Netscape browser needs site filters

Netscape 8.x has many enhancements, but the absence of any ability to
filter sites based on content is a disappointment. As a parent, I'd like
at a minimum to be able to create my own white list of allowed sites. It
would be even better if there were an online database of sites with site
content ratings, and switches to allow the Netscape browser admin to
determine what sites can be accessed based on the ratings.

 

Then, stop using NS8.x. It is unlikely to be updated any time soon, and it does not take well to the various extentions (addons) which are available for Firefox.
I can get a lot of information from the McAfee Site Advisor extention . As far as I know the extention will work only in IE and Firefox1.5.x-2.0beta1. The button is green if the site has no reported problem, and will be red, if objectionable.

 

Here is a consumers Report writeup about site filters.

I am a subscriber and can't check to see if the link will let you in. If not, the top pick for them is SafeBrowse.com.

Here is what PC Mag had to say.

 

not impressed with some aspects of Firefox 1.5

Westside-

I followed your suggestion and tried FireFox 1.5. It is small and fast, but there are some significant drawbacks vs. Netscape 8.2:

- Popup blocking seems to be completely ineffective in FireFox 1.5.
- When a popup window appears, there is often no "x" control to close the window
- Closing a tab requires right-clicking and selecting "close ". In Netscape 8.2, each tab has a small "x" that can be used to close the tab. This is much more convenient.

For now, I will continue using Netscape 8.2.

Phillip

 

Unless you have something which I don't know about, you must have 8.0.2 or 8.1, which is the latest version.
As for Popup controls, I have never seen an undesired popup in FF1.5. They are in Options|Contents. In fact, you have to give approval to, even, use any Popups. I am not using 1.5.0.5. However, the closing of Tabs by clicking in X is included in the beta version of Firefox2.0.
I have not gone into this Site Controls business, so I can't comment on that, but if you NS8.x works well for you, fine. It sure performs horribly for me. I cannot even use any extra tabs, because at least one freezes on startup, and, very often, it freezes with only the home page. It, usually, starts normally, on the second try, but it not a good browser. It needs a version 8.2, or whatever, to fix the numerous bugs, and, after all these months, I don't see that it is going to happen.
But, as Bmoores CR link points out, it seems to be the province of the ISP to provide Site Filters (my ISP does a good job, with external software, but it is limited to IE and Firefox). SafeEyes, as mentioned in the PCMag article, seems worth trying, since it appears to be browser-independent.

 

FireFox 1.5 vs. Netscape 8.1

You are right-- The Netscape version that I'm using is 8.1.

It is also true that there are a fair number of bugs in Netscape 8.1. Most of these are minor, but a few are very annoying. In particular, Netscape frequently hangs on startup. When that happens, one must start up the Task Manager, search for all instances of Netscape, and kill them off. Also, the problem with some Tools/Options dialog box fields being inaccessible means, e.g., that one cannot change the proxy setting.

Re. the issue of popups in Firefox, I did check the Tools/Options/Content settings to make sure that I had specified blocking of all popups, but I'm still getting the popups. Until the popup blocking in FireFox is fixed, this one item by itself is sufficiently annoying that I will have to keep Netscape around.

Thanks!

Phillip

 

Phillip,

Popup blocking in Firefox 1.5.0.5 isn't broken. If you have enabled the option to block popups, then that's what will happen. You can add sites on which you would like to allow popups. Did you check this list to determine if perhaps the sites where you get the popups, have been allowed?

Give us some links where you are getting the popups, if you would, and let us check to see if we get the same results.

Thanks!

 

Philip,
really, let us know about Firefox, and popups. You are the first person who has reported problems with popups.
And, with NS8.1, how about managing the bookmarks? It takes, at least, 30 sec. to move, or even delete a single bookmark. But, the issue, here, is with something in 1.5.0.5 which is not known.

 

popup blocking is broken in FireFox 1.5.0.5

Ramona and Westside,

Popup blocking is indeed broken in Firefox 1.5.0.5. I've checked that I'm running version 1.5.0.5, and I've checked that the list of sites that are exempted from popup blocking is empty. Nevertheless, I'm still getting the popups. There are several sites where I get the popups. One is http://www.jpost.com/

Re. deletion of bookmarks in Netscape 8.x: One can delete a bookmark by rightclicking in the bookmark list and then selecting "delete" from the context menu. This seems fast enough to me. There are plenty of things that don't work properly in Netscape 8.x, but I haven't encountered any problems with bookmarks.

Yours,

Phillip

 

I get no popup from the link you gave. There is a possibility that it may have to you, if you never installed Firefox before. I don't know what type of version is used by Ramona, or by you. My situation may be different, as I have been doing incremental updates since Firefox1.5.0.2.
Never mind the Powerrabbit part, but my UA is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.5) Gecko/20060719 Powerrabbit Firefox/1.5.0.5
As for NS8.1, deletion is fast using right click|delete. I have been doing all along any deletion from Manage Bookmarks|Select bookmark|Delete from the toolbar. Given time it will delete. As for moving bookmarks, it is rather speedy today. I dragged and dropped a bookmark four positions up, and it took only 8 sec. I have seeing complaints that it was taking up to one minute to perform the operation. I could do it in under 30 sec. But, even 8 sec. is way too long.
I believe that the last time I saw a popup was with version1.0.3,
What type of popup do you see? I see some very interesting news.

 

No popup on the site here. I am using Firefox 1.5.0.5?

 

I'm no longer seeing the popups in FireFox 1.5.0.5

I will continue to monitor this. I'm perplexed that I was seeing the popups yesterday, including ones that could not be closed, but not seeing them today. Perhaps some automatic update occurred in the background, but then I would expect the version number to have changed. Strange.

Thanks! Phillip