I’m not entirely sure how anyone would find a definitive answer to this question but maybe someone knows.
What would be the oldest computer set-up still used for connecting to the Internet?
I’m not talking about a recent modification that allows a C64 etc to browse the web but an old computer that still works and is still connecting to the net after x amount of years.
Thanks,
An Gadaí
I used to have a Gateway p100 running win95 at work that was on the net regularly as long as 2 years ago. Some sites would not work due to lack of support for various security/browser plugins in IE 4 IIRC. That machine was like 12 years old.
I suspect there have been modifications in software at least, but I know people who stubbornly connect to the web using Amigas they bought in 93/94.
Still, Amigas were cool.
I own an amiga. I never connected it to the 'net though. 
I imagine there’s a fair amount of old DEC equipment out there.
Me neither, but I did connect one to BBSs quite regularly in the early 90s.
Certainly not because I was downloading inappropriate material as a teenager, obviously…
My thought, too. The OP said “PC”, but then said “oldest computer set-up still used for connecting to the Internet”, which would seem to admit terminal based mainframe environments from the days when the VAX 780 ruled the world. I’m sure there are older systems than that still connected to the internet, too. But there’s probably a measurable number of minicomputer era machines still running.
There’s at least one web server out there that’s running on a Commodore 64, as I recall. Dunno if it’s still up, though.
Given my experience with Universities, old machines are hardly ever scrapped – they are transferred to another, less well-funded project when the original project gets new machines.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to find that some of the original computers on the ARPANET are still around in those universities, and possibly still connected to the net.
The OP asks about “PC’s”, and ty were mainframes of the time, but their capabilities were less than current PC’s, so maybe they’d count.
I did say PC but I suppose minicomputers and mainframes are fine too.
I would…
I cut my teeth on PDP-11s, PDP-10s and Vaxen in the 1980s, and doubt that any university still has these on site (except maybe for historical purposes). The cost to run and support them would be too great, especially considering what can be done with a cheap PC these days.
486’s could run Windows 95 just fine and therefore can connect to the web. The first ones were released in 1989 and I know some of them are still in use although I am not sure how many 1989 models are.
My granddad died two years ago, but at the time of his death, aged 92, he was running a CompuServe client on a 486 with Windows 3.1. He couldn’t surf any, but he could send and recieve email.
I’m sure its not any kind of record, but I, just 10 minutes ago, retired a P1-133 that was running Windows 95. According to the service tag it was shipped in June of 1996, and we’ve been using it to browse the web pretty much daily during the 9 years I’ve been here.
My oldest PC is a Dell OptiPlex GXa, Pentium II MMX, 384 MB RAM, which I use to dual-boot DOS/Win3.1 and Windows 98, and it does just fine online when I bother to turn it on. According to Dell’s web site, it shipped 5/27/1998.
My brother uses my old Compaq 4160 running Windows 95 it was purchase in June 1997. Some Web pages take forever to load but still runs fine.