Need IE 5.01 56-bit (NOT SP1 or 2)

Does Anyone Have it?

[zengolfer]

I've been trying for WEEKS to locate this browser.

It's no where to be found- MS won't let you have it anymore from what I can see and any links I've found on the web let you download an installer which points you back to MS which tries to give you IE 6.

I legitimately need this browser to test a fix for the bug that causes IE 5.01 56-bit users to get a "Page Cannot Be Displayed" message when accessing my SSL pages which use 128-bit Global Encryption (on Apache 1.3.27 server, Linux RH 7.1). I have a decent # of users still using the browser- I tell them to upgrade but they don't

I've tried restoring my browser, ripping out the current browser from the OS, reformatting my machine and starting from Windows 2000 CD which supposedly has this version (I guess I have an updated W2K version with 5.01 SP1 or 2 which both changed to 128-bit) to no avail.

Can anyone help?

[Oaf357]

Um... of course there's going to be an error. Your page uses 128-bit and their browser only has 56-bit.

[DrDoc]

Oaf357 is right...

In any case, here's a nifty browser archive [browsers.evolt.org]

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[browsers.evolt.org...]

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I guess they'll just have to upgrade then... Just make sure you present them with a well formed error page explaining about encryption etc.

[zengolfer]

FYI- the whole point of global 128-bit certs is that it WILL normally step down to 40 or 56 bit browsers. That's the whole point- it allows you to protect everybody up to the maximum level they can handle.

There's just a bug in IE 5.0 56-bit where the step down doesn't work but there's a fix that modssl/apache recommends to put in your httpd.conf file to bypass the problem. This is what I need to test and I can only do it by using the 56 bit browser.

[zengolfer]

I forgot to mention about 128-bit global certs- they allow everyone to connect at their maximum level of encryption WITHOUT penalizing the folks who have upgraded to 128-bit browsers.

By that I mean if I wanted to play it safe I could have gotten a 40-bit certificate (with is stupid to do these days) but then the folks with 128-bit browsers are not using their browsers to their full potential.

[zengolfer]

Thanks DrDoc for pointing me to the archive... I found the version and now with the cipher fix (explained at: [modssl.org...] click on "Why do I get I/O errors with MSIE Clients) in Apache's httpd.conf file, people with 56 bit browsers can connect fine to my secure server which uses a 128-bit global cert!

For anyone curious for a solution who's encountered the problem of not being able to find/install old MS versions:
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I had to resort to reformatting the machine wiping out IE 5.5 128-bit (it looks like you can only go up with browser bit strengths not down). I reinstalled 98 with 5.0 40 bit. From there I downloaded 5.01 (the original was 56-bit) from the browser archive site. Note SP1 and SP2 went to 128 bit.

I unplugged myself from the Internet so the installer wouldn't attempt to connect to MS and force me to the 128-bit version. After unzipping the install files I merged the files for 5.01 56-bit into the directory with the 40-bit files (as you'll notice there is no simple way to uninstall previous installs of IE 5+ because it is so tightly wrapped into the OS).