Loband: web fat trimmer for limited clients.

[Bunsen]

I just randomly stumbled onto this, designed for low-bandwidth links in the developing world. I figure if it works for that, maybe it'll work for our little boxmacs.

http://www.loband.org/loband/

Loband is a service that simplifies web pages, in order to make them download faster over slow Internet connections. Loband is designed to run on a server in a high-bandwidth area. Users in low-bandwidth areas browse to the small Loband website, and then request the site they want to view. Loband then downloads the site, reduces it in size, and then sends it on to the user. /
Loband requires no software download to function, works on most websites, and is automated and open-source.

You just go to the Loband page (at the link above) and type in the URL you want to see. I've tried it out in my current browser (FF on XP) - so far it's working really well. Instant early-90s web Just a plain page of text and blue links.

So - anyone with a networked classic or early Powerbook want to give it a go and tell us how it works out for you?

[Unknown_K]

Seems to work great , will try it out on one of the IIfx next time I am in the lab.

[protocol7]

It does the job ok, but it's hard to navigate and read some sites when everything is just dumped on the page.


MacWeb 2.0c/System 7.1.1/LC III

I don't think you could browse the modern web like this. But if you're just looking to check up something or download a file it's definitely handy.

[Bunsen]

It does the job ok, but it's hard to navigate and read some sites when everything is just dumped on the page.

Tsk, you young'uns with your fancypants "graphics" and "images" and "javascript" That WAS the web back in the day. Get off mah lawn!

[classic]

Brilliant!
Reminds me of the times I used to surf with Netscape 2.0.2 (with images and javascript turned off)
The way the web should be I think.
An information repository and not some overhyped tv/picture book

[protocol7]

Well, I'm not that much of a young'un but even when I did start on the net pages looked better than that. Some kind of formatting would help.


And maybe some horizontal rules and bullet gifs...

[Unknown_K]

I think it is perfect for doing web searches for text and file based content on old machines (information and files). Keeps you from having to fire up a much faster machine all the time.

[CJ_Miller]

This is extremely cool. It seemed obvious to me that some such thing would exist. Looks like the offer source too? Maybe retro-computing nuts can use it to make custom filtered proxies for their home networks.

[highlandcattle]

Looks nice but maybe I'm missing something here, Why not simply use the Wannabe webbrowser?

[zuiko21]

The big limitation of Wannabe is that it doesn't support text fields (web forms) at all, thus no way to login anywhere...

Without proper cookies support, it won't get too far anyway, but I could *manage* (note the effort) navigating thru some sites that requiere login. Unfortunately, I couldn't post on this very site thru it

(BTW, this is sent from a Quadra 700 with Netscape 4.0.4)

Cheers,

[tomlee59]

Another limitation of wannabe is that it does not run on 68000 Macs ("68K" does not automatically include the 68000, sadly). Loband on the Plus looks mighty attractive. I'm not near a Plus at the moment; would someone like to give it a shot and report back?

[jonathan]

here's a test of loband with Mac Web 1.1.1E/System 7.0.1/Plus:

[Bunsen]

Nice! I assume it's read-only, ie, you can't write a reply or enter text into the search field?

[jonathan]

yes, it does allow you to enter text into search fields, and hit hit enter! however, i wasn't able to login to the 68kmla forum -- must be something with a secure connection not possible via loband.

[MassiveBarry]

My SE likes this.

Browsing is noticeably faster, plus the addition of some sites I couldn't view at all before (ERR: too many redirects)

[jonathan]

I'm sending this in with telnet 2.6 -- which is really an amazing program.

Edit: here's a picture.

[macquarium]

Neat idea, though when I used it to see if it would log into Facebook I got a phishing warning and then Facebook kicked up a stink about someone trying to log into my account from a 3rd party site. eBay completely stalls. Twitter craps itself. Various newspaper sites are quite usable though.

Definitely a handy tool to have if you have to access a non-old-Mac-happy website for whatever reason, though fortunately most of the good resource and download sites have been specially designed to work with HTML 3 at 512x384 in 1-bit color

Cheers, Ben.

[Bunsen]

Ben?

[macquarium]

That's what my mother called me...

[Bunsen]

Oh, I thought you were referring to me for some reason. You'd be surprised at the variations on "Bunsen" that show up

[macquarium]

Heheh no worries. For a second there I thought you knew me from my time in Melbourne a decade ago.

Do they still have those Mac trader fairs at the uni (can't remember which one) that they used to have years back? I think it was iMug who held them. They were cool... I remember buying an armload of LocalTalk boxes for a fiver and having to pass on a sweet 5400 because I rocked up there with my motorbike.

Cheers, Ben.

[Bunsen]

The AUSOM fairs at Swinburne or Whitehorse TAFE in the eastern suburbs? Yeah I remember them well. I made out like a bandit at one of those, coming home with a stack of free 3-slot and no-slot Mac II-series that were going to be dumpstered at the end, as well as a SCSI-Ethernet device and a LabVIEW SCSI I/O thingumajigger.

Now I have this picture of a 5400 strapped on to the pillion passenger seat of your bike

[macinbot]

This seems pretty useful for passive viewing, but maybe not participation if there log in problems. Looks pretty cool though.

[markyb86]

I'm sending this in with telnet 2.6 -- which is really an amazing program.

I know this is off topic and older than dirt, but is there a howto I cant seem to find on using telnet to browse the web?

[mcdermd]

Is that actually using loband or using telnet to log into a different machine then using lynx or some similar command-line browser on the host machine?