Browser options for older iMac

[afd]

My Dad has an older iMac with 10.6 installed., which he only uses for photos and occational internet use. Lately, with some secure sites he has been getting blank screens with "too are not connected to the internet " errors.
Is there some way to update Safari security certificates or change to a more up to date browser? I thought of installing Firefox, but would probably need an older version and am not sure that the iMac would cope with using Chrome.

 

[chscag]

Firefox would be your best choice if your dad is still using Snow Leopard. You might want to advise him not to use his iMac for any kind of financial browsing such as accessing his bank, etc. Apple no longer provides security updates for Snow Leopard. BTW, if you mention which iMac your dad owns (year and model) we might be able to tell you if he can update to a later version of OS X.

 

[afd]

Thanks for reply, I think it's a 2007 iMac and last time I checked it could only jump up a couple of OSs and wasn't sure whether it would be worth doing. A new Mac (or PC might be on the cards).

 

[CoastalOR]

Thanks for reply, I think it's a 2007 iMac and last time I checked it could only jump up a couple of OSs and wasn't sure whether it would be worth doing. A new Mac (or PC might be on the cards).

If it is a 2007 iMac then you can go up to 10.11.6 (El Capitan).

El Capitan is also available from Apple as a free download since you are upgrading from Snow Leopard and can not install Sierra:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886
It may operate a little slower than you like. If that doesn't suit you then you could try Mountain Lion (10.8.5), which can still be purchased from Apple. Let me know if you need the link.

Make sure you have a good backup before installing in case it doesn't go well or you don't like it and you want to revert. I would recommend making a clone backup. This is important!

 

[afd]

Thanks for that, I'll need to check which iMac and OS he's on next time I'm over. I looked into it last year and don't think it would upgrade to El Capitan, but will check again.
[doublepost=1489527833][/doublepost]I've just looked at MacTracker, it must be a late 2006 iMac. It is a 17" one and I seem to remember it being a Core 2 Duo. So looks like it could only go up to 10.7, would that version of Safari be recent enough to cope with secure browsing?

 

[CoastalOR]

I've just looked at MacTracker, it must be a late 2006 iMac. It is a 17" one and I seem to remember it being a Core 2 Duo. So looks like it could only go up to 10.7, would that version of Safari be recent enough to cope with secure browsing?

Sorry I can't answer. I left 10.7 in 2012 and no longer have a system with 10.7 to test for you.

EDIT:
Here are some threads in the Lion forum that might help:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/best-web-browser-for-10-7.2018761/#post-24009134
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/10-7-5-lion.1992557/

 

[chscag]

Thanks for that, I'll need to check which iMac and OS he's on next time I'm over. I looked into it last year and don't think it would upgrade to El Capitan, but will check again.
[doublepost=1489527833][/doublepost]I've just looked at MacTracker, it must be a late 2006 iMac. It is a 17" one and I seem to remember it being a Core 2 Duo. So looks like it could only go up to 10.7, would that version of Safari be recent enough to cope with secure browsing?

If it's a 2006 iMac Core 2 Duo, then Lion is as high as he can go. And I believe that version of Safari will not work for secure browsing. Best bet is to stick with a Firefox version which does provide for a measure of security.

 

[presenta]

The main problem with older browsers is that they don't support TLS v1.2. You need Safari v7 or later (macOS 10.9+). However, there are other browsers that support TLS v1.2. On Snow Leopard you can try: Opera 12.16+ (also Opera 26), Firefox v27+, Chrome v30+. Here is a full list of browsers.

On Leopard (OS X 10.5) the only browser that supports TLS v1.2 is Opera 12.16. Some ciphers are missing, but it should work with most sites. Unfortunately, in 2016 they updated Opera 12 only for Windows, not for Mac.

You can test your browser here:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

So in addition to Firefox and Chrome, you may try Opera 12.16 or Chromium based Opera 26 available at:
ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/ (open "desktop" for Chromium based versions or "mac" folder for 12.16 Presto based versions)

 

[afd]

Thanks for all replies, I'll try some of these browsers and see how they do.

 

[organicCPU]

Didn't check the TLS v.1.2 specs of these (edit: Firefox ESR 45 supports TLS v.1.2), but on 10.8. Mountain Lion I run Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) 45.x that will still work and still gets security fixes on 10.6, too. On the release plan I can see at least support until June 2017, though this timeframe for the last release could be extended or not. Some time ago it was announced last release for January 2017 and it was luckily extended!

Info on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/
Download the ESR 45 release on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

Then I've found, but didn't test:
NetSurf
Roccat

IMHO, Safari is such an old release, that it can't be really considered as a secure browsing option, even on 10.8. Personally, I think that 10.6 is a great OS and I wouldn't update to 10.7 as I can't see a real advantage in doing that.
Except you absolutely want to run the iCab Browser on it.

Another long term option is to find some actively maintained open source browser that will compile on 10.6 and compile it by yourself. Some starting point could be at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers

As there are projects like Classilla for Classic Mac OS 9 and TenFourFox for Mac OS X on PPC that are both based on Firefox ESR 45 code, there is the hope that ESR 45 will be maintained for a longer period of time or that there will be other projects arising that will somehow maintain browsers for Mac OS X 10.6 and lower.