Netscape 7.1 loses bookmarks, mail, etc

This happens about once every other month. Since upgrading to 7.1, I get a screen, "register with a screen name, etc ", "if you choose not to do so, you are free to use Netscape 7.1" .
When this occurs, all bookmarks, mail, settings are gone. Wiped out. I called Netscape tech support, paid the fine, and they told me to download the full offline installer. After doing this, I was walked through the install, nothing about registering with Netscape.
So after losing everything again this evening, I went ahead and registered, using an old e-mail address. Is this Netscapes way of treating users? At one time, tech support was helpful. Is there something I can do to prevent this from happening again?

 

Please save your money. There are several newsgroups like this which work well and are free. remember that AOL owns Netscape, and they know about Netscape about as much as any of the AOL "support" people. Not too well.
In your case, nothing is really gone. Just think that Netscape is made up of three parts. The program, which everyone tends to work with, and is rarely at fault. The Profile which is located in a different place, but is vital to the correct performance of the program, and on top it stores your bookmarks, address books and Mail. A third part is to confuse people, but needed.
So, you can uninstall and the reinstall the program till doomsday, but if you keep using the same Profile, which pops up, but has no link to the needed files. Ramona has an excellent section on Netscape7/Mozilla profiles.
http://home.att.net/~cherokee67/index6.html#7profile You will need to create a new profile, and then try to get back your files.