Protoweb - Reviving the '90s Internet! (Overview & Demo)
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- Опубликовано: 11 апр 2025
- Today we're exploring Protoweb - a web restoration project with a goal of bringing old '90s-era websites back to working order!
Protoweb: protoweb.org
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● Music/Credits:
Background Music:
"By the Fireplace" from the RUclips Audio Library
"Dispersion Relation", "Acid Jazz" and "Airport Lounge" by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech...
Outro Music: Silent Partner - Bet On It
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Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.
#MichaelMJD #90s #Internet
Hello!!! I’m one of the people that’s helped restore sites for protoweb. Thank you so much for checking it out!!!!
You, sir, are a legend.
@@ryuunosuk3 I don’t personally think i am, but still thank you so much!!!
Thanks buddy
That's cool. How exactly is this done?
@@UncleUncleRjsorry for the late answer lol, but basically how it works is that all of the sites are individually pulled from the wayback, and then restored one by one, fixing images, links and downloads
The retro community is the gift that keeps on giving. To the mad lads doing this, seriously, thank you!
Yes tested
I have a soft spot for old web advertisements. They were entertaining and not as predatory as current day web advertisements. And yes I am aware of popups, I don't miss those.
Succesfully punch three moving monkeys to win a free college degree!
Pop ups are still everywhere, especially on Mobile
Bonzi Buddy has entered the chat
This is a wonderful project. I am the President of a nonprofit that works to archive and support writing groups. Seeing web archival expand further and grow. I love these sorts of projects. Thanks MJD for showcasing it.
The people behind this deserve donations they're legends for this. They are literally rebuilding the Internet (in a way)
It’s like the internet archive but better!
i wish we could use both at the same time
Its like artistic implementation of old internet, as opposed to a real historical archive, even though it may not fully work
@@retrocompaq You can with either two computers or an install of say Windows98 running in a virtual machine.
@@retrocompaqprotoweb uses IA for non-archived sites
@@superviewer I feel like someone could make a extension for that to be allow.
If there's a way to spread this, get people back into old forums and stuff, it would be so nice to be able to mostly switch over and just get rid of modern sites as much as possible. It seems so peaceful to just have what you want to find without all the agressive noise of the modern day internet...
Oh man I want this, this needs to happen, we need to recreate what was like being online in those days in its entirety including how social interactions were back in the day, it would be cool if everyone in those forums acted like it was still 1998. It would be the perfect way to escape the horrendous modern Internet.
Hey, I know at least 3 still alive forums like that. One of them works since 1995.
@@AJ-po6up Oh man, bring back the old ICQ, that was fun! :D
You know too well that the quality of the internet is driven by it's content, and thus, it's creators.
Switching back to old tech won't make it good if it's the same people that use it...
Took the words right out of my mouth. This project needs to be expanded and safeguarded from corporate intervention.
This is an absolute dream. all it needs now, for me at least, is a way to set the date so that we could replicate this setup for the early-mid 2Ks on XP/Vista machines. _That_ would kill me off with a flood of nostalgia.
But with them having to manually restore all of this, I absolutely do not blame them for sticking to a single date region!
No, it's not been long enough, 90's internet was horrible..a very recent memory
Ah yes, the pop up porn ads era.
@@XwaD666 Damn straight, I'm still wondering where all those hot singles in my area are.
@@flynick It's over 33 years.
@@XwaD666 The '00s were well known for that, especially 2001-2005!
We need the old internet back! No annoying popups, ads, or other hogwash! Just straight-forward tasks done!
This is *awesome*. The more completely we can archive the old net, the better.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
@@brodriguez11000 Have you tried Flashpoint Infinity? They've archived a ton of Flash games, and you can play them offline.
@@crescentfreshsongs As much as I love flashpoint infinity, it will never recreate going to some sketchy sleazy ass website like Free Online Games and make my computer obtain 30 STDs just from loading a flash game.
@@jackedup447coolmathgames newsgrounds
@@Big.Joe.Grizzly Exactly. or like addictinggames or maxgames or some shit lmao.
Your visuals are so pleasing to look at. That pristine Dell and awesome floppy disk wall! Awesome job!
Agreed
Imagine watching a modern RUclips video on the RUclips from the late 2000s/early 2010s. I will literally use that MORE than the regular RUclips 😂
In late 2000 RUclips was a slideshow on unlimited Internet, or it can waste a serious share of monthly limit. The first time I saw, it was madness! You guys try to transfer video over the Internet? Unthinkable.
I recall putting downloads into FlashGet queue. 4Mb file was big. FlashGet was busy with such downloads for a while. And there was a RapidShare where you were forced to download the file from scratch if download fails. I had to try again and again. 4Mb is a death sentence. Single noncontinuous download will fail.
In the middle of that we have got RUclips that tries to embed video on web page and don't even let to save on disk and share via local network. Who it was made for?
15 years later, local networks died, GreyLinkDC++ died, personal computers which may run GreyLinkDC++ are dying, and RUclips is here, stronger than ever.
the customtube extension exists
@@OCTAGRAM Sounds like you had dial-up! Even with 56K, you will notably have to wait for a 4 MB file. When I finally got ADSL2/+ in on May 17, 2007, I was excited! Then in 2009, I was able to record in 720p, which was a luxury at that time, even when I got a good camera without it being expensive. The only con was that uploading HD took forever on ADSL2/+, LOL.
@@RJARRRPCGP I only had Internet in university campus via Squid with 24kbit/sec limit, but due to overload it worked like 16kbit/sec. In another campus the Internet was fast, but costly. 7 cents per Mb. I was literally counting pages I visit. In summer I returned to home, and there was no Internet at all. There were ADSL and FTTB Ethernet ISPs in my building, but just not in my flat. Parents were strictly against the Internet and they were doing their best to prolong the damage in time. Only affordable 3G ruined their stupid despoty. First 3G was unstable, but there was just no other option.
This is awesome. I have been thinking of making something similar, but this project is even more impressive with the live updates for the weather and Runescape. This is basically a classic WoW server for the internet. This is awesome for those of us who want to experience the web without all of the distractions that come with modern day internet.
The amount of work I can imagine they put into that is impressive. Love to see it develop.
Old internet browsers and websites have a unique charm, it's not just nostalgia more so a sense of personality and creativity that you don't see often in modern internet, where everything is flat and corporate.
Okay, the weather and radio stuff is pretty cool. I actually prefer that UX for the web radio selection over modern sites so… dang
What? You mean you don't like having to download an 8MB Javascript bundle just to view the weather?
I have the source code for a social media website from 2000-2001. It was made by a chewing gum company that's now long gone. Could be fun to restore and bring that back! It had profiles (with HTML enabled. Lot's of marquees there!), posts, direct messages, journal, a weekly joke contest, a score system where the more active you were the higher up in the "Bite Tower" you "lived." Unfortunately the database has been lost to time, but it can be reconstructed from the ASP sources.
Interesting
Upload it please
Please upload.
Upload it
please upload it
i love this. it fills me with joy to know that against all the odds, there is people working hard to preserve and archive the contents of the internet we love
Can't wait to try this on my G3. I had a similar setup with a raspberry pi as the reverse proxy but the advantage there was that I could set the preferred year. For my part, I'm more into the 2001-2006 era of the web but that doesn't mean this isn't an awesome diversion.
To really relive that mid-90s internet, there really needs to be a proper NNTP archive for newsgroups that retains further back than what most active usenet services do. The UsenetArchives are pretty comprehensive, but I wish he'd implement a way to access it through a mail client.
When I hear that “Hello everybody and welcome back to another video”, I know this is gonna be a good time.
Just the other day, I was thinking the Web of the 90s was so much easier and simpler to what we have now. Hardly any advertising! Compared to the nagging pop ups and video ads that follow you, whilst scrolling up and down a page.
I was feeling quite nostalgic.
Now, coincidently, I see this video in my RUclips feed.
Thank you for sharing it I'll be checking out Protoweb ASAP.
Oh, it had popups. So so many popups. And pop-unders, which were even worse. That's the reason browsers today don't let web pages open a new window so easily.
"Hardly any advertising"?!?!?? it was the dark ages of abundant pop-ups that would crash your browser and computer. And there was no ad-block back then it was hell.
@@compteprivefr Different advertising. Annoying, certainly - but it was just shouty-annoying, doing whatever it took to get your attention because the ads were so vaguely targetted. It took years to set up the infrastructure and design the algorithms needed for the all-pervasive tracking and profiling that advertising depends upon today.
@@vylbird8014 Oh but I much prefer the ads we have today. Less obnoxious and more "smart". I actually see ads for things I like once in a while.
This is what we've been missing for truly browsing archived websites. It's like that missing piece that makes it actually work, it's really impressive
This is so relaxing to watch for some reason. Brings me back to simpler times I guess.
This is incredible! I'd honestly love to see a website that sort of mirrors RUclips videos onto a website built for old web-browsers. It'd be pretty neat!
This needs to be expanded, This seriously might be our only chance to create an internet that isnt a corporate nightmare without the programmed stigma that's been artificially attached to TOR/I2P.
I love the floppy disk wall you have as a background.
I just got the internet working on an PCem windows 3.11 system. Setting up this proxy just enhanced my nostalgia 10x! Thanks a million for sharing this!
This is a very exciting project. I'm glad there are people actively working on this, very awesome 👍 and great video as always!
Thank you so much for posting this video, and thank you to these developers. This is exactly what I have been looking for so I can use my vintage computers like back in the day. I still need to try a actual modem for more nostalgia but this is AWESOME
Wow, I'm amazed they went that far! That far exceeds my expectations!
13:48 I like how radio stations from my country have been show (Romania)!
I love when Michael MJD uses that song at the beginning, I feel like is the main music theme of this channel
Would be pretty cool to see this running on a old console browser like the Dreamcast.
yesterweb works on WebTV, which isn't a console but it's definitely not a PC
I wonder what browsers would be supported.
I share that same opinion, it would be a dream. Believe me, my friend, one day it will be possible.
This project is soo cool, especially for the Microsoft website and Windows Update xD
Imagine a themed public ARG hidden location behind a weird time portal looking thing, and you have to access “lost media” on a 90’s computer like this. The potential is out there!
Pretty cool. Those were simpler, and I think generally better times compared to the mess we live in today. Awesome video.
love this channel full of information and fun facts and brings memory back
You know you did great if your project of the 90s/00s is in a Michael MJD video
This is lit ngl !!
It's nice that you mentioned Realarcade at 11:35, Speaking of RealArcade, Maybe One day you can make a RealArcade Overview Video, since i did once, and there's also a archive project of RealArcade Games Called "RealArcade Games Preservation Project." RealArcade Games Preservation Project has Archives of Special Realarcade installers called . rgs which was known as "RealArcade Game Installer" it can install the game on the RealArcade Client Software. I was one of the contributors of RealArcade Games Preservation Project. Other than that, Awesome Video you made about Protoweb.
I wish we could have a separate web for old PCs.
Well, the internet is just a giant computer network. What's stopping us from making that if enough folks want it badly enough
@@izzyj.1079 internet is filled with firewalls and other poop that doesn't allow too old stuff
That’s kinda what this is trying to be, it works better on older PC’s than newer ones. They allow you to create new sites also
Not exactly what you were wishing for, but check out the Gemini protocol.
That's exactly what this is.
Dude! This is so cool!! I'm going to try it on my Windows 98 PC! I'm always careful with what I try in it when it comes to Internet access as I don't want to get malware or anything like that, but this seems really safe and cool!
This project is awesome! I just tried the Protoweb browser and it's really like I just went back in time, they've done a great job at restoring the older versions of websites and making them functional. I really hope they also restore websites from the 2000s eventually, as that is what I grew up with. It'd be the ultimate nostalgic experience for me!
I love how excited retro internet/tech fans get about checking the weather on their retro devices lol
I was just as excited to do that on my modded wii. this video was so fun!
The old internet experience seemed to be more often about finding new sites (in that it was common to see a set of links as a main link within the site) instead of sites doing everything to keep you on the platform.
I remember finding many interesting sites via the links page. Usually on small sites
Nice. They're really recreating the feel of the 1990s Internet, perhaps minus the busy signals!
Be nice to see the 2000s internet imo
@@Sicbay138 exactly
Duuude, that is super awesome! Many thanks for the video, more of such stuff please!
I absolutely love how it restores the actual browsing experience of that time period, where links actually work, you can search the 90’s google or yahoo and get time appropriate results.
It’s not just individual webpage screenshots that you have to manually find the exact link to and put it into an archive website and manually put in the date, and links don’t work, you can’t use search browsers, blah blah blah.
Thank you so much for this video, Mike! I installed my .NET frame-work, got ProtoWeb working, and installed Winamp to listen to some Big Band-era music live on my Windows 98 computer. Ahh, life is good.
2:25 - I could actually set a wirespeed limit to less than a megabit within the router itself, haha :D
Definitely some nostalgic memories kick in
I love the dedication the creators had towards this, I always wanted to be able to stream live radio or videos from an old computer even though I only have Pcem right now.
this is one of the best channels in youtube. you deserve 10 million subs.
I love the floppy disk wall.
I would definitely test it if there were also German sites, because without them, the nostalgic feeling of revisiting sites from the early 2000s is simply missing (for me).
German Webzeits
Protoweb project is not
only allowing to restore old websites but also we can now create new retro websites as we already create retro games ! 😅😊
In other news, you just got me into Halt and Catch Fire, can't put it down now, thanks Michael!
Wow makes me so nostalgic. Looks amazing
This will be the best exhibit at any museum. Just have an few dozen iMac proxied through this. We can show the kids what it was like.
Basically, this is a game changer because I’m the type of person where I can just listen to the radio all night and I’ve got tons of vintage computers so I can just run my good old windows 98 computer and listen to the radio on winampand I’m absolutely happy with that😅
Plus, this should work really well with that copy of Windows XP black that’s been floating around and then you can just have it dual boot windows 98 or 95
It has to be period-correct music imo.
Oh man, the nostalgia is real with this one. This project definitely looks like a massive undertaking but I think it will be worth it.
Thanks for randomly showing off that Runescape site! I had an account somewhere but I couldn't remember the site. It happened to be in this video!
i really hope someday we can get something similar for the 2000s internet, theres a lot of stuff id love to experience that way
Sweet project!
Thanks for giving visibility in this nice video
Thanks for recommending Halt and Catch Fire! People really need to watch this show if they're into old tech, and the sound track is awesome!
Very cool! I’ve been using it on virtual machines - from Windows 98, NT 3.51 and Windows 3.1. Can’t wait to get an old Compaq 486 and set it up specifically to use this!
this is awesome, i'll definitely check it out when i have the time. thank you for sharing!!!
Awesome video, Michael!
You know it's a good day when MJD uploads
Thanks! I am using my old win95 disc installed on Virtualbox and browsing like the old days again... Groovy!
I love the wallpaper on your computer
Ah, the good ol' days of skeumorphic design. They just don't make user interfaces like they used to anymore... Thanks Protoweb, for showing us the old web again.
Nice, I like the Comet reference. I also love that show and noticed it before you even said anything! :D
12:44 WOOO BUFFALO MENTIONED LETS GOO
I have a 2TB Archive of Geo Cities from then. Loads of nostalgic content.
I like the internet of the 90s, it was more efficient, fast, and straight to point.
Me too 😮
This is so cool exactly what I needed for a challenge I’m trying to do. Would be so cool if they got RUclips to work
Absolutely awesome. Superb for old computers.
Takes me back to when I was in engineering school.
Did anybody else notice how good and clean and user friendly the W95/98 Windows theme was, compared to the Metro BS we have to get along with since Windows 8? 😕
Okay grandpa. Time for bed.
As as avid user of the wayback machine this is so cool. What a great project!
I was not expecting to feel so much nostalgia.
the throwback is unreal
I'm now optimistic that, in the not too far future, we'll be able to navigate the web exactly as it was back then.
This pretty cool. Thanks for sharing!
You legit keep pumping out great content
Is something I’ve always wanted to create. But didn’t have the know how, Created a functioning geocities clone instead. Great video. Thanks for letting me know about this site :)
Wow this is amazing. Tried this morning in one of my Pentium pcs and worked like a charm, this even redirects the shortcut on the Windows 98 blue wallpaper that shows when activating Active Desktop to the original Win98 page! xD
Wooooow Shoutcast! I had a lot of fun with that! :D
I used that to stream music to listen with my friends at same time.
OMG, I just found my favorite YT channel!!!🎉
just getting into it, i can see its gonna be awesome
This is really cool. Another thing I must do if I ever build my dream 98/2000 machine.
This is absolutely awesome! I’m definitely checking this out later today!
The scrolling marquees really brought me back in time
This is so freaking cool! This is what I wanted for a long time. Hope they make a mid-2000 version with the newer version of RuneScape(the one I played)
I don't see a reason why it couldn't extended into the mid-2000's. Although some may disagree, I feel the 'old internet" ended around 2010 with the rise of smartphones and social media so anything prior to that should be fair game.
This is SO COOL! Also @LGR we have a Cool Crab sighting!
Interesting had no idea this project existed.
I got it working on my Windows ME VM and on my Windows XP VM! Very cool! Reminds me of the early 90s...
I got this to work on my 3DS's internet browser! :D
The best part about this is you can basically guarantee that anything you visit on this browser is safe. I mean, it's fake obviously, but using an old computer on the internet is almost always just a pure security risk. I like that this takes all that away because every site you visit has to be hosted by them to show up
So IS it really safe? Serious question, because I'm about to put a W98 computer in my infra with this cool Internet browsing method, but I don't want to destroy my other machines.
I used to stream music with Shoutcast back in 2006ish :) Someone explained it on a forum I visited and we (members of the forum) took turns being DJ for a few months. Great memories and I found a lot of cool music