Services > Desktop Support > Macintosh > Troubleshooting > Netscape Troubleshooting

Netscape Troubleshooting

  1. Netscape Freezes....
  2. Email attachments won't open or are unreadable when sending and receiving.

Problem:

Netscape Freezes...

Solution:

  1. Ensure that Netscape's RAM allotment is at least 16 MB and that VM is enabled to a value of your real onboard Ram, plus 1Mb.
  2. Empty your disk cache at every session.
  3. Set your Links Expiration to one or two days to avoid building up a large Netscape History Prefs file. Then delete the Netscape History Preferences file so that a new one is created at the next Netscape launch.
  4. Disable or delete Norton's CrashGuard extension.
  5. If you are using OS 8.0 or later, do a Finder Search on ObjectSupportLib and delete all found occurrences.
  6. In its Control Panel, disable or delete Adobe's Type Reunion extension.
  7. Configure a minimum Extensions Set under Extensions Manager-- just sufficient to get you on the Net and no more.
If the freezing still occurs after trying all of the above suggestions, open the User Profile Manager and create a totally new Profile to set up all new Netscape Preferences. To do this:
  • Save all important bookmarks, mail, news, and security certificates you may have acquired. To do this, open your hard disk, then the System Folder, then the Preferences folder, and then the Netscape Users folder. In Netscape Users, open up the folder with your profile name on it. Pull out the following files, and place them in a folder on the desktop:
Netscape Preferences
Mail
News
Bookmarks.html
pab.na2
  • Create the new profile:
    1. Quit Communicator if it is running.
    2. Open the hard drive, then the Netscape Communicator folder.
    3. Locate and double-click the User Profile Manager
    4. Follow the prompts to create a new user profile, using a different name than the first one you created. Continue to click "Next" through the prompts, allowing all defaults to remain and finally, click "Done" when prompted.


At this point Communicator will automatically launch using the new profile which now has new preferences. If the problem is fixed, you can throw away the old user profile folder after importing bookmarks.html, pa2.nab and Mail to the new one. If the new profile does not fix the problem, do a clean install:

  1. Move the Netscape Users folder out of System Folder>Preferences Folder to a safe storage place on your HD. If you have a large collection of plug-ins, you should do the same with your Plug-Ins Folder.
  2. Except for the two aforementioned items, delete everything Netscape.
  3. Boot the Mac from OS Base Set and reinstall Communicator.
  4. After installing, don't forget to reallocate the 16Mb Ram Partition. (The setting from the old one is not carried over).
  5. Drag your retained Plug-Ins into the newly installed Plug-Ins Folder.
When you are satisfied that it is running well and crash-free, you can drag your Bookmarks, Addressbook, Mail, Newsgroups and other Preferences from the archived folder, one by one, to replace the defaults in the new Netscape Users Folder which were created by the installer.
 

Problem:

Email attachments won't open or are unreadable when sending and receiving.

Solution:

When sending and receiving attachments, there are a few issues to consider. If you are receiving the attachment:

  1. Determine what type of file are you dealing with.
  2. Determine which helper application should be used to run or play the file.
  3. Check the Netscape preferences to ensure that Netscape is configured to call the proper helper application for the file type you are receiving.
You can often tell a file type by the 3-digit extension (the part after the dot or period). For example,

document.txt is a text or "ascii" file
image.gif is a GIF image
image.jpg is a JPEG image

For information on the most common file extensions and what kinds of files they might be, see:

http://whatis.techtarget.com/Flat_Files/WhatIs_File_Format_A/0,281899,,00.html

Some files require you download a plug-in such as Shockwave, Real Audio or Flash. To download an attachment before determining what application will play it, hold down the "Option" key and then click the attachment link; this will cause it to automatically be downloaded to your hard drive.

If you are sending the attachments:

If you are sending the attachment, be aware that some file types may not run on the recipient's platform. PC and Macintosh file types are quite different and not compatible; for example, you cannot run a PC executable (.exe) file on a Macintosh.

  • Encode the attachment to protect the file using a compression utility. If you do not have a compression utility program, there are many to choose from at various shareware sites such as http://www.tucows.com/
At the Tucows site, click on the location nearest you, choose your operating system, then do a search for compression. This search should point you to many third-party compression utilities to choose from.

Once you have compressed the file you will then need to attach it to the mail message. To do this:

  1. On the mail composition toolbar, click the Attach (paperclip) icon and then choose File.
  2. Choose the file that you wish to attach and click OK.
Once the file is attached you can then send the mail message and attachment with no problems.