nowadays. It should work fine for a while until we gradually move to TLS 1.3+ exclusively, and there is no deadline set for that.
- sn41 6y ago
  I will try this, thanks for the suggestion.

by sn41 6y ago

anthk 6y ago

k-meleon supports XP. http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmeleon/files/k-meleon/75.1/K-Meleon75.1.exe/download http://sourceforge.net/projects/kmeleon/files/k-meleon/75.1/... Older versions of Otter Browser too, I think. https://sourceforge.net/projects/otter-browser/files/otter-browser-1.0.02/otter-browser-1.0.02.zip https://sourceforge.net/projects/otter-browser/files/otter-b... Uncompress it in a folder, and run.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

I was running into similar problems running OS X 10.9. What I eventually did was set up a proxy server which MiTMs all https traffic and re-encrypts it. This totally worked, suddenly reviving all sorts of apps that I'd thought were broken forever. Since other people were also having this problem, I ultimately put together a nice little installer. It's very Mac-focused, but if you have access to a Mac, you could extract the pkg to see how Squid (the proxy I use) is configured: https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/wowfunhappy-https-proxy.dmg https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/wowfunhappy-https-proxy... It's probably not worth the effort to set up something like this for your parents, but I do think these sorts of proxies are a good (if imperfect) solution for old systems. You could plausibly set them up at the router level too.

userbinator 6y ago

Proxomitron can also do "SSL upgrade" thanks to OpenSSL, and being a MITM is useful for the usual things like adblocking and custom page styling. That said, an IE6 user agent connecting to a TLS 1.2-only site showing up in server logs is probably a source of amusement and perplexion for some...

Ayesh 6y ago

Have you tried Firefox 52 ESR? it no longer received updates, but it should work on XP (SP3 at least), and supports TLS 1.2, which almost every site should support nowadays. It should work fine for a while until we gradually move to TLS 1.3+ exclusively, and there is no deadline set for that.

sn41 6y ago
I will try this, thanks for the suggestion.