HOT! Free access to old websites! See the web 'the way it was'... Anandtech too!

[newphatdaddy]

You can't beat free backups!

I was able to restore a bunch of data from my website from many months ago. I have backup software now (ARCserve), but this sure came through in a pinch! I only wish it could have saved my off-line data, too.

If you have ever been in that unfortunate scenario, you know this is one of the hottest deals of them all! ...And you have to admit, it's fun to browse some of your old haunts "the way they were".

Check out the Wayback Machine

FAQs
Which sites are available in the Wayback Machine?
The Internet Archive is attempting to archive the entire publicly available web. Some sites may not be included because the automated crawlers were unaware of their existence at the time of the crawl. It's also possible that some sites were not archived because they were password protected, detected webmaster instructions to not be crawled, or were otherwise inaccessible to the Internet Archive's automated systems.

Why are some sites harder to archive than others?
If you look at the collection of archived sites, you will find some broken pages, missing graphics, and some sites that aren't archived at all. The Internet Archive has tried to create a complete archive, but has had difficulties with some sites, because the link structure was not straightforward to crawl.

Can I link to old pages on the Wayback Machine?
Yes! The Wayback Machine is built so that it can be used and referenced by anybody and everybody. If you find an archived page that you would like to reference on your web page or in an article, you can copy the URL and share it with others.

How was the Wayback Machine made?
Over 100 terabytes of data is stored on a couple hundred modified servers situated in the basement of a former military building in the Presidio of San Francisco. Alexa Internet, in cooperation with the Internet Archive, has designed an index that allows browsing of web documents over multiple time periods, and turned this unique feature into the Wayback Machine.

What type of machinery is used in the Wayback Machine?
The Internet Archive is stored on dozens of slightly modified Hewlett Packard and uslab.com servers. The computers run on the FreeBSD and Linux operating systems. Each computer has about 512Mb of memory and generally holds just over 300 gigabytes of data on IDE disks.

How can I get my site included in the Wayback Machine?
Alexa Internet has been crawling the web since 1996, which has resulted in a massive archive. If you have a web site, and you would like to ensure that it is saved for posterity in the Alexa Archive, chances are that it's already there. We make every effort to crawl the entire publicly available web. However, if you wish to take extra measures to ensure that we archive your site, you can visit the Alexa "Archive Your Site" page at http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters/request_bot.html.

How can I remove my site from the Wayback Machine?
To get your site removed, update your robots.txt file to disallow ia_archiver. Alexa's crawlers will get your new robots.txt, which will make its way into the Wayback Machine and mark all previously archived pages inaccessible


EDIT: Ha! Be sure to check out one of the early Anand pages: Jan 9th, 1998

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Definitely interesting, but definitely Off Topic material, not a Hot Deal.

AT Mod

 

[Rally1]

never seen that, cool (wrong forum BTW)

 

[andrey]

What a nice way to fill up terabytes of data

 

[ShotgunSi]

Hehe that is really cool! Check this snip from the main page of Anandtech!

"DEC Alpha 533 System - Thursday, January 8, 1998 - 9:40PM
The company that is sending me the DEC Alpha 533 that I'll be reviewing me is just waiting for the PC164SX motherboard to come in so they can ship me the system, I'll try to have an exact arrival date of the system in the next few days...this is gonna be one awesome review, hopefully I can get a *reasonably* priced Pentium II - 333 to benchmark against the Alpha real soon. On the topic of the P2/333, there have been reports of it making its way up to 416MHz (83.3MHz x 5.0) flawlessly, however there have also been claims that the P2/333 is semi-clock clocked (no clock multipliers greater than 5.0x) and others insist that is completely clock locked (i.e. locked in at 333MHz regardless of bus speed/clock multiplier). I'm not sure what to believe until I can get my hands on one, I'll keep you updated on the situation. "

 

[olouie]

nice find i am going to be addicted to this soon

 

[fr]

WHOA

 

[unsped]

nice found some stuff I was missing.

 

[Agaricus]

Giant time capsule.

 

[manko]

Well, I was thinking we could have a contest to dig up the funniest old Hot Deal, but it doesn't go back too far and the records aren't deep enough to even look at the threads. Anyway here's the oldest front pages:

AMD K6-III+/450 NOW FOR $47

Buy.com Radeon 32mb DDR $145.95 after $30 off coupon for returning customers

Micron 256mb pc-133 CL3 -- $129.99 (funny, that's about the same price it is now...)

 

[robsdeals]

This is awesome, Thanks!

 

[explorer2k]

Thanks to Alexa.. they push this site like crazy.

 

[mdplayer00]

Too bad some sites are not listed because the wayback machine are prevented to by the companies behind the web sites. A good example is Staples.com. I was doing a group research project on the company and I was hoping to see how the site looked when it first began. It would have been great to be able to put that in my project and I don't understand why Staples don't allow them to do it.

 

[MrNutz]

<< Too bad some sites are not listed because the wayback machine are prevented to by the companies behind the web sites. A good example is Staples.com. I was doing a group research project on the company and I was hoping to see how the site looked when it first began. It would have been great to be able to put that in my project and I don't understand why Staples don't allow them to do it. >>



actually i've found that alot of major company sites keep their pages from being archived by including the file robot.txt (i believe thats it) --- yeah i guess they do it for us nandytechers wanting to quote them on price misprints

 

[chuck2002]

this is a really cool site. i found web sites i thought no one knew existed.

 

[gof]

Cool site (and actually useful, I was looking for a company that *had* a site, but doesn't any longer!).

That Alexa toolbar looks handy too, but upon reading the privacy info, I decided it WASN'T a good idea! :disgust:

Doesn't detract from the Wayback machine though

 

[Alphacow]

Google has a similar service, chached pages.

 

[newphatdaddy]

Google's cached pages definitely serve a purpose, but I have to believe they don't hold a candle to actual archiving like the wayback machine (meaning saved by date).

 

[mdplayer00]

You really can't compare the two. Google's cache page is for broken links while the wayback machine can go back to the first time the page was logged by it. But the wayback machine is definitely slower than google's cache pages.

 

[newphatdaddy]

Agreed. I added the FAQs to my post above - it explains what hardware/software they are using and why it's so slow (inherently)...

 

[peterframpton69]

check out valueamerica.com

haha haha

 

[sirpado]

nice find! now we can still access resellerratings.com!

 

[Slugbait]

They've got a few pages from AGN. That brings back some memories...

 

[cholley]

:disgust: And what makes this a hot deal?

 

[OrlandoTiger]

<< :disgust: And what makes this a hot deal? >>


I found out about this archive from the OT post on reseller ratings... if this server held nothing else than reseller ratings information and links it would qualify as a VERY HOT deal.That information has saved people untold amounts of money in fraud and as importantly,hassles...