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Netscape Communicator 4  

Netscape Communicator is a bunch of computer programs, the most popular of which are the Navigator web browser and the Messenger E-mail program. The group of programs has expanded over time and now includes: Netscape Composer, a newsreader, AOL Instant Messenger, Real Player G2, WinAmp, a user profile manager, a quality feedback agent and more. 

March 2, 2000 
I upgraded a Windows NT machine from Netscape Communicator v4.61 to v4.72. The first step was downloading the 18 meg file cc32e472.exe from Netscape's web site.

My biggest gripe with Netscape Communicator has been true for every release of the product...

   you are not given installation instructions until after you install the product.

Unbelievable, but true. Like all windows software, there is a "readme" file for Communicator, but the user is not told about it or asked if they want to read it, until after the product has already been installed. In fact, you could not get at the readme file, even if you wanted to, it is embedded deep within the 18 meg EXE file that is Communicator.

What's the first thing in the readme file?

You can't make this stuff up.

The release notes are on Netscape's web site at  home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.7/relnotes/windows-4.7.html
The release notes contain a section called "Before You Install". Too late now.

The release notes however do not contain a section about how to install the product. That's in the readme file included with the product. As a public service, these instructions are included here at the bottom of this page so you can read them before you install the product. 

I did a custom installation which shows you all the programs that are part of Communicator and allows you to chose which ones to install. However, it does not tell you anything about the version/release of each included program.

The online release notes say that Communicator v4.7 includes AIM version 3.0. On my computer, I had AIM version 2.0N before installing Communicator 4.7 and also afterwards. Both Help -> About and the main AIM window (which you only see if its not set to automatically log on) say that I am running version 2.0N. Communicator 4.72 may include AIM version 3.0, but it did not install it on my computer, even though I opted to install everything.

Likewise, before the installation I was running Real Player G2 version 6.0.6.99. This too, was not updated to a newer version. Of course, this could be normal behavior - nowhere does it say what version of Real Player is included in Communicator 4.72. However, even it is normal, its annoying, because Real Player was a big part of the 18 meg download. The installation process said that it takes up 11 meg of disk space.

The installation process tells you the required disk space in Kilobytes. Considering that Communicator needs 43,560 KB for a full install, its about time they reported this number in Megabytes. 

There is now a Shop@Netscape button on the Navigator toolbar.

The installation process added Netscape Smart Download to my START button without asking. Fortunately, it is easily removed in the standard way (right click on the START button, select either "Open" or "Explore", find the shortcut to Netscape Smart Download and delete it).

Two programs in Communicator seem to step on their own feet. The first time I ran Real Player G2 after upgrading Communicator from 4.61 to 4.72 it complained:

The file types in question were WAV and MP3 which are now "owned" (for lack of a better word) by WinAmp, which was installed on my computer as part of Communicator 4.72.

March 3, 2000.

AOL Instant Messenger no longer works, no doubt having something to do with the upgrade of Communicator. It opens two windows when it starts up, not the usual one. The second window has little more than the title bar. There are now two entries in the task bar, one says Buddy List, the other is blank (except for the orange running person).

Shutting down either window caused AIM to crash the first day. Three days later, it worked differently. If I select File -> Sign Off, I get the Font Selection window which then responds to neither the OK or CANCEL button on it. If I select File -> Exit, nothing happens at all. If I X out of the AIM window, I again get the Font Selection window. Closing the second window by Xing out of it still causes AIM to crash.

Installation Instructions
from the Netscape Communicator v4.72 readme file

To run Communicator, you MUST have a 32-bit TCP/IP stack. Both Windows 95 and Windows NT provide built-in 32-bit TCP/IP stacks that you can set up. You can also get TCP/IP software from third-party vendors, such as Trumpet Software or Ftp Software.

To obtain a copy of Netscape Communicator, download one of the self-extracting executable files into a temporary directory.
For Communicator Base:
  cb32e472.exe (standard installation with export encryption)
  cb32d472.exe (standard installation with domestic encryption)
For Communicator Complete:
  cc32e472.exe (includes multimedia plug-ins with export encryption)
  cc32d472.exe (includes multimedia plug-ins with domestic encryption)
For Communicator Enterprise with Calendar:
  cp32e472.exe (export encryption)
  cp32d472.exe (domestic encryption)
To start the installation process, double-click the self-extracting file.

* Windows 95 and Windows NT users: if you are using any version of Communicator prior to 4.72, you will get multiple uninstall entries in your Add/Remove program. To avoid these multiple entries, uninstall your previous version of Communicator before you install the new release.

* The Netscape Audio Plug-in only works if you have a sound card installed and configured properly. This plug-in does not work with the PC speaker driver. To configure the sound card, check the documentation that came with your sound card.

* If you previously installed CoolTalk Watchdog, you need to uninstall the Communicator version you have and restart your system before installing Communicator 4.72. You might experience problems running Cooltalk with Matrox MGA Millennium graphic adapters using early Windows 95 drivers. Make sure that you are running version 2.22.039 or later.

* If you uninstalled an earlier version of Communicator, restart your system before installing the latest version of Communicator. Restarting deletes old Communicator files that may exist.

Gripes on the above

• Although Windows 98 has been around for about 1.5 years, these installation notes have not yet been updated to reflect the fact that it too (in addition to Windows 95) includes a 32 bit TCP/IP stack.
• The instructions refer to different flavors of Communicator v4.72 (Base, Complete, Enterprise with Calendar), but offer no clue about what the different flavors are or where to get more information about them. The online release notes also say nothing about the flavors of Communicator v4.72. When I downloaded Communicator from Netscape's web site there was no mention of the different flavors of Communicator at all.
• The instructions say to download your favorite flavor of Communicator, but don't say from where.

Clean Installation

March 5, 2000. I did a clean installation of Communicator 4.72 on a different computer (running Windows NT 4). That is, this computer never had any version of Communicator previously installed.

Real Player G2 complained because the system was not set up to display, what it thought, were enough colors. At the time, the computer was displaying 16 colors.

Real Player G2 starts up at boot time without asking the user if this is what they want. This can be disabled. It also is configured to automatically send various types of data back to the vendor, but this can be disabled.

Unlike my prior experience, AIM version 3.0N was indeed installed as part of the package. Like Real Player, it too is configured to start up at boot time, but this can be disabled if desired.

When Communicator starts up the splash screen says its version 4.7 when it really is version 4.72. This was also true with version 4.61 which said it was version 4.6 in the splash screen. Fortunately the standard Help -> About reports the correct version with two decimal places.

FYI: it installed Real Player version 6.0.5.27 and used 48 meg of disk space on the C disk.

April 10, 2000. 

I did another clean installation on a Windows 98 Second Edition computer. That is, the computer had no prior versions of Netscape Navigator or Communicator. 

Real Player G2 did not work. At first I had problems under Internet Explorer version 5 using the Finance section of Yahoo which often points to streaming audio/video stories from On24.A couple of them failed with a "general error". Then I tried the G2 application stand-alone and it too failed to work. The stand-alone G2 application has a feature to check for updates and, sure enough, there is a version 7 now. I downloaded over 3 megabytes of version 7 and installed it. Now everything works fine.   

April 15, 2000. 

I'm in the process of moving my main computing environment from Windows 98 to Windows NT4. Communicator v4.72 is installed under NT4. Turns out that Messenger has no provision for importing E-mail from another copy of Communicator (v4.6 is running under Windows 98). Selecting File -> Import from the Messenger menu bar brings up a list of importing options. It can import address books, but not E-mail from itself. The fact that it can import E-mail from Outlook and Outlook Express shows that Netscape was focused on moving customers away from Microsoft's products. However, they seemingly ignored their existing customers.  

Communicator can import bookmarks, but not with File-> Import, that would be too easy and consistent.  File on the Navigator menu bar, does not even have an Import option. File on the Messenger menu bar can only import address books and email. Instead, you have to go to Navigator, then bookmarks, then edit bookmarks, then File -> Import. 

I seemed to have faked it out. Communicator supports different users and stores each users profile and email in a folder called "users" under the main "Netscape" folder. On the new computer, I renamed the existing user profile and copied the folder with all my data from the old Windows 98 machine to the new NT4 machine. Then I renamed this folder with the same name that the NT4 version of Communicator used to know about. The only problem is that I ended up with a subfolder called "Xvr5r3l0.tmp" that seems to be a duplicate of the inbox. I can live with that. 

September 20, 2000  Upgrade to version 4.72

On an NT4 computer (SP6a) machine already running Communicator v4.08, I upgraded it to version 4.72.  Considering that Real Player G2 included in Communicator 4.72 is both old and big, I did a custom install and opted not to include it. 

Communicator 4.08 had not been installed into the standard, default directory. Communicator 4.72 defaulted to installing itself in a different directory from v4.08 and I took this default. 

The installation added an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) icon to the Windows desktop. There already was an AIM icon on the desktop that invoked AIM version 1. The new icon invoked AIM version 3. They both worked. Its sloppy and wasteful not to detect and erase older versions of programs when installing new ones. 

Not to be outdone, Netscape did the same thing with Communicator. The machine now has both v4.08 and v4.72 installed and operable on it. Very sloppy. 

The installation process added an icon for Netscape Smart Update to the START button menu without asking. Not only is this impolite, this program is spyware. 

This machine use Netscape profiles which allow many people to share one copy of Communicator and each maintain their own personalized settings and separate and distinct mailboxes. I mention this because...

...the first time I ran v4.72 it was not happy. As you can see here on the right,, it could not find a profile that the older version was using very happily. Its not at all clear what happened here or what to do about it. My best guess was to click the BROWSE button and point it to a directory in the folder where the old version of Communicator was. This worked, however, now my email is stored in the folder for the old version while I am running the new version. This is an accident just waiting to happen. 

The first time I ran Messenger to get email, I had lost my window setting preferences (it added a pane listing all the mailboxes). After going through the above to point it to my preferences, it still lost them. Messenger also did something I had never seen before, it downloaded all my new email immediately without my first asking for it. Turns out there is an option for this and I turned it off. Another preference lost. 

Finally, it does not know how big it is. Before upgrading, the machine had 214.5 meg of free space. After upgrading it was down to 192.3 meg. With the options I chose, Communicator consumed 22.2 meg of disk space. The installation dialog said that it needed 29.1 meg. Not quite, off by 6.9 meg (24 percent).  

September 21, 2000   Print Preview and Copy/Paste

For the longest time the ability to do a Print Preview in Netscape Navigator was an advantage it had over Internet Explorer. As of IE v5.5, it also does Print Preview (this may have been an optional add-on feature to earlier releases of IE5, I'm not sure). The IE Print Preview is better than that in Navigator because it can go directly to the last page of the preview. To me, this is a very useful feature. 

Another old issue between the two browsers where Navigator comes up short is in Copy/Paste. There are many web pages where Navigator does not support selecting text on the page and then Copy/Pasting it into another application. In contrast, IE seems to allow this on every web page. It has always worked every time I try it. 

September 22, 2000  Upgrade to version 4.75

Version 4.72 is a tad old, so I thought it might be time to upgrade to the current latest and greatest, version 4.75. 

From Navigator, you can learn about new software by selecting Help=>Software Updates. I did this, and fought through the upgrade process, which is way more complicated and confusing than it needs to be. In the end, there are three browser windows: the last normal one from the process of figuring out what to download, a road map and instructions page which tries to explain the very confusing upgrade process and the download progress window. The download of v4.75 started, so I went on to do other stuff. A few minutes later I go back to check on its progress and nothing is downloading. The download progress window is gone. No error messages. Just bye bye. 

A little detective work on my part tracked down the FTP server from which it was downloading. Now I can go directly to their FTP site and bypass the confusing upgrade process. As an FYI, you can download Netscape Communicator from:

     ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/english/4.75/windows/windows95_or_nt/ 

From here you chose either a base install (about 16 meg) or a complete install (about 19 meg). 

I downloaded the base install (using Navigator 4.72), figuring that the extra multi-media programs were best off dealt with separately. The download never completed. The computer was doing nothing else but downloading Communicator, and eventually the download status window showed the image at the right. Is it finished? The percentage is 100%, but the status line shows that it still has 4K more to download and the time shows 1 second remaining. However, this display never changed. It never said the download finished and I remained logged on to the Internet for quite a while afterward. With no choice but to click CANCEL, the 15.8 megs of downloaded stuff was a total waste of time. 

I licked my wounds for a couple days and then tried this again on September 26, 2000. This time it hung again, but got farther. 

As the screen shot to the right shows, the cb32d475.exe file was in my C:\TEMP directory, with a size of 15,876KB. Two more kilobytes than last time. The status however shows that I downloaded 15,878K a whopping four kilobytes more than last time. This time there was no time left, I had used up that last second. However, since it had hung again, there was no choice but to click on the CANCEL button. Doing so deleted the file I had just spent all this time downloading. 

Now I have downloaded over 31 megabytes of data with nothing to show for it at all. 

The next day, I tried again with another FTP program, the command line FTP included with Windows NT4 (see below). This one hung too. However, it seems to have gotten further, if such a thing is possible. I eventually cancelled out of it and will see if there is enough of the file to install from.

Turned out the file was fine (see next topic). 

January 3, 2001   Installing version 4.75

I installed v4.75 on a Windows 98 SE computer that had no prior version of Netscape. FYI: It says it requires 29,946KB of disk space for the full installation that I chose to do. I didn't verify this.

It still suffers from the problem of telling you how to install the product after it's already installed. The last step in the installation asks you if you want to view the readme file. I said yes. The readme file warns that you should check out the release notes on a specific web page before installing Netscape v4.75. After this warning are the installation instructions.  

The installation put an icon on the Windows 98 desktop for Free AOL that pointed to c:\windows\options\cab\ols\aol\aol40us.exe. It also added Netscape SmartDownload to the START menu. 

January 26, 2001   What's Up With Chrome? 

Sometimes when Netscape v4 starts up the chrome at the top of the window does not display correctly as shown below. This has happened to me on two NT4 workstation machines. One was at SP6 with Netscape 4.72. The other was at SP3 with Netscape 4.61.  Minimizing the window and restoring it, returns the chrome to normal. 

January 31, 2001   Finding E-mail Servers 

Version 4.72. This has been true with Netscape Messenger for a long time. If Messenger is up and running when I dial on to the Internet, it can't find the e-mail servers to send or get mail. I have to shut down the program and restart it while there is an active Internet connection. Another work-around is to shut down the program with it thinking that its off-line. Then when it next starts up, it still thinks its offline. Then when a net connection is later established, if you tell Netscape that it is now online (which it is) it works fine. 

April 14, 2001   Upgrading to v4.77 

I tried to download v4.77 of Communicator from the Netscape web site. It downloaded 12 megabytes of a "jar" file and then did nothing. It did not install itself as the web site said it would. 
The base installation version of v4.77 from CNet download.com is 16.9 megabytes. Why the file size from Netscape's web site is only 12 megabytes is a mystery to me. I was able to download from download.com just fine. 

April 19, 2001   Installing v4.77 

Installed Communicator v4.77 base version on a machine running NT4 workstation at SP6a. 

As before, it asks you if you want to read the readme file after the product is installed and, of course, the readme file has notes about installing the product. 

The first step in the product installation lets you chose the directory to install into. It wanted to install into C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator. But there was already a prior version of Communicator in that directory. Should I clobber the old version or install to a new directory? Beats me, no help is provided. I opted to install into a new directory. 

It added icons all over the place. On the START button menu, it added Netscape Smart Update. On the desktop, it added an AOL icon that promised up to 700 free hours your first month. The icon pointed to a web page at free.aol.com. It also added an AIM icon to the desktop. 

AIM was an interesting story. First I ran the old version of AIM that I already had and it said it was version 3.0N. Then I clicked on the new AIM icon and it also said it was version 3.0N. I found that hard to believe so I checked the properties of the EXE files that each icon pointed to. The old aim.exe file was version 3.0.1470 from January 12, 2000. The new aim.exe file (in a new directory you may recall) is version 4.3.2229 from March 15, 2001. So why does the new AIM say its the same version as the old one? Turns out when you shut down AIM it does not fully shut down. An AIM icon remains in the system tray. If the system tray icon is from version 3, running the new AIM results in running version 3. If there is no AIM icon in the system tray, then running the new AIM produces version 4 of AIM.  

FYI: Freespace on the C disk was 1.09 gig before the install and 1.08 gig afterwards. The first time the new Internet applications tried to execute, ZoneAlarm asked whether they could access the Internet. This is normal and expected. 

July 3, 2001   Messenger Gripes 

I prefer Messenger over Outlook Express, but have my gripes with Messenger also. 

Somewhere along the line of Communicator 4.x, Messenger started displaying an initial Netscape splash page. There is no user configurable option to turn this off. However, it can be prevented by modifying a preferences file. In directory
 C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\profilename there is a file called prefs.js. Make a backup copy of this file for good luck. Then edit it with Notepad and add this to it 
  user_pref("mailnews.start_page.enabled", false);
It should take effect the next time Netscape is started.   

Messenger will not open IE when clicking on HTML links, even if IE is the default web browser for your system. 

September 4, 2001   Navigator v4.77 and TimeKeeper 

In developing my TimeKeeper web page/program, I had problems while testing it with Netscape Navigator v4.77. When a new reminder window was created, it always issued a warning that the timer was cancelled. This was not true as the timer was in effect and ran fine and alerted the user when the timer was up. There warning message comes from the onUnload event and creating a new window should not trigger this event. Also, if the reminder window was closed prior to the reminder time, no warning was issued when it should have been. In effect, the onUnload worked as if it was an onLoad event. 

From a reminder window created by IE5, I did a View=>Source and saved the HTML. Running this HTML under Netscape v4.77 worked fine. For some reason, when the HTML is generated by TimeKeeper dynamically, something goes wrong under Netscape. The HTML in question is: 

<html><head><title>Reminder-sample</title>
<script language='javascript'>var flag1='no', rtext='sample ';
function SetTimer(){notused=setTimeout('DoTimer()',60000);return true;}
function DoTimer(){flag1='yes';alert('TimeKeeperReminder:'+rtext);window.close();return true;}
function UlWarn(){if(flag1!='yes'){alert('TimeKeeper Warning:Alert to'+rtext+'canceled');}}
</script></head>
<body onLoad='SetTimer()'onUnload='UlWarn()' bgcolor='aqua'>
<h3 align=center>TimeKeeper Reminder</h3><hr color='red'>
This is a pending reminder to: sample<hr color='red'>
This window . . .
</body></html>

Debugging this proved hard because of another bug with Netscape. A View=>Page Source in Netscape on the main TimeKeeper web page does not show the correct underlying source code in the section where the HTML for the reminder window is generated. A View=>Page Source on a reminder window generated in Netscape also does not show the correct underlying HTML. It shows none of the scripts, yet I know the scripts were generated because the reminder does work. A File=>Save from the Reminder window generated under Netscape also shows none of the script definitions. Yet the script definitions must be there. Its impossible to know what HTML Netscape was dealing with.

Another TimeKeeper Navigator problem has to do with this JavaScript code: 

var1 = window.open("","","status=0,toolbar=0,height=185,width=520,resizable=yes");

The browser would not create multiple windows using the code above. IE5 would. With Netscape, each new window always clobbered the last one. With IE5 this only happened when the second parameter, the window name was present. Omitting the window name as shown above, causes IE5 to open multiple windows when this command is executed multiple times.  

More Navigator v4.77 Gripes

March 7, 2002. In developing this web site, I've run into some other problems with Netscape Navigator 4.77 which are detailed on the page for HTML gripes.

FYIs

FYI: For help with Netscape Communicator, click here

FYI: The latest (and last?) version of Netscape Communicator 4 is 4.78 (as of October 5, 2001). You can read the release notes here, including information about how to install it. Windows 2000 users beware: Using SmartUpdate to update from previous versions of Communicator to version 4.78 does not work for restricted users on Windows 2000 systems. Administrators of Windows 2000 machines must completely uninstall older versions of Communicator, then install version 4.78 by using the full installer. Click here for more on installing under Windows 2000. 

FYI:  CNet wrote Update and renovate Netscape 4.x about Netscape Navigator on August 21, 20001. 

FYI:  Web based downloads: To download the current Netscape Communicator start here. To download older versions (2.0x thru 4.7x) start here. Another link to try is this. Sillydog.org also has a Netscape archive. 

FYI: FTP based downloads: V4.77 for Windows 95,98 or NT4. There are other FTP servers run by Netscape called "ftp2" thru "ftp9" which is used in this link. They also have one that starts with "ftp" but that would probably be the busiest one. You should be able to download version 4.8 via FTP. 

Other Gripers 

Georgi Guninski, a Bulgarian computer consultant, JavaScripter, and program-bug-hunter has a web page with a long list of bugs in Netscape Communicator version 4. 

Related Link:  For a comparison between the Netscape E-mail program (Messenger) and its rival from Microsoft, Outlook Express version 5, click here.

AOL/Netscape spies on surfers. October 7, 2000. The "SmartDownload" and "Search" features of the Netscape Browser log downloads and search queries and send this data to Netscape, thus transferring file names, search criteria and the user's e-mail address without asking for permission to do so.