Using NT4 & IE6

[Sonny100]

Hi all,

I have a customer who has been experiencing various intermittant issues over the past few months. They access a web application which occasionally acts strangely (doesn't return a value from a call to a web service, doesn't update/refresh a page when it's supposed to, intermittantly logs a user out etc).

I've ran dozens of tests remotely, including getting them to set their Caché setting to 'Always reload the page', this apparently slowed down the browser SO much that it became unusable. But, when we done a speed check, their net speed was about the same as mine (around 6mb download), so it's not the connection that's the problem.

I knew that they are running IE6, but I found out today that they are also still running under Windows NT4! Could this be a cause of some issuses?

The web app that they are using was built with C# .NET less than 2 years ago....

 

[Alvin.C]

Hi,

Whoaa NT4's been unsupported for a long while now for it to still be in use!

Is it Windows NT4 Server or Workstation Edition that's installed? Is there any particular reason why they're still running NT4? Also, what are the specifications of the system?

My strong advice would be for them to upgrade to a newer operating system, especially since the system is connected to the Internet. Major security flaws were found in NT4 which could not be patched by Microsoft.

For the meanwhile, have you checked to see that the latest service pack is installed (including the Post-Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a Security Rollup)?

 

[Sonny100]

It's Workstation edition that they're using. As far as i'm aware, they have the 'latest' SP.

TBH, i'm not too familiar with the history of NT4 (I was only 13 when it was released!), but I was suprised myself that they were still running this. They all have Pentium 4's with 500mb RAM.

The site that they are using, and having issues with, is only accessed over the net, nothing locally installed. I can access the site from where I am, and never experience any issues with it.

They just seem to experience random errors when using the site (none of which are application related, as we would see them consistantly). No error logs are created, and we cannot replicate any of them....was thinking it may be something to do with them being on NT4 still.

 

[Hefemeister]

I would get them off of nt immediately. Especially if they are using these machines for business. Let them know of the risks of using a unsupported OS online and it should be a no brainer for them.

 

[oldskool]

I agree, and not to mention NT 4.0 doesn't have the same level of security as the newer Server OSes as well.

 

[KSoD]

The biggest thing is this. Microsoft has not patched IE6 since they started to force IE7 out via Windows update. So that means that for at least 2 years now there has not been a patch to the most holy browser ever created. I dont mean holy in a good way either. I mean the holes in it are so large, even the biggest aircraft carrier the USA has could go through them.

They need to get not a platform that gets updated.500MB of RAM can run XP at a decent speed. They should update to it immediately.