The 90s

Did you lot miss the opportunity to browse the web when sites looked more like they belonged to hobbyists rather than billion-dollar companies?

If then, a gratis proxy service called TheOldNet brings back the starting time of the Internet by causing every web page you lot visit to be returned from a specific year between 1996 through 2012 rather than its current version.

A proxy server is an application or remote device that acts as an intermediary between your spider web browser and a website you would like to visit. Instead of your browser connecting straight to the site, it sends the request to the proxy server that connects to the requested site on your behalf and sends back its response.

The TheOldNet proxy server does things differently by assuasive you to specify a connection port between 1996 and 2012, representing the year you would like to display all web pages. This causes the proxy server to render archived copies of any site y'all visit from Archive.org for the specified year and the current month.

In one case configured, the spider web browser volition display every website y'all browse to as it was in the specified year.

Using this service yous can visit the start popular search engine, Yahoo.com, in all its 1996 glory before Google existed.

The first popular search engine, Yahoo.com, in 1996
The showtime popular search engine, Yahoo.com, in 1996

If search engines are not your thing, you can change the proxy port to 1997 and see how the Apple tree.com website looked in 1997 when y'all could preorder Mac Os 8 or learn more about the Apple eMate 300 personal digital assistant.

Apple.com as it looked in 1997
Apple.com every bit it looked in 1997

Maybe gaming is more than your thing, with Electronic Arts website from 1997.

Electronic arts (ea.com) website from 1997
Electronic arts (ea.com) website from 1997

Utilise the TheOldNet proxy service in Windows x

To use TheOldNet, you need to configure your web browser to use a proxy server, which depending on the browser, could be done in the browser'due south settings or via the operating system.

For example, Chromium-based browsers on Windows practice non use internal settings merely instead rely on the operating system's proxy settin

Therefore, to use TheOldNet on Windows 10, you need to click on the Offset Menu, search for proxy, then select the 'Proxy Settings' option.

Once the Proxy settings screen opens, curl down until you run across Manual proxy setup and enable the 'Employ a proxy server' setting.

Now enter theoldnet.com in the address field, a port number between 1996 and 2012 (representing the year you wish to browse), and specify that you wish to not utilize the proxy server for 'web.annal.org,' as shown below.

Windows 10 proxy settings
Windows ten proxy settings

When washed, click on theSavebutton, and Google Chrome will now be using Windows 10's configured proxy settings. If you configured the settings shown above, any spider web page you lot visit would now be displayed as if it was 1996.

While using this service, nosotros recommend using it in incognito fashion so that cookies for existing domains are non sent with requests to a website through the proxy. While in that location are no reports of malicious activity with TheOldNet, it is always improve to be safe than sorry.

When browsing the web, y'all may find that websites practise not be, which is likely because they actually didn't exist in that particular year. You can always change the port to a different year to observe when the site went live.

TheOldNet is a fun service that allows you to get lost for hours as yous encounter how websites looked in the past and the products and data they were offering at the fourth dimension.

Be warned, though, as y'all use this service, you will find it becomes a time sink as you lot go a sense of nostalgia for days gone by.