Like Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Netscape originated as an offshoot of the NCSA Mosaic browser. For a number of years it dominated the browser market, relegating MSIE to "second-rate" status and becoming the favorite of Web surfers and designers alike. In recent years, Netscape's Navigator (the browser itself) and its Communicator package (containing the browser along with an e-mail client, a Web design utility, and a newsreader) have taken a backseat to Microsoft's increasingly ubiquitous client. Still, plenty of surfers and designers use Netscape, and anyone creating a Web site must be aware of how their pages display in Netscape. Netscape's browser package, now in Version 7.02, still claims millions of users, and is still a force to be reckoned with, even after its acquisition by America Online and subsequent loss of face. Netscape Navigator 4.79, the standalone browser, is still available. You can plug in to Netscape's Knowledge Base by going through the following URL: help.netscape.com/search.html. Download Netscape programs at wp.netscape.com/download/index.html, and get the latest release notes and bug listings at wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/ns7/relnotes/7.html. A good source of information from outside the company is at www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/.

A related browser, Mozilla 1.7, is on the market. It's the open-source version of Netscape, and reviews are very positive. Strong points include a built-in ad stopper, anti-spam filtering, control over sizes and appearance of opened windows, configurable control over graphics, a built-in IRC client, and, at least in the XP version, strong stability. A lot of users really like the tabs, which stores pages in a notebook-like display, allowing multiple pages to load and display without opening multiple instances of the browser. What works well in Mozilla's subsequent incarnations may show up later in "official" versions of Netscape. Find out more at www.mozilla.org/ and www.mozilla.org/releases/. A number of goodies are already being tested for it by the open-source community; find out what's going on, and what might look good on your copy of Mozilla, at www.mozdev.org/. Another good source for skins and add-ons is at www.xulplanet.com/. A nonaffiliated site that gives user reactions and info is available at www.mozfan.info/.

Mozilla has begat Firefox (nee Phoenix, nee Firebird) as its new open source, power-user browser. After Mozilla's version 1.5, we may not see more Mozilla releases; instead we'll receive standalone browsers, called Firefox, and a news reader and mail client, called Thunderbird. This is a significant departure from the usual "suite" approach that we've seen since Netscape 3. Firefox, currently in version 1.0, has all the standards-compliant rendering of Mozilla combined with the uncluttered menus and interface of Microsoft Internet Explorer. It even mimics Internet Explorer's smooth scrolling, along with most of Mozilla's power-user features, like tabbed browsing and "Find as you Type." The few advanced features that were dropped (like altenate style sheets and the Site Navigation toolbar) are rapidly being offered as extensions at mozdev.org. Firefox isn't quite ready yet; themes don't work properly, and form autocomplete is said to be unstable. Its rendering engine is equivalent to Mozilla's beta, so it suffers from a few minor bugs there, too. Still, though, it's worth a look, especially if you listen to the experts who think we may finally have a browser that will give IE a run for its money. Firefox 1.0 is now available for Windows and Linux, and in experimental form for Mac OS X, at www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox. I've used it extensively, and though I have some problems with the way some Web pages display in it, overall I'm sold.

How to make Mozilla block pop-ups? Go through Edit, Preferences, double-click the "Privacy & Security" category, select "Popup Windows," choose "Suppress Popups," and click OK. Note that this disables Mozilla's Popup Manager.

Netscape has recently released Version 7.02, available at either home.netscape.com/download/ or channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp. PCWorld calls it "Mozilla with extra chrome," while Scot Finnie is "taken aback by the AOL-isms" included in the package. It's a total reworking of Communicator from the ground up, based on the new Gecko HTML rendering engine (which was itself developed as the Mozilla open-source application). Like most new programs, there are plenty of things to like and some to question. It's totally multi-platform operable, meaning that it works on PCs, Apples, and Linux boxes. (What happened to Netscape 5? The company decided that the new NS6 was so radically different from its predecessors that the only way to do it justice was to skip a release number; I'm sure it has nothing to do with vaulting over MSIE 5 in iteration numbers.) Netscape 7, like the earlier 6x, is tightly integrated with the various AOL software, not surprising since Netscape is now an AOL-owned outfit. AOL's e-mail and IM clients are supported by Netscape 6x; a scaled-down version of AOL IM is built into the new browser (which constantly nags you to upgrade to the full version). It also provides one-click access to numerous Netcenter services. NS6's search capabilities have been markedly improved, providing users with a direct query feature (just type keywords directly into the address field) that MSIE doesn't offer as yet. (Netscape Search is powered by Google, a very strong search engine, and its own Open Directory project, a Yahoo!-like source directory.) Like Opera, the new Netscape offers a tabbed interface which lets you display and view multiple pages in a single browser window. Like MSIE, NS6 offers a separate search panel on the side of the screen. There's also a new Internet radio player that stands comparison with Winamp and Windows' own Media Player. You can customize the appearance and functionality of it bu using the tools available at home.netscape.com/themes/.

The soon-to-be-released Version 7.1 will have pop-up blocking ability, according to Netscape's parent company, AOL.

Here's some of the specifics on 7 and on 6x (there isn't that much difference between the two). First, it displays pages much more closely to the way MSIE 5.x displays them, making Web designers a little happier and getting rid of some -- some -- of the major disparities between earlier displays between the two browsers. One of NS6's major new features is called My Sidebar (yes, they've appropriated Microsoft's and AOL's exasperating habit of labeling everything My This and My That). My Sidebar is a resizable vertical column attached to the left of the browser and e-mail windows. You choose which HTML-based content panels, called Tabs, you want available in My Sidebar from the scores available (including international offerings). A Netscape Web site provides one-click installation of hundreds of tabs at the My Sidebar Directory (http://search.netscape.com/mysidebar.tmpl). Many of the tab sources are within the Netscape/AOL architecture, but other sources include CNN, Reuters, and Epinions. My Sidebar is optional. You can kill it (and bring it back) with just a single mouse click. Like it? Check out the hundreds of additional tabs available at home.netscape.com/mysidebar.tmpl, and if you want to create your own, surf to home.netscape.com/sidebar/how.html. The new Themes (or interface skins) feature lets you completely change the look and feel of the browser in about ten seconds. Netscape offers two built-in Themes, called Modern (the default) and Classic (the Netscape 4.x look). Currently there are now six themes downloadable from the Netscape Theme Park (accessed from the program's menu), with more promised and instructions on creating your own available from home.netscape.com/themes/createtheme.html. The Password Manager is new, and laudable. Like MSIE's similar feature, NS6 lets you save logon names and passwords for quick access to regularly-visited sites, but it goes MSIE one better by making it easy to delete specific saved passwords. You can even designate a master password to keep other users from accessing your passwords. If you use Messenger (the e-mail client), you can add addresses from other e-mail clients to your Address Book. If you don't mind posting your Address Book online with Netcenter, you can access your Address Book from any computer with Web access. What else? It features an "autocomplete" function similar to MSIE's, enabled/disabled through the Smart Browsing option under Edit, Preferences, Navigator (you may need to drag the bottom of the menu window down to find the button). Netscape's Search function is now powered by Google, one of the best search engines available. There's an AutoTranslate feature (go through View, Translate) provided by Alias that (supposedly) translates Web content in foreign languages into English. It proclaims itself to be fully compliant with new Web standards, particularly XML and CSS1, though it doesn't seem to handle DHTML-configured sites as well as NS4.72. If you're into serious customization, visit home.netscape.com/browsers/6/cck to check out the Client Customization Kit, a free download. Add different search engines to the default choice (Google) by visiting such sites as www.apple-donuts.com/sherlocksearch and hunting down "Sherlock" files (.SRC extensions) for the search sites that you desire. (Yes, this is Apple terrotory, but this works for Netscape-equipped Windows machines as well, but you will need to expand it using an Apple-compliant compression utility such as MindExpander, as the files are compressed using Stuffit, not in .ZIP format.)

There are some notable flaws in Mozilla. First off, it tends to be a major resource hog. Worse, shutting down multiple instances of open Mozilla pages doesn't return the scarfed-up memory to the free pool. Another well-known flaw is that if an image is "mapped" you can't just right-click and save it. Sometimes the cursor's pointer turns to an hourglass while in Mozilla's mail client. Everything still works, but the hourglass can confuse you. Want an exhaustive list of 101 things Mozilla can't do (yet?) Go to www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/arts/reasons.html.

There's plenty of AOL-sourced features in NS6, and this is where things start to get...questionable. AOL's popular Instant Messenger client is a part of the general install, is accessible through My Sidebar, and is easily disabled, though power users who don't use it will prefer to delete it. AOL has also had a hand in redesigning Messenger. It's now called Netscape Mail, for one. For another, it's the only e-mail client outside of AOL's own that allows for full retrieval of AOL mail -- AOL has been very reluctant to allow other programs access to and from its own e-mail system, though it almost let Qualcomm's Eudora on board in 1998, only to get cold feet and back out. NSMail doesn't seem to be as stable as the rest of the package, and you may not want to rely on it as your primary e-mail client. Still, its ability to send and retrieve AOL mail is worth thinking about.

Like MSIE, Netscape provides its own Web creation app, called Composer. Like MSIE's Front Page, Composer pretty much sucks, though it isn't the bloatcode/proprietory extension horror that Front Page is. Still, no one but the rankest amateur needs to build code in it, and you definitely don't want to edit existing code in it -- it makes lots of unwanted changes. Fortunately, you aren't forced to download it if you don't want it.

The Gecko engine supports the newest Web standards, including HTML 4.0, XML 1.0, RDF, CSS1, and DOM1. It also supports the less widely implemented XML Namespaces, CSS2, and DOM2 specs. It also handles Unicode, PNG, JavaScript 1.5. On paper, from a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) point of view, Netscape meets or exceeds Internet Explorer 5.5. In the real world, NS6 is actually too strict in its compliancy standards, causing otherwise well-coded sites to display incorrectly due to minor glitches in their code or their use of non-standard HTML that earlier versions of Navigator/Communicator handled with ease.

If you're downloading NS6, you're given three options: Recommended, Full, and Custom. The Full download gives you RealPlayer Basic, Macromedia Flash, and Net2Phone installed on your system, as well as Sun's Java and HP's Prints Plus service; the Recommended install leaves out the Java support (a debatable decision), and Custom, of course, gives you control over what to accept and what to decline. In any case, as part of the Recommended setup, you'll download 10.5MB of files. The Full install version throws in everything, launching a 23.6MB download. Using the Custom Install, you can get just the browser in 7.5MB. To get just the browser and Sun Java, you'll pull down 17.3MB. The system requirements are Windows 95, 98, 98SE, NT 4.0 or 2000, 64MB of RAM, and at least a Pentium 233 MHz (a printed Product Summary lists 200MHz). Although NS6 doesn't indicate compatibility with Win ME, tests show that it works fine under that system. One caveat: towards the end of the install, you're asked whether you want to enable "Desktop Integration," which is an oblique way of asking if you want Netscape to take over all of your Web-associated file associations. I would recommend declining this option. The uninstall is fairly clean, though you'll need to get rid of two folders, C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\NETSCAPE 6 and C:\WINDOWS\APPLICATION DATA\MOZILLA.

Initial responses are decidedly mixed. There's a lot of AOL connectivity built into NS6, and many users have no use for it. Some users find the browser clunky and harder to use than its MSIE counterpart, but others find it just as fast and perhaps even more usable. As with most things, you'll have to try this one for yourself and see. If you're using an ATI Rage video card, you'll have problems with using NS6. At the moment no fix for this bug is available.

Note: Netscape has released two updates for the 6.0 version, 6.1 and 6.2, Both apparently go a long way towards fixing many of the more egregious bugs and flaws in 6.0. 6.2 adds security patches, a download manager, a form filler, an IM client, better e-mail, and cookie management. Most importantly, 6.2 is XP-compatible. Interestingly, Netscape has announced that it is no longer a browser manufacturer. What exactly they are becoming is up in the air at this point...but they're still releasing browsers, so go figure. Info on the new version can be had at home.netscape.com/browsers/6/index.html, and a page detailing the enhancements is located at home.netscape.com/browsers/6/efficiency.html.

An independent provider called Beonex claims to have an "AOL-free" version of Netscape 6 available for free download. It uses the same Gecko engine, but replaces AOL's IM client with the IRC-based, open-source "Chatzilla," and claims to provide much more Net security and privacy than the AOL-ridden Netscape product. Beonex claims that the most recent version, 0.8, while still a beta version, is stable. Find out more at beonex.com/communicator/. The entire package weighs in at a slim 6.44MB.

Lots of good general info is provided by Netscape's online help sites. Get tips on troubleshooting Communicator from help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19990126-5.html, and find a list of common problems with Communicator that cause Windows to throw GPFs and/or blue screen crashes at help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19970203-1.html.

Want to block pop-up ads using Mozilla? Go to Edit, Preferences, Advanced, Scripts & Plugins, and uncheck "Open unrequested windows." Netscape 7 doesn't include this little feature -- wonder why? Let's ask AOL. You can, however, install a free ad-blocking utility in NS7 by going to this page: ufaq.org/ns7/adblocker.html and following the instructions.

Here's the lowdown on the features in the 4.x versions: The e-mail client, Messenger, has been heavily reworked (although its compliancy with IMAP protocols will lessen its effectiveness in the short run), the browser has been outfitted with "Smart Browsing," a set of wizards and interfaces designed to ease your surfing, along with numerous minor upgrades and bug fixes. Communicator 4.72 gives you access to Netscape Radio (select Communicator/Radio), makes Navigator your default browser, and makes Netcenter your default home page. It also places Netcenter in MSIE's Search Bar, makes Netcenter MSIE's home page (!), and enables MSIE to use Netscape's Internet Keywords in its Address field. If you don't like these changes, reverse them by going to home.netscape.com/products and looking for the proper link. Netcaster's "push" content has disappeared, to no one's dismay. Grab any version you like for free from home.netscape.com. Note: You should also download the update to 4.72 that boosts the encryption to 128 bits. Go through Help, Software Updates and select the 12MB browser 128 update in the Select Software step.

Note: there's a little-known set of upgrades to the 4.x version that takes it to 4.75. These updates focus strictly on updating and improving the security encryption functions of 4.x. Info on security issues with Netscape can be had at www.netscape.com/security/.

If you do upgrade to 4.72 or a later version, and you're worrying about losing your plug-ins, here's the deal. If you're upgrading from an old version of Netscape, say 3.0 or earlier, you'll have to reinstall them manually. If you're installing Communicator 4.72 over version 4.0 or later, you should install the new version in the same folder as the previous version for the plug-ins to automatically install. If you choose a different folder, then you'll have to reinstall the plug-ins manually.

Another upgrade caveat: if you're upgrading to a newer version from Netscape 3.x or below, you need to uninstall the old version first. If you don't, Netscape will leave behind lots of debris from the old version that may creep into your e-mails, address books, or Bookmarks.

Surprise, surprise: the Smart Download 1.3 plugin offered by Netscape for their 4.7x browsers has security holes in it that you could drive a truck through. If you have version 1.3, upgrade to 1.4 immediately by going to home.netscape.com/download/smartdownload.html. Earlier versions aren't vulnerable.

A huge, step-by-step intro to the wonderful world of Communicator is available at help.netscape.com/products/client/pe/reflib/introcom.htm. Many people find this more usable than Netscape's built-in Help functions.

If you use any of the sibling ISPs Earthlink, Mindspring, or Netcom, you have both Netscape and MSIE available to use as a browser. AOL has also provided a version of Netscape for its subscribers. (Now that AOL has bought Netscape, will it begin bundling versions of Navigator as its default browser rather than MSIE? No indication of that yet, but stay tuned.)

Warning: Microsoft's widespread Internet Information Server 4 (not Microsoft's Web browser) has developed an, er, incompatibility between itself and international versions of Netscape Communicator 4.7x. The bug involves miscommunication between browser and server when Communicator attempts to accept 56-bit digital certificates. IIS 4 does not support 56 bits, and when Communicator tries to step up to 128-bit certificates, it causes an invalid page fault in NETSCAPE.EXE. The only upside exists for users of the domestic (U.S.) 128-bit version of Communicator, which Netscape claims is immune to the bug. Users of the international versions can work around the problem by disabling 56-bit encryption. Follow these steps: First, open Communicator and select Tools, Security Info. Now, in the resulting Web page, click the Navigator link in the left column and then select "Configure SSL 3" from the right pane. Next, in the resulting pop-up menu, remove the check marks from the following two options: "RC4 encryption with a 56-bit key and a SHA-1 MAC" and "DES encryption in CBC mode with a 56-bit key and a SHA-1 MAC." Click OK twice to finish.

One outcome of AOL's gobbling up Netscape is that all new (4.5 and on) versions of Communicator have AOL's Instant Messenger chat software bundled along with everything else. It's a memory hog and useless for non-chatters. Lose it by disabling AIM with a right-click in Communicator, then deleting the AIM folder in your Netscape folder along with LAUNCH.AIM. You might want to search your hard drive for other instances of AIM.

Some useful shortcuts for NS6 include:

• CTRL+B: Open bookmarks
• CTRL+F: Find on this page
• CTRL+H: Open history
• CTRL+M: Compose e-mail
• CTRL+N: Open new browser window
• CTRL+O: Open local file in browser
• CTRL+P: Open Print dialog box
• CTRL+R: Refresh page

NS 6 users can have Netscape fill in Web forms automatically by going through Netscape FormManager. This tool automatically collects the data you enter in Web form fields. It uses those data to fill in forms on other pages. To get started choose Tasks, Privacy And Security, Forms Manager, Interview.

Communicator users sometimes find themselves starting Netscape and having Messenger, Collabra, or Composer open instead of Navigator. Make Navigator come up by default: Start Netscape and click Edit, Preferences. On the left side of the Preferences window, select Appearance. Here's where you change the Startup rules for Netscape. Under the "On Startup Launch" option, uncheck everything except Navigator. Click OK to save your changes. Restart Netscape. It should now open with Navigator.

Communicator or Navigator crashing on you? Occasional crashes are usually caused by wonky Web site code or just plain overload, but if it happens too frequently, you can do some fine-tuning to make Netscape fly right. First, create a new user profile. Close the program, then drill down through Start/Programs/Netscape Communicator/Utilities/ to User Profile Manager. Create a new profile with a name different from your old one. Try it out for a while, and if no problems occur, go through Explorer to C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\USERS\yourname (usually) and copy the BOOKMARKS.HTM and ABOOK.NAB files, the mail and news folders, and any .NA2 files into the new directory. Second, replace the news folder -- if Navigator likes to crash while ferreting about in newsgroups, your news folder may be corrupt. Go to the User folder (as above), rename your news folder, and reopen the program, which will create another news folder. If your mail program is crashing, you can recreate the mail folder. Go to the User directory, rename the mail folder, and create a new folder by right-clicking inside that folder and selecting New, Folder. Name it MAIL. If using your bookmarks or addresses causes crashing, rename your BOOKMARKS.HTM or ABOOK.NAB files and let Communicator recreate them. Your history file may be causing Communicator to hiccup; fix it by closing Communicator, finding the NETSCAPE.HST file, and renaming it. Rename the Cache folder as well. If nothing changes, delete the newly created .HST file and Cache folders and reinstate the old ones. Finally, you can find help from the Netscape Unofficial FAQ Page (www.ufaq.org), which is a link to a large and well-informed Usenet group, as well as Netscape's index of consumer articles that provides info on a plethora of issues (help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/).

If you're running user profiles, and you want the different users to use the same bookmarks, here's how. Locate the BOOKMARK.HTM file you wish to use as the main file and place it in a conspicuous folder (such as c:\program files\netscape). Start Netscape with your first profile and click Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks. In the Edit Bookmarks window, click File, Open Bookmarks File. Locate the BOOKMARK.HTM file and click Open. Close the Edit Bookmarks window and restart Netscape with the next profile. Do this for each profile on your system, and they will all draw from and contribute to the same pool of bookmarks. You can also make all users use the same cache folder (useful if everyone's visiting the same sites over and over, or you want to save disk space). To set all users to the same cache folder, first you must create such a folder. Using Windows Explorer (located in your Start Menu), locate the folder C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE and create a subfolder (click File, New, Folder) called CACHE. Close Explorer. Now you need to clear the contents of each user's cache folder and reset it to the new folder you just created. Start Netscape with each user profile in turn and click Edit, Preferences; expand the Advanced properties and select Cache. Click the button labeled "Clear Disk Cache." When you have cleared the existing cache, click the "Choose Folder" button under the "Disk Cache Folder" box. Locate the common cache folder you just created and select it as the new cache folder. Select an overall size for your new cache and type it in the "Disk Cache" box. Do this for all user profiles on your system, and remember to use the same cache size for all of your user profiles.

Some people like to bounce back and forth between two sets of bookmarks on two different machines (i.e. work and home), and periodically want to merge (not overwrite) them. It's a simple process. Copy your work BOOKMARKS.HTM file to floppy disk and take it to your home machine (if the file is too big for a floppy, you'll have to email it to yourself). On your home machine, fire up Netscape and go into Bookmarks. Choose Edit Bookmarks. Click File, Import, and browse to the first Bookmarks file (wherever it is, on the A:\ drive or elsewhere). Click Open. This merges the two files on your home machine. Of course, you can do this in reverse order for your work machine as well.

I talk about some of these settings below, but I'll give a quick overview of Navigator's browser settings here. All are accessible through Edit, Preferences, with a tree view of the categories on the left and the actual settings on the right. Highlight Navigator in the left pane and you can choose what you want displayed when you open the browser: a blank page, a specific Web page, or the page last visited. Here you can set how many days to retain info on the sites previously visited, clear the disk and memory caches, and clear the location bar. Under Applications, you can program Navigator to handle downloaded files according to your wishes -- always open a downloaded file in the browser, open it in a particular app, or save it to disk. Maybe you want all Word documents immediately opened in MSWord, while you want all .PDF files saved to disk. Whatever. Under Smart Browsing, you can decide if you want Navigator to always retrieve linked sites, never retrieve links, or only retrieve on command. You can also enable or disable "Internet Keywords," which allows the browser to work with shorthand URLs. Under Appearance, you can set override fonts and screen colors and opt to color-code and underline visited/unvisited links. Under Advanced, you can choose your Java, scripts, style sheet, security, automatic updates, and image settings, as well as manage your cookies. Play with all these settings to find out their effects and decide how you want your particular browser to work best for your needs.

Some of Netscape's keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl+Alt+S, which toggles the status bar on and off; Ctrl+Alt+T, which shows you a page's download status, and Ctrl+I, which opens the Page Info window. Also, pressing the space bar acts as a Page Down command. You can use the traditional Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste, or you can use the right-hand shortcuts Ctrl+Insert (copy) and Shift+Insert (paste) instead.

You can access your History listings by going through Communicator, Tools, History. By clicking on a link, you can immediately jump to that page. Parental/guilty spouse warning: a savvy child or special someone can get into your History folder and check out all the skin sites you've recently perused; if you want to destroy the evidence without purging your History file entirely, highlight the ones you want gone and press Del. No History records? You've got your History settings at 0. Click Edit, Preferences; select Navigator on the left side of the Preferences window; and under History, make sure a number other than 0 appears in the box.

Netscape allows you to type several command strings into the Location box for "behind-the-scenes" info that MSIE doesn't let you access as easily. Type the following commands:

• about: (for (browser info)
• about:cache (disk cache)
• about:document (current page info)
• about:global (global history entries)
• about:image-cache = (memory cached images)
• about:license (license agreement)
• about:logo (Netscape logo)
• about:memory-cache (memory cache)
• about:mozilla (killer quote)
• about:plugins (installed plug-ins)
• about:XYZ (Substitute 'XYZ' with real URL)

If more than one person is using the same copy of Navigator on a PC or network, the browser can be configured for each person using "user profiles." The advantage of user profiles comes with the ability to configure Communicator for multiple e-mail accounts, and to keep up with multiple bookmark files. If you're using Navigator 3.x or older, you'll need to crack into the Registry to do this, and since it's not an easy fix (nor is it many readers are apt to need), I'll just tell you where to find the info on it for 3.x:
help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19970221-1.html. For 4.x and above, the process is much simpler. You start by finding the shortcut on your Desktop that opens Netscape, right-clicking it, and selecting Properties. Click the Shortcut tab; you'll see the actual DOS command line that opens Netscape. Now you'll edit that command line: if it reads, say, C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\COMMUNICATOR\
PROGRAM\NETSCAPE.EXE then you would add a specific profile name, usually named for the person using the profile, like so: C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\COMMUNICATOR\
PROGRAM\NETSCAPE.EXE -P"JOHN"
Now when you click that shortcut, Netscape will open and ask you to create a specific profile for John. For most home users, this won't be a big deal, but if you really want to micromanage your family's browsing, or your employees, probably the best way is to keep a generic Netscape shortcut, copy it once for everyone who needs a user profile, and one by one, change the copied shortcuts to create profiles for each user. (Create new shortcuts by right-clicking the Desktop, choosing New, Shortcut, and following the prompts.) Confused? Then forget it; you probably don't need profiles anyway. I don't.

Navigator gives you an easy way to backtrack amongst all your surfing: simply right-click the Back button to see a drop-down menu of the last 10 sites you've visited. Just click the one you want to revisit to go directly there and avoid all the backclicking. The same feature exists for the Forward button. You can do the same thing by clicking and holding the left mouse button.

Netscape Communicator has a built-in function that allows you to enter keywords directly into the address bar. You need to have it enabled: go into Edit, choose Preferences, and click Smart Browsing. Make sure that "Enable Internet Keywords" is checked. Then click OK. Netscape's keywords include Shop, Search, Quote, My Stocks, and Webmail. Just enter the keyword and whatever else might go with it: for example you might enter Quote AOL for a stock quote on America Online stocks, or Search Pink Elephants for a Web search for oddly-colored pachyderms. There are plenty of other things you can enter in the address bar, also: company names, product information, college info, local movie times, access to your own Netscape-based PIM, etc. Go to home.netscape.com/escapes/keywords/ for more information.

Communicator provides you with easy access to its multiple functions (Composer, the HTML editor; Collabra, the newsgroup utility; Messenger, the E-mail client; and Navigator, the Web browser). If you look at the small toolbar in the bottom right of your screen, you'll see several icons. Holding the mouse over them brings up a box that identifies them; clicking one activates the particular utility. If you like, you can make it a floating toolbar by clicking the little barred lines to the left of the icons and dragging the bar to wherever you'd like to have it sit on your screen. When you close it, it goes back to its original position.

Navigator lets you manage your cookie acceptance in several ways. ("Cookies" are those small text files that many Web sites like to stick into your computer to track your surfing habits, your Net configuration, etc. Sometimes they're harmless and even a convenience, other times you want them scrubbed. See above for more info.) Change the way Netscape handles cookies by going through Edit, Preferences, Select Advanced. You can instruct Netscape to accept all cookies regardless of origin or type, accept only cookies that return to the originating server (meaning that only the site that created the cookie can read its information), or disable cookies altogether. You can also toggle the notification/warning on and off. Generally, accepting all cookies and turning notification off is fine for the casual Web surfer. However, many users choose another option for security reasons. Me, I'm nosy, and like to see which sites are hitting me with cookies and which are not. So far the winner is some Nashville-based country music site that slammed me with over 30 cookies for a casual visit. Ugh. Don't forget to periodically find and delete your COOKIES.TXT file to lose those little monsters. (If you'd like to view those cookies in Netscape 6, choose Tasks, Privacy and Security, Cookie Manager, View Stored Cookies. The Cookie Manager dialog will display all the cookies currently in residence on your computer.)

Here's an interesting way to skin yon cookie: Set Netscape to "Accept All Cookies," then go through your COOKIES.TXT file in Notepad and delete all the cookies except the ones you want to keep. Now write-protect (make read-only) COOKIES.TXT. Netscape accepts the cookies, but isn't able to copy them to your Cookies file -- hence, no cookies accepted. Netscape apparently doesn't see this as an error, so you neither get the annoying question boxes asking if you want to accept the cookies, nor do you get error messages. Slick, huh? Wish I could take credit for it, but I'm just passing it along. No word if this little end-around works in the newest Netscape versions.

It's a simple matter to print a simple Web page, but what about framed pages? You want to print one framed area but not another? Simple. Just click somewhere inside the frame you want to print, then go through File and choose Print Frame.

Interested in offline browsing? You can do it through Netscape's Netcaster, which is a tool provided with Communicator that calls down the sites you designate for offline viewing through its Channels facility. Pull down the Window menu and select "Netcaster" (or hit Ctrl-8). A small window called the "Netcaster drawer" appears. The initial screen is confusing, but don't worry about it. Just click the My Channels button near the bottom of the drawer and get ready to add a Channel of your choice to the preloaded Channels already available. Click New, and use the controls that appear to configure the channel download. Under the General tab, you'll need to type in the URL of the site that you want to peruse offline, and fill in other info such as when you want the site downloaded. Now under the Display tab, you can choose either "Navigator Window" or "Webtop Mode." Play with the Webtop Mode later, but for now choose the Navigator Window option. Use the Cache tab to decide how many levels deep you want to go into the site, and how much disk space you want to download. Click OK, and Navigator is ready to automatically download the site of your choice. You can also manually download particular pages, just by going through the Options button on the Netcaster drawer. Click "Update Now" and the site you've selected will immediately begin to download. You'll also use Netcaster for your offline viewing. Get into Netcaster, click into My Channels, find the link for the site you've downloaded, and click it. Zoom.

Netscape gives you a "Smart Update" option that lets you leave the updating to Netscape or manage it yourself. Go through Edit, Preferences and expand the Advanced options (click the + box). Select SmartUpdate to see what plug-ins you have and what's available. You can enable or disable SmartUpdate, and decide whether or not you want Communicator to confirm installation of any update. You can also remove any update already in your browser by highlighting it and clicking Uninstall. (If you let Communicator do its own updating, don't be surprised when Netscape suddenly starts downloading something else while you're busy perusing something else. Don't panic.)

Do you have both Netscape and MSIE on your computer? If so, make Netscape the default browser by first accessing Internet Explorer's default option and UNchecking the "Internet Explorer should check..." box. The next time you run Netscape, it should allow you to make it the default browser. But since this is the real world, it won't always be this easy. You may need to use a text editor like Notepad to edit Netscape's PREFS.JS file. Open Notepad and then browse down to find the PREFS.JS file in C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\USERS\yourname, where yourname is your Windows user name. Open PREFS.JS (using the All Files *.* option) and look for the line "user_pref("browser.wfe.ignore_def_check", true) -- when you find it, change the word true to the word false. Save the file, exit Notepad, and restart Navigator. The default query should appear, at which time you can tell it OK.

If you're installing upgrades of Netscape, it's a good idea to back up your Bookmarks, your e-mail if you use your browser's mail client, and your personal configurations. How do you do that? In Windows Explorer, navigate to c:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\yourname, make a copy of your namesake directory, and paste it somewhere else on your hard drive under another name. This should include ABOOK.NAB (the address book), BOOKMARKS.HTM (the Bookmarks file), the Mail and News folders, and PREFS.JS (your personal preferences). Then completely uninstall the old browser, disable any virus scanners, run ScanDisk and Disk Defrag, close all running apps, and uninstall Netscape through Control Panel's Add/Remove applet. Navigate to the old Communicator directory and delete any files still in the folders. Now, finally, you can install the new one. In fact, it's a good idea to frequently back up your Netscape bookmarks anyway, since the files are known to corrupt after they get large, and there's no fixing them.

You can also create a batch file for periodically backing up your BOOKMARK.HTM file. Here's how: In Windows Explorer, create a new folder on your hard drive and call it Backup. (In Explorer, single-click drive C:, then click File, New, Folder.) Start Windows Notepad from your Start Menu (or start your favorite text editor) and enter the following commands:

ECHO OFF
COPY "C:\PROGRAM FILES\NETSCAPE\USERS\(your profile name)\BOOKMARK.HTM" "C:\BACKUP\"

BOOKBACK.BAT