LCWeb, a 68k web server

[Taidixiong]

Hi, all. Thanks to some help I got through this forum, my old Mac LC is now live as a web server. It can be found at http://lc.daveki.ng/

I'll be working on the content slowly (I'm planning to bang the whole thing out in HTML using SimpleText on the LC itself), and it may be down on occasion as I make tweaks and changes to the setup.

Ideas on what to host on it are welcome! I love making old machines do new tricks.

 

[Scott Baret]

Awesome work!!

 

[joshc]

I'm planning to bang the whole thing out in HTML using SimpleText on the LC itself

May I suggest considering BBEdit or PageMill instead? Way more features and geared up for editing HTML pages.

 

[blturner]

Now my list of webpages served by LC's is two! http://elsie.zia.io

My first family computer was an LCII which my parents' still have. I got it recapped last year, so next time I visit I've got a project waiting for me.

 

[Taidixiong]

Cool! That one is interesting 'cause it's running BSD and has been overclocked and upgraded. Seems like they put a lot of work into it, and the result is something truly unique. Mine is a bit simpler, running OS 7.5.5 with only an upgraded 10MB of RAM and an 80MB hard drive (It was using the stock 40MB, but that hard drive bit the dust so I ordered a replacement which happened to be 80MB).

Good luck with your LCII, looking forward to seeing it online! The setup is pretty easy, but if you need any advice send me a message.

 

[iantm]

I'm curious about 68k Macs ability to browse and use email services. Do modern email services work at all, because modern security protocols just aren't supported by old software? How feasible is it to even write software for System 6/7 to support any of that?

Not that I need to use my SE/30 for such things… but it would be pretty sweet if it could, even if it were very slow at it. That's sort of the point.

 

[nathall]

I used to use my IIfx exclusively (Eudora) for all my email. That stopped 8-10 years ago. At least. I can’t answer any of your questions about feasibility, but I’d love to find a solution to still use my 68k machines in that capacity with my gmail account.

 

[iantm]

ChatGPT seems to think it’s possible with a raspberry pi as an intermediate:

1. SE/30 running System 7.1 + Eudora 1.5 + MacTCP.
2. Ethernet connection to your LAN.
3. Raspberry Pi running stunnel and fetchmail, configured like:
   • fetchmail grabs mail from Gmail via IMAP+TLS.
   • stunnel offers a plain POP3 port to your SE/30.
4. You point Eudora at raspberrypi.local, port 110 (POP3), username/password as normal.

I don’t totally understand all of that but it’s intriguing enough to look further into it.






And voilà — real email on a 68k Mac, even in 2025.

 

[cheesestraws]

Yes, you'll need some kind of proxy, though as usual it is wrong about how to actually go about it.

Personally I'd look at using fetchmail + courier-pop3 or similar to basically set up a mail proxy.

Could someone in theory build a modern encryption stack etc for 68k? Certainly. Would it then work badly? Also yes. There just isn't enough CPU in those machines to do modern cryptography etc. So you want an offboard proxy.

 

[iantm]

That got me thinking if that was even the point for me, i.e. do I really want my email on my retro machine? The purpose for me was to be distraction less. So maybe I'll try tackling it for the technical exercise at some point. But I'd rather get the quiet machine running to just stand alone.

 

[joshc]

The purpose for me was to be distraction less.

Computers are distracting so it's best to keep away from them if you want any peace in your life.

 

[Mk.558]

I'm curious about 68k Macs ability to browse and use email services. Do modern email services work at all, because modern security protocols just aren't supported by old software? How feasible is it to even write software for System 6/7 to support any of that?

Web browsing is limited to an increasingly smaller and smaller number of websites. System 7 Today has a list of sorts.

FTP still works, to a very short list of still public FTP servers. One of the ways I check if my machine has TCP access out is to FTP to ftp.belnet.be, a public Linux server.

IRC also still works. Email, as others have indicated, requires a proxy helper machine. Gopher works surprisingly well.

 

[iantm]

Good to know! It's far more likely I'd may keep it all internal to my home network, which would still be fun. I don't really have the means to deal with security when it comes to these things and keep it insular is the next best thing to keeping it all turned off in a closet .

I hope to tinker with the Mac Toolbox and write some fun cooperative diversions for 2+ machines over a LocalTalk network. Just because.

 

[adespoton]

There's a number of different web proxy solutions available now, an XMPP client or two (which can do IM if you have a modern XMPP proxy), modern AIM and ICQ servers, and I seem to recall someone recently ported a TLS library to 68000 code for use in System 6 and later. As such, there's already an SSH client that works on a Mac Plus.

I remember back in the day, I had two ways of connecting to the Internet on my Mac Plus: one was using ZTerm to connect to a remote terminal, and the other was running a PPP server within that account and then connecting MacPPP (or one of the others) over the established connection to use Eudora/NCSA apps natively. But Eudora also worked in terminal mode.

All that to say, even back in the day, there was only a VERY short window when most 68000 Macs got on the Internet with their own MacTCP session; usually it was easier just to use a proxy (the remote terminal) and XMODEM/YMODEM/ZMODEM copy any files down, or send as text.

Plus, you could run your eggdrop IRC bot on the remote session, and it would keep you connected when someone picked up the phone in the other room and brought down your 1200 baud dialup link.