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| Netscape Navigator | Netscape Defrost v0.9b2 | Navigator Button Editor v1.2 | Web Retriever 1.0 | Web Devil 1.0.1 | JPEGView 3.3.1 |

I'm using 2.02, but most of what I have to say will also apply to version 3.0. Here's my setup: System 7.5, 68040, MacTCP, FreePPP, 20 MB RAM. It's old but it works.

As far as shareware goes, Navigator is big and awesome. Unfortunately, it has a tendency to chew up your hard drive and spit it out every once in a while. Here are several things you can do to protect yourself.

Netscape likes memory. It uses a lot, and then it doesn't give it back, even after you quit. It doesn't seem to do it as badly if you're just using it to view HTML off-line. But if, after an online session, you quit Navigator, then try to re-launch it, something bad happens (freeze, crash, etc.). It also happens if you try to launch any other sizable application.

I've looked in the About Macintosh box after using Netscape, and found 2 to 5 megs of memory have vanished! Besides the three megs used by the System, there remains only 13 megs available. And where is the rest? Netscape's hoarding it! The only real cure is to restart the computer, which recovers it completely. You can try Mac OS Purge (freeware), but it seldom fixes this one.

Within Navigator, there are adjustments you can make that will improve stability. The first is to give it enough RAM. If you're using 2.02 on a 680x0, 7 megs seems to be about the minimum, but 8 or 9 megs is better. If you like plug-ins, you'll have to increase the feeding.

In the Options Menu, there are some preferences you can set and some actions you can take. The first is to uncheck "Auto Load Images." It can be irritating if the author of a site didn't include Alt text tags, so you can't read anything when you first arrive, but most good sites do. You can always hit the "Images" button, or click them individually.

There are also options for showing the toolbar (I leave it on), the location (off unless needed), and the directory buttons (definitely off). You can keep the toolbar small, as text (first page of General Preferences). Down at the bottom of Options Menu is the curious "Save Options." This saves such info as the size of the window you want (bigger than my 14" monitor, unfortunately).

Here's the main trick. In the Network Preferences there is a dialog box for "Cache." This is where you set how much hard disk space Navigator gets to fill up with used Web pages. I use 2 MB, but you may want a little more. The theory is that Navigator will flush this out when it fills up, making room for more; but in practice it often freezes instead. I find that I get much better stability by flushing it myself, hitting the "Clear Disk Cache Now" during any long session.

Some people use this dialog to direct Navigator to use a RAM disk for the cache (the default cache location is in the Netscape folder, in the Preferences folder, in the System Folder). It's fairly complicated, however (Look at below URL). There are two good reasons for doing it; increasing speed, and limiting damage to the hard drive by cache writing. http://www.macworld.com/pages/april.97/Column.3377.html.

Damage is something you'll probably have to deal with sooner or later. Navigator often makes small mistakes when it writes the cache files. I consider it essential to own and use Norton's DiskDoctor (or at the very least Disk First Aid) if you use the Web (Internet Explorer does it too).

The Netscape Preference file will occasionally show damage as well. This is a more serious problem. I've found that once it begins to happen, it recurs regularly. The usual measures, including tossing the Preference and Global History files, don't fix it. The only sure cure is to take out all the Netscape files, then reinstall. So keep that installer handy. It's helpful to take screen shots of some of those preference dialogs before tossing them - it saves a lot of time when restoring settings.

Here's a final strange trick from the newsgroups. You may experience a freeze and encounter the "programmer's window," a blank rectangle with the ">" (greater than) symbol in the upper-left corner. You can bring it up in any application by hitting the Cmd.-Power keys (triangle). But wait!

It's often possible to escape to the Finder by typing G, or G FINDER, then hitting return. There are even better ones, but they're too long to remember. This will allow you to save files before restarting (which should be done before continuing further).

Happy sailing.

Download Netscape Navigator 3.0.1

A small extension that's supposed to help with freezes while loading pages, especially with earlier versions of Navigator. It's worth a try.

Download Netscape Defrost v0.9b2

This little program allows you to modify the six buttons in all versions of Netscape, so you can put in the names and URL's of your own favorite sites. Most of the Netscape defaults are still available via the Directory Menu, and the default settings can be restored at any time.

Download Navigator Button Editor v1.2

Download Web Retriever 1.0.1 68k

Download Web Retriever 1.0.1 PPC

Both of these programs do the same thing, and both do it well. They "suck" Web pages onto your hard drive so you can view them off-line, getting images and links as well as text and formatting. You can set the number of levels they'll go after, to get not only the links on one page, but the all the ones it has links to. I recommend setting it at 1, to only go one page further. That way you'll get any referenced images or pages, but not pages and pages worth.

I've found them immensely useful. I like to find well-written tutorials on the Web. After reading them online, I "suck" them onto my hard drive to read again later. The magic of these programs is that you can set them to change absolute URL's to relative URL's. This means that as long as you leave the original folder structures intact all the links to images and other pages that you have downloaded will work as if you were online - but at several times the speed, since they're already on the hard disk.

Web Devil is bigger, and has more help available. Otherwise, they're pretty much the same.

Download Web Devil 2.0

If you only have a 256-color monitor, as I do, then this graphics viewer is essential. Looking at JPEGs, which are millions-colors files, with anything else is like driving with a dirty windshield. In Netscape and GraphicConverter JPEGs are grainy. But JPEGView can use a special "two-pass color reduction" to display them in the best 256 colors possible, always clear and sharp.

File formats supported are JPEG, GIFF, and PICT, your basic Web and Mac graphics. It can save with previews (for use with a cataloging application) and custom Finder icons. Displays can be either cropped for details, or shown full-screen for maximum effect. It is primarily a viewer, however, rather than an editor or converter. The slide show also works well, with options for automation.

Another advantage over other graphics applications is that its memory needs are smaller. I have Netscape configured to save all JPEGs as JPEGView files. I can then view them as they are meant to be seen while remaining online without running out of RAM.

The documentation is a graphics education in itself. The only disadvantage is that the author has moved on to other things, so there will be no updates. Hopefully, I'll get a PowerMac with enough VRAM to see millions of colors someday as well.

Download JPEGView 3.3.1

Fenton Jones (manavesh@mymac.com)

Websites mentioned:
http://www.macworld.com/pages/april.97/Column.3377.html
http://cygnus.rsabbs.com/~ssykes/nsdefrost.html
http://loki.ups.edu/skylar
http://www.intellinet.com/~rickb
http://www.best.com/~bns/ChaoticSoftware

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