ns4.7 broken

something i did recently appears to have broken netscape communicator 4.7. i keep this browser on my machine primarily for its email client, messenger, which i like fine. fortunately, messenger is functioning okay.

when i say it's broken, essentially it won't load sites. i have it running on two different machines and it is okay on one, so i have my troubleshooting at least confined to this one computer... and i'm looking hard at various program updates and cleanings i have done that may have caused the prob, like some Spybot "fixes" and perhaps a recent SpywareBlaster update.

long story short, my questions are:

can i simply re-install ns4.7 on top and expect the trouble to be corrected? and... can someone point me to where i can obtain ns4.7? i do have an executable file in my downloads folder named sd_cc32d476en.exe that is probably what i need to run to install the browser, but i'd like some confirmation on that if anyone knows.

i quit using netscape as my everyday browser a couple years ago when i got burned out on its inherent crashiness. maybe it was just me, but i was constantly having to nurse it along with one fix or another. and i did try a few of those old "go-to" fixes that used to get me out of my netscape jams, like deleting the netscape.hst and cache files. when that didn't work, in extreme cases, i could usually rebuild the netscape registry by renaming nsreg.dat to nsreg.bak and restarting, and that would get things going again.

so i have tried those things this time, to no avail.

[edit in: well i located the problem... i isolated the 6 new SpywareBlaster definitions from yesterday and removed them from coverage, and ns4.7 is back to its old self. hmmmmm. very interesting. now i will add them back into coverage until i determine exactly which one causes the browser to stop functioning. but i wanted to post back here before anyone went to any trouble trying to help me.]

regards



mark

 

well i know i said the problem was fixed, and i thought that it was, but i spoke prematurely, and i'm back to a broken netscape.

so my basic questions are still out there...

can i simply re-install ns4.7 on top and expect the trouble to be corrected?

and...

can someone point me to where i can obtain ns4.7?

i do have an executable file in my downloads folder named sd_cc32d476en.exe that is probably what i need to run to install the browser, but i'd like some confirmation on that if anyone knows.



mark

 

Hi mr.mark,

can i simply re-install ns4.7 on top and expect the trouble to be corrected?

I would strongly advise not doing so. Since your problem has recurred, I would suggest that you upgrade to 4.79. There have been some significant bug and security fixes since 4.76:

What's New in This Release (4.79)

* Improvements accessing subfolders under the Inbox on certain mail servers.
* Performance improvements when accessing pages with nested tables and style sheets.
* Win2K Only: Improved performance when using certain pages with JavaScript and document.write.
* Improved support for dual processor machines.
* Win2K Only: Improved Performance when contacting a server on the same machine.
* Fixed incompatibilities which caused Communicator to quit unexpectedly while viewing certain web sites.

What's New in Previous Releases (4.78)

* Link failure during long browsing sessions has been fixed.
* Ghost processes present after shutdown problem has been greatly reduced.
* Performance problem with "Mark As Read" option in Newsgroups has been fixed.
* Entered URL in Netsite is no longer wiped out during auto completion.
* Improved Mousewheel support on Windows platforms.
* Improved support for Sun Java plug-in.
* Updates to components:
o Netscape AOL Instant Messenger version 4.3 (Windows only)
o Flash Player 5 (Windows only)


Back up your Users folder and go for it! Here is a guideline for a "Clean Install ". Being an experienced user, you most likely don't need this info, but just thought I'd throw it in for good measure.

Download sites:
http://wp.netscape.com/download/archive/client_archive47x.html
http://sillydog.org/narchive/full4.php

Curious as to what type of error you get, or exactly what happens when you can't load a web page?

Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona

 

hi ramona

thank you for your reply... i knew i could count on you.

you know, i actually thought i had 4.79 and was somewhat surprised to see it was still only 4.76.

i will follow your advice and move up to 4.79.

as to what is happening... no errors, just a failure to load web pages. and i should add, for accuracy sake, an intermittent and partial failure. yes, both. i.e, some sites load sometimes. other sites never load... just keep trying & trying.

specifically, when trying unsuccessfully to open an url, what i see along the bottom tool bar is...

Looking up host...
Contacting host...
Reading file... Done

but the page never fills and the bar graph in the lower left just travels back and forth for all eternity.

what happens sometimes when i do manage to open a page is i will see...

31% of 151 or 49% of 1K (or some similar number)

and the page may or may not open, never seeming to finish.

the browser window initially opens okay (i have it set to open new windows to a blank page), and like i said, messenger works fine.

the other thing that happens is that when i close netscape, the process still shows in task manager (running win2000), and i have to end it from there.

there have been instances in the past where i have encountered a reluctance on netscape's part to load a page, i.e, it has stalled, and i have then opened task manager and found a 2nd instance of netscape.exe running, which i would promptly close and all would be fine.

hope these added details provide a better picture of what i am experiencing.

i'll be away from the pc for awhile, so may not respond right away to any replies.

thank you!



mark

 

Hi Mark,

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be of help to you! I would say you were experiencing the "Phantom Netscape" syndrome. Another good reason to upgrade to 4.79, or 4.8. In Version 4.76, your only workaround is to close Netscape, remove Netscape from the open tasks, then reopen Netscape. Or... a right click and select "Open in new window" sometimes works. You will find this a rare occurrence, if at all, in 4.79.

I had a bad experience with 4.8, so I don't usually recommend using this version. Other users have few problems, but I found it to be unstable, at least on my system. I have 15 GB available, 800 Mhz PIII processor, and 384 MB of RAM, so I never felt the problem was on my end. I found 4.79 to be rock solid.

Let us know if we can continue to help!

Ramona

 

hi Ramona

your replies are most appreciated. i plan to upgrade ns to 4.79, probably tomorrow. i'll bet that fixes me up.

sure is a mystery what i could have done to break ns on two different machines. initially i thought ns was okay on the other computer, but i was wrong about that, i have broken it on both machines.

[suddenly i am struck by a great idea! i have netscape on a third operating system, win98se, that i haven't booted into in about 4 days. i bet it's running fine there, because i haven't done any updating on that os for awhile. i may just boot into w98 and once i confirm ns is functioning soundly, begin to install the various program updates, one at a time, until i discover which one renders ns unworkable. now that sounds like a plan, although the variables between winxp, win2000 and win98se may preclude this little experiment from producing reliable, and repeatable results.]

i'm looking primarily at the programs i run on both pc's that are updateable... which really are the only changes i've made to those machines since netscape decided to hasta la vista on me. those programs are...

BOClean
TrojanHunter
NAV
KAV
NoAds
SpywareBlaster
MRU-Blaster
Spybot
Ad-aware 6.0

i've posted on the wilders.org forums regarding Javacool's software, even hearing back from him. i doubt i did anything with his programs, although MRU-Blaster might have cleaned something too thoroughly.

anyway, i'm rambling. sorry for that. guess i'm really trying to sort it out in my head by "thinking" out loud.

i'll let you know what comes of this, or i might even wind up back at your door asking for more suggestions.

best regards



mark