Windows ME Networking

[cpressland2]

Hey there,

My boss loves his old Windows ME box and tomorrow we're finally adding a network card to it so we can use Dropbox on it (I hope)

Anyway, question is, how the hell do I get Windows Me to actually detect and use the network after adding in an ethernet card? I can handle drivers and all that, but in my experience Windows 9x was never very good at handling IP addresses and such.

Any tips you guys can give me so I don't make an ass of myself tomorrow.

Thanks

[Colin-uk Veteran]

probly better to give it a static ip imo.

[cpressland2]

Well, thats not a problem, I can do that!

But in the past i've setup 9X systems in a VM and networking is a royal pain, nothing is automatic and it doesn't seam to support TCP/IP out of the box.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

I used static IP's on my win98se machine and they seemed to work ok.

dont remember having to do anything specific :)

[cpressland2]

I used static IP's on my win98se machine and they seemed to work ok.

dont remember having to do anything specific :)

Cool beans, nice one mate, wish me luck :)

[C:Amie]

You're thinking of Windows 95. By default 95 installed Netware and NetBEUI but not TCP/IP. Millennium supports TCP/IP by default when the network browser service is installed. What it doesn't do by default is file sharing, you need to add that manually.

You might want to get it on windows update, get the latest flash plugin etc on there for security if he plans to take it anywhere near the internet.

[semifamous]

Ya. Does Opera run on ME? Because I know that IE7+, Firefox 3+ , and Chrome don't.

[panicswitched]

wow man burn that box nothing current is going to run on it and if i recall ME was full of memory holes?

i htink youll only get Ie 6 working on that beast maybe a old version of firefox 1.5 or something

[C:Amie]

I just installed it in a ME VM, opera 10 seems to work fine.

Edited September 18, 2009 by c e 3 2 0

[Southern Patriot]

But in the past i've setup 9X systems in a VM and networking is a royal pain, nothing is automatic and it doesn't seam to support TCP/IP out of the box.

Windows has supported TCP/IP out of the box since Windows 95. If you had a problem setting it up in a VM, it was more than likely a problem with the VM settings.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Cool beans, nice one mate, wish me luck :)

good luck ;)

[Rob Veteran]

Static IPs are the way to go - I know in theory Windows Me doesn't have a problem with DHCP but in practice it takes out some of the hassle. If your network's relatively stable you shouldn't find too many problems.

[Madoshi]

Opera works on Windows Me perfectly. it will also work on 98 but the theme engine may get screwed up due to a missing or outdated DLL (don't remember which)

Firefox 2.0 will work on 98 SE or newer

the latest Firefox 3.5.2 does not install on 98, the installer crashes. i am thinking it would do the same on Me

Opera over Firefox whenever possible. Opera is incredibly lightweight. ran it on my old ThinkPad 560Z... thats 98 SE and 64 megs of memory, on a 300mhz Pentium II

as for installing the NIC, make sure you have a flash drive or CD or floppy with the Me drivers on it. 98 SE drivers will work as well. drivers specifically written for 2000 Pro or XP will NOT work

before you do anything, make sure you have a Windows Me CD. it WILL ask you for the CD when it goes to install the networking components that are not installed by default on a networkless machine. if you do not have the CD ready and insert it when asked, it will fail to install these components and then you will be stuck with a NIC that appears to be installed but doesn't work.

once it is installed, DHCP will work perfectly. remember, Me is a 9x system so there is no ipconfig command. instead you can run a GUI utility called "winipcfg" at the Run prompt. it has buttons that control the DHCP functions Release and Renew

one note, it will take longer to boot if DHCP is enabled and there is no network attached. if you plug in the cable after you boot, you will probably have to do a release and renew via winipcfg. you may even have to reboot once or even twice

you might want to invest in a lightweight antivirus program and do the last of the Windows updates. but i don't really think it will harm if you do not bother with this step. "security via obsoleteness" might be enough

and before you consider ANY of this, be warned that even if you do everything right, it still might end up being botched or not working at all. if you can, i recommend Ghosting the machine's hard drive first

Wolf, yer friendly DOS/Win vet

[lars77]

Yeah, looks like the current version of Firefox only supports Windows 2000 and up.

For what it's worth, Seamonkey still supports Windows ME.

BTW, you know that Dropbox app is only supported on Windows XP and higher, right? Do people use it on WinME anyway? Oh, actually maybe you meant just using the Dropbox website?

[lars77]

Sorry, scratch that, the new version of Seamonkey that just came out dropped support for Windows ME.

[still1]

kill your boss..... :D he is old school...

[Xenomorph]

Yeah, Dropbox lists Windows XP as a minimum.

It may work on 2000, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I bet it won't be able to function AT ALL on Windows 9x/Me. Many apps now simply require the kernel of NT5+.

Lets look at things in perspective:

Windows XP is the minimum requirement for Dropbox. That came out over EIGHT years ago.

Is your boss really using a system so horribly outdated that it can't run XP?

You can get a budget system for around $200 that should run XP great.