Access Web Sites with WorldWideWeb.app/Nexus.app?

Hi all,

(I thought about putting this in the "Emulation / Virtualization" forum, but there seemed to be several "WorldWideWeb.app" posts in this forum, so here I am.)

This is my first post here. I have recently gotten Previous 3.8 compiled on Devuan GNU/Linux 5. I am running NeXTSTEP 3.3 currently. SLiRP seems to be working (I nslookup-ed a domain name successfully--oh also, OmniWeb was able to load http://www.frogfind.com/ (http://www.frogfind.com/) and http://info.cern.ch/ (http://info.cern.ch/)).

Also, I've successfully run various versions of 'Nexus.app' and 'WorldWideWeb.app.' These are from the "Infinite HD" disk image ( https://github.com/mihaip/infinite-mac/blob/main/Images/Infinite%20HD%20(NeXT).dsk.zip (https://github.com/mihaip/infinite-mac/blob/main/Images/Infinite%20HD%20(NeXT).dsk.zip) ) from https://infinitemac.org/ (https://infinitemac.org/).

So far, I haven't successfully opened any website or remote document in those apps, which is what I want to inquire about. Nothing from the mothership, http://info.cern.ch/ (http://info.cern.ch/), even loads, including the "world's first website" that they have up at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html (http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html). I'm guessing it's something to do with HTTP 0.9 vs. 1.0 vs. 1.1 and that perhaps the old TBL apps don't understand what any current servers are sending back to them, but that's about as far as I got in my thought process.

I really, really want to get the TBL apps working so I can give demos to high school students of what the Web was like in its earliest days and let them play around with that system as well. Does anyone have any ideas on what to try or past success with loading websites with 'Nexus.app' or 'WorldWideWeb.app?'

Thanks!
"robertson"

I ran into this issue with cern (and w3c) recently when running early versions of Arena on SunOS. They're using Cloudflare now which seems to block these old browsers.

Alas, Cloudflare strikes again. (I know there are significant pros and cons to using it; it's just very sad that vintage browsers seem to be the roadkill ignored on the highway shoulder as a result of all this.)

Do you have any suggestions on sites that can be accessed using 'WorldWideWeb.app'?

Well, here's a quick update. On a different 'Net connection with less firewalling (long story), http://info.cern.ch/ (http://info.cern.ch/) now returns the following to 'WorldWideWeb.app' 0.16:

QuoteHTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request    Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2025 16:25:06 GMT    Server: Apache    Content-Length: 226    Connection: close    Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1   

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

(Screenshot available upon request.)

This suggests to me that the old-school TBL programs don't speak HTTP 1.1. Additionally, this may have nothing to do with Cloudflare. Am I on the right track?

And one more update, just for the record and breadcrumbs:

Using 'WorldWideWeb.app' 0.16 to visit http://boglin.iwarp.com/ (http://boglin.iwarp.com/) (link found in this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/caezeo/web_10_era_websites_which_are_still_maintained/ (https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/caezeo/web_10_era_websites_which_are_still_maintained/) yields this ironic response:

Quote

HTTP Error 601

You have reached this page due to an error. Possible explanations are:

• Your browser is not able to handle virtual hosts.
• Your browser is not cookie enabled.
• Consider upgrading to a newer browser.

Go get a real browser and come back soon! -->

(Screenshot available upon request.)

QuoteGo get a real browser and come back soon!

The nerve! :P

And one more breadcrumb for the record:

Confirming what protocol7 said about w3.org, when I try to visit http://www.w3.org/Protocols/ (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/) with 'WorldWideWeb.app' 0.16, it returns this (screenshot available upon request):

QuoteCloudflare encountered an error processing this request: Bad Request

Cloudflare, I shake my fist at you! (Old Man Yells at Clouds)

I know there are some kind of proxies to allow old retro browsers online. Mostly heard about these in retro Mac circles. I never dug into them as it wasn't something I had much interest in doing. I only bumped into this issue recently when looking at the early Arena releases.

Maybe something like this (https://github.com/tenox7/wrp) would work?

There was a 2019 project at CERN to recreate WWW.app in Javascript, here (https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/). Catastrophically it no longer works, which is really disappointing as they did an eye-watering amount of very unnecessary work hand-tracing the bitmapped versions of all the fonts and converting them into TTF.

It looks like this page (https://http.dev/0.9) (and moreover this page (https://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/AsImplemented)) comprehensively describes the protocol format that WWW.app expects. Needless to say, writing a proxy for it is dead simple. I might be able to set something up using Apache and a reverse proxy.

Thank you both for the replies and ideas for further exploration.

Rhetorica, yes, I was aware of the 2019 CERN recreation and am pretty bummed that it doesn't currently work. I actually e-mailed web-team@cern.ch (web-team@cern.ch) about it a few days ago, but have gotten no response. The "Line Mode" project (https://line-mode.cern.ch/ (https://line-mode.cern.ch/) and https://line-mode.cern.ch/www/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html (https://line-mode.cern.ch/www/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html)) was also down at the time I e-mailed, and I told them that too. I'm not sure if my e-mail helped or not, but the Line Mode emulator is back up and running. Its failure state was very different than the WWW2019 failure, which persists, as you've noted. (If the 2019 project were still running, I might not have given as much time to what I've been trying to do in the Previous emulator. Read on. :D)

Meanwhile, after much floundering, SUCCESS!

I was testing various sites and getting a bunch of "400 Bad Request"s from HTTP 1.1 servers. Then I thought to myself, maybe good ol' Cameron Kaiser of https://www.floodgap.com/ (https://www.floodgap.com/) fame is running a web server that will not shun poor ol' 'WorldWideWeb.app.' [WWW 0.16 henceforth]

Pointing WWW 0.16 to http://floodgap.com/hello (http://floodgap.com/hello), with the intent of triggering a 404 and thus a simple web page sent back, yielded this:

Quote

Not Found

The resource was not found on this system.

httpi/1.7.2 (nano_inetd_turbo/AIX) by Cameron Kaiser

What's this?! A proper 404! This server is actually communicating with this browser! The "httpi..." text is actually a link, so following that led me to http://floodgap.com/httpi/index.html (http://floodgap.com/httpi/index.html), which (drumroll please...) ACTUALLY LOADS A WEBPAGE!

HTTPi, it turns out, is a webserver written in Perl by Dr. Kaiser himself. https://www.floodgap.com/httpi/ (https://www.floodgap.com/httpi/) (which I typed into WWW 0.16 as http://floodgap.com/httpi/index.html (http://floodgap.com/httpi/index.html) to avoid the "Permanently Moved" stuff (and to avoid typing www.) states:

QuoteWhat is HTTPi?
Hypertext Tiny Truncated Process Implementation (say HIT-uh-PEA) is a miniaturized, extensible, and HTTP/0.9, /1.0 and /1.1-compliant webserver written in pure Perl[...]

So, it can talk to WWW 0.16. (The date on HTTP 1.0 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1945 (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1945)) is May 1996, so I'm generally convinced WWW 0.16 (dated 1990, 91 in the "Info/Panel..." is speaking HTTP 0.9.)

Again, thank you for everyone's replies, which gave me ideas and inspiration to keep trying, and have given me further ideas to keep exploring.

Screenshot #1: My first proper 404 in WWW 0.16.
Screenshot #2: The first webpage I got to actually load over the "Net in WWW 0.16.

---

Quote from: robertson on July 23, 2025, 11:15:27 AMAlas, Cloudflare strikes again. (I know there are significant pros and cons to using it; it's just very sad that vintage browsers seem to be the roadkill ignored on the highway shoulder as a result of all this.)

100% I'm using my IBM Thinkpad T43 Windows XP at the moment as my main machine (I'm using the library computer here) and I can't connect to hardly any websites. Javascript tracking has slowed everything down, I can't get past cloudfare as my version of fire fox is too old. New moon is ok but all the javascript adverts slow it down and privacy badger doesn't work on such an old version so the modern web is useless. Neocities still works. I've had too leech all the files of the site via archive.org.

  I use my NeXT Answers signature as a bookmark (Because the date is from 1997) and then just put the modern site I want to access instead of next.com and it pulls the latest copy on web.archive.org from 1997. Also the wifi keeps booting me off my laptop :/. I'm just glad I can access @Rhetorica 's website ok on it. :).

Quote from: Rhetorica on July 23, 2025, 05:42:34 PMThere was a 2019 project at CERN to recreate WWW.app in Javascript, here (https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/). Catastrophically it no longer works, which is really disappointing as they did an eye-watering amount of very unnecessary work hand-tracing the bitmapped versions of all the fonts and converting them into TTF.

[....]

I finally found what appears to be the source code of this "CERN 2019 WorldWideWeb Rebuild" project: https://gitlab.cern.ch/nexus-project/nexus-browser (https://gitlab.cern.ch/nexus-project/nexus-browser).

(It was linked from the last day of the development diary: https://remysharp.com/2019/02/18/cern-day-5 (https://remysharp.com/2019/02/18/cern-day-5), which is linked on the "Production Process" aka "Production Details" page: https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/production/ (https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/production/).)

I'm tempted to attempt the quixotic task of getting it to run, perhaps even on a public server somewhere. Perhaps someone else may be interested? On the other hand, there is no licensing information that I can find, which gives one pause.

Thanks again for all the replies, everyone. I have a quick update on the CERN recreation of 'WorldWideWeb.app.'

A member of the CERN web team replied to my e-mail last week! He was grateful and apologetic. It sounds like my e-mail may have helped prompt them to get the Line Mode simulation running again, or perhaps they had already been working on fixing it.

Further, he noted that they were also working on rebuilding the 'WorldWideWeb.app' recreation, and he hoped it would be running soon, basically (I'm paraphrasing). I checked it while writing this reply, and it wasn't working yet. Hopefully it will be soon, though!

Lastly, this reply from the CERN gentleman gave me a little spark of that 1990s Internet feeling I've heard about, i.e., "I got an e-mail from a guy in Switzerland! Furthermore, he works at CERN! This is amazing!"