12th June 2001

Netscape isn't my favorite browser on the 'Net, but it does have one rather nice feature that can be invoked with slow loading pages to find out what's gumming up the works. Navigator has a habit of preventing the display of a page if JUST ONE image is broken, sometimes hanging up for up to 2 (or more) minutes. By hitting Control + Alt + T, Netscape will show you a list of pending items left to download and their full URL, giving you a good idea of what the problem may be. Banner servers are notorious for breaking completely or failing to respond in a timely manner, thus you may see ad links / images listed quite often. You'll also see your connection status, which tells you precisely how many connections are required to finish the page as well as the concurrent connection limit that your browser is currently configured to handle. If you're looking for a viable browsing alternative (without dropping any more money or putting up with internal ad rotations), check out the Mozilla project at MOZILLA.ORG. Now that Netscape is no longer in the browser business (which they publicly stated last week), you may be wise to grow attached to another product.