Netscape Communicator FAQ's

This page contains the top 10 questions regarding Netscape Communicator. Click on the question below to be taken to the appropriate answer.

1) How can I make Navigator 4.xx or Communicator the default browser?
2) How can I configure Communicator to remember my mail password and to check for new mail at user-specified intervals?
3) Converting IE Mail, Address Book, and Bookmarks to Communicator
4) How do I uninstall previous versions of Navigator from Windows95/98?
5) How can I save my bookmarks, mail folders and other data files before reinstalling Communicator to a different directory?
6) How can I convert my Internet Explorer (IE) Favorites to Netscape bookmarks?
7) I have set up several profiles in Communicator, but I mostly use one. Do I have to choose a profile every time?
8) How do I create or delete user profiles in Communicator?
9) How can I view or clear the Netscape history file?
10) Cookies: What they are and how they work.

 

1) How can I make Navigator 4.xx or Communicator the default browser?

A) Normally, Communicator will check to make sure it is the defualt browser. If, however, you were asked, previously, if you wished to make Navigator your default browser, and you chose "No" after selecting "Do not perform this check in the future," Communicator will not check again. The instructions below will help you configure Communicator to check to see if it is the default browser.

  1. Make sure that another browser is the default browser. If Communicator does not detect that another browser is configured as the default browser, these directions will not work properly. If Internet Explorer is the other browser on your computer, you can make it the default by doing the following:
    1. Open the Windows 95 Control Panel by clicking the Windows Start button, Settings, and then Control Panel.
    2. In the Control Panel, double-click the Internet icon.
    3. Click the Programs tab.
    4. Click the checkbox beside "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser".
    5. Click OK.
    6. Windows NT 4.0 users: If you are using the Internet Explorer 2.0 version which was installed with NT, open Internet Explorer, go to the View menu and choose Options, select the Programs tab and place a checkmark in the appropriate text box.
    7. Launch Internet Explorer and make it the default browser if asked.
  2. Make a backup copy of your Communicator preference file, prefs.js.
    1. Close Internet Explorer and then double-click the My Computer shortcut on the Windows desktop.
    2. Go to your Communicator user profile folder. By default, it will be located in:

      C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\{your profile name}
    3. Locate the prefs.js file (if you do not see prefs.js, locate the prefs file).
    4. Click the prefs.js file so it is selected (do not double-click).
    5. In the Edit menu of that window, select Copy.
    6. In the File menu, select File, then New, and Folder.
    7. Name the folder "Backup" (no quotation marks).
    8. Open the Backup folder you just created by double-clicking it.
    9. In the File menu, click Edit and then choose Paste.
    10. You should now have a copy of your prefs.js file in a "Backup" folder.
  3. Edit the prefs.js file to tell Communicator to verify that it is the default browser.
    1. Close Communicator completely. This will not work if Communicator is open.
    2. Open Windows Notepad. In order to do so, click the Windows Start button, Programs, Accessories, and then Notepad.
    3. In Notepad, in the File menu, select Open.
    4. Locate the prefs.js file in your user profile folder, click once on it to select it, then click Open.
    5. Go to your Communicator user profile folder.
    6. Next to "Files of type:" click the drop-down menu and choose "All Files (*.*)"
    7. Click once on the prefs.js file and click Open.
    8. You should now see the contents of the prefs.js file displayed in Notepad.
    9. Use the Down arrow key on the keyboard to move the text cursor to the bottom of the text. Make sure the cursor is on a new line which does not contain text.
    10. Type the following new line EXACTLY as it appears here:

      user_pref("browser.wfe.ignore_def_check", false);
    11. Make certain that all the text you type is in lower case and is exactly as it appears above.
    12. When you are done, in the File menu, select Save.
    13. In the File menu, select Exit to close Notepad.
  4. Open Communicator. The following window should appear:

    Navigator is no longer registered to handle Internet Shortcuts. Would you like to register Navigator as your default browser?

  5. Click Yes to make Navigator your default browser (Navigator is a component of Communicator so this will make the Navigator component of Communicator the default browser).

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2) How can I configure Communicator to remember my mail password and to check for new mail at user-specified intervals?

A)

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3) Converting IE Mail, Address Book, and Bookmarks to Communicator

A)

  1. Convert your mail folders.

    Converting mail folders is complicated since MS Internet Mail and News stores information in a proprietary format, while Netscape mailboxes are in the standard Unix mailbox format (RFC 822 compliant). In Communicator 4.5, Netscape has included the ability to import Microsoft Mailboxes.

    To import Microsoft mailboxes (from Outlook, or Internet Mail), with Communicator 4.5, first export the Microsoft mailbox to a *.mbx format. This can be accomplished from the File menu's Export command in most of Microsoft's mail products.

    Once you have the Mail folder in .mbx format, you can then go into Communicator, open Messenger, go to the File menu in Messenger, and choose Import. Choose to import from Outlook Express or Outlook 97/98 (you should choose Express for everything except Outlook 97/98), and it will prompt you for the location of the .mbx file you made. Once you have given it the location of the .mbx file, it should import your Mail and addresses.

    If you are still using Communicator 4.0x or earlier and don't want to upgrade at this time, there is no easy way to import mailboxes mailboxes from Microsoft Internet Mail and News and Exchange clients.

    You do, however, have two options:

  2. Convert your address book.

    The import process for mail outlined above should have imported your addresses as well. If you're still using Communicator 4.0x or earlier and don't want to upgrade at this time, this presents a similar problem, since Internet Mail and News stores names in proprietary format which is incompatible with LDIF standard (Internet LDAP interchange format), and there is also no Export function for addresses in IE mail.

    There are, however, several third party tools that can help you with this migration. One is Interguru's E-mail Address Conversions, available at http://www.interguru.com/mailconv.htm .

  3. Convert IE shortcuts to bookmarks.

    Finally, to convert your Internet Explorer Favorites/Shortcuts, please use any of the following tools:

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4) How do I uninstall previous versions of Navigator from Windows95/98?

A)

  1. Back up any needed files.

    Find the files bookmark.htm, address.htm,   (abook.nab in Communicator), cookies.txt and the Mail directory and copy them to another location on the hard drive (for example: c:\backup).

    If you downloaded Netscape from the Internet, copy the installation file to another location on the hard drive such as c:\backup.

  2. Uninstall previous versions of Netscape from Windows 95/98.

    Close any programs that are running.  To check which programs are running, hold down the CTRL and ALT keys and hit the Delete key once.  In the Close Program window, select End Task on any program except Explorer ( Explorer is Windows 95's shell) and Systray.  Repeat choosing End Task for all programs until only these two programs remain.

    In the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.  Select any Netscape Navigator, Personal Edition, or Communicator programs and choose Add/Remove.  NOTE: Do NOT remove shared files located in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder.

  3. Remove remaining Netscape files.

    In Windows Explorer, open the C:\Program Files\Netscape folder. (NOTE: This is the default location for Netscape's files and folders. If you have Netscape installed elsewhere, you will need to locate that folder instead.)

    Rename  the Navigator or Communicator folder, along with Users folders,  but not any others.

  4. Install new version of Netscape from your diskette, CD-ROM, or downloaded installation file.
  5. Move mail, bookmarks and address book back to the original destination.

Note:

If you wish to uninstall on a Macintosh please refer to Article 990207 for assistance.

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5) How can I save my bookmarks, mail folders and other data files before reinstalling Communicator to a different directory?

A) Before you de-install Netscape, save your User directory. (Mission Control users: Save the Custom folder. If you don't know if you're running Mission Control, you aren't running it!)

  1. To save your user directory:

    For Windows 95/98:

    1. Right-click the Start button and choose Explore.
    2. Go to C:\Program Files\Netscape.
    3. Copy the folder called User (or Users) to your desktop. (Hold down the Ctrl key and drag and drop the User folder to your desktop.)

    For Mac:

    1. Click on your Hard Drive.
    2. Go into the System Folder and open up the Preference folder.
    3. Drag the Netscape Users folder to the desktop.
    4. When the User(s) folder is saved de-install Netscape.

      For Windows 95/98:

      1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
      2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
      3. Select the Netscape Listing(s)
      4. Click Add/Remove
      5. Go to the Netscape directory and delete it and all the files inside it. To do this:
        • Click Start, Programs, Windows Explorer.
        • Find the Netscape Directory.
        • Click it once to highlight it.
        • Click Delete, and then click "Delete everything in it".
        • Empty the Recycle Bin.
        • Restart the Computer

      For Mac:

      1. Open up your Hard Drive find the Netscape Folder and Drag it to the trash.
      2. Highlight any Netscape aliases and drag them to the trash.
      3. Click on Special from the top menu bar and select Empty Trash.
      4. Next, go to the Apple menu, select Find File and search for Netscape. Drag any found files (except the Netscape User folder on your desktop and any Netscape installer files you might have) to the trash and empty the trash.
      5. Restart the Computer.
    5. Once the de-install is complete, upgrade or re-install the new version of Netscape.
    6. Before you launch your newly installed Netscape application, put the User directory back into the Netscape directory. (First you will need to create a new profile with the same name as you old user directory, then Drag the folder back into C:\Program Files\Netscape\users for Windows and into the Preference folder for Mac.) Make sure it is named User and not "Copy of User"

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6) How can I convert my Internet Explorer (IE) Favorites to Netscape bookmarks?

A) Neither Navigator nor Communicator has a feature which can convert Internet Explorer Favorites to Netscape HTML bookmarks. However, any of the following non-Netscape utilities can assist you with the conversion process:

 

Other Utilities

There are also many other conversion tools and bookmark management utilities available. You can find such applications on any of the following download sites:

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7) I have set up several profiles in Communicator, but I mostly use one. Do I have to choose a profile every time?

A) No, you don't. You can set up a command-line option to start a particular profile.

In Windows 95/98/NT:

1.  Locate your Communicator icon on the desktop.
2.  Right-click on the icon, select Properties, the Shortcut tab.
3.  You need  to add your profile name to the command line. Let’s say your profile is called John. Then the command line would look like this:
"C:\Program Files\Communicator\Program\netscape.exe" -P"John"

Note that there is no space between -P and quotes.

In Windows 3.1
1.  Locate Communicator icon in Communicator Program group.
2.  Click on it, and then hit Alt-Enter to bring up icon properties.
3.  Modify command line according to point 3 above.
 

Windows NT systems are able to use NTs internal calls to the current user's profile by substituting %USERNAME% for the profile name (%USERNAME% instead of John in the example).

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8) How do I create or delete user profiles in Communicator?

A)

  1. Close Communicator.
  2. Open User Profile Manager.


  3. In User Profile Manager, click the "New" button. On the next page, read the information about profiles, and then click Next to continue. Proceed to input the requested information (Name, e-mail address, etc.) This information is normally provided by your internet service provider when you sign up for their services.
  4. Make sure to name the new profile something different from the original. Also make sure that the profile folder is unique so that it doesn't overwrite your old profile. If you wish to create more than one profile, simply repeat the above steps.

In order to delete an existing user profile:

  1. Close Netscape Communicator.


  2. Select the profile you wish to remove by clicking on it.
  3. Click the Delete button.
  4. NOTE for Communicator 4.5 users: When you click Delete, you will be presented with some options. Read the information provided there. If you wish to only delete the user profile from the User Profile list, click the "Don't Delete Files" button. This will leave your user profile files on disk. If you wish to delete the profile from the User Profile list and delete the files for that profile, click the "Delete Files" button. Click the "Cancel" button to cancel without deleting anything.

For more information about profiles, please review the following article:

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9) How can I view or clear the Netscape history file?

A) Netscape Navigator and Communicator maintain a "history file" to keep track of every web page you've visited recently. This is to let the program remember what web links you've already visited so it can make the "visited" links show up in a different color than the "unvisited" links.

 

For example, if you set "Visited links expire after X days" to '3', then any web pages you visited more than three days ago will be forgotten from the history file.

If you want to see what is listed in the history file right now:

For Navigator 3.0:
From the Window menu, select History.

For Communicator 4.0-4.08:
From the Communicator menu, select History

For Communicator 4.5:
From the Communicator menu, select Tools, then History.

This will show you all of the URLs visited recently. The file may be very large and take a few minutes to display completely.

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10) Cookies: What they are and how they work.

A) A "cookie" is a small piece of information which a web server can store temporarily with your web browser. This is useful for having your browser remember some specific information which the web server can later retrieve.

For example, when you browse through an "online shopping mall" and add items to your "shopping cart" as you browse, a list of the items you've picked up is stored by your browser so that you can pay for all of the items at once when you're finished shopping. It's much more efficient for each browser to keep track of information like this than to expect the web server to have to remember who bought what, especially if there are thousands of people using it the web server at a time.

As you browse the web, any cookies which servers might send to your copy of Netscape Navigator are stored in your computer's memory. When you quit out of Netscape Navigator, any cookies that haven't expired are written to a cookie file so they can be reloaded next time you run Netscape Navigator. (On a Mac this file is named "MagicCookie", on Unix it's "cookies", and on Windows it's "cookies.txt". You can look at this file with a text editor to see exactly what cookies are stored there, or delete the file to get rid of all of the cookies - this is harmless and shouldn't cause any problems.)

A cookie file is NOT a secret way for a web server to find out everything about you and what you have on your hard drive. The ONLY way that any private information could be in your cookie file would be if you personally gave that information to a web server in the first place and it decided to put that information into your cookie file for some reason. Also, each cookie is marked with information about what web server it's for; Netscape Navigator does not send any cookies to any web server they're not for. There is absolutely no way for a web server to get access to any private information about you or your system through cookies. Also, there is no possible way that a virus could be spread through the use of cookies.

If you want to know when a server is trying to send a cookie to you so you can choose whether or not to accept it, then go to the "Protocols" section under "Network Preferences" in Netscape Navigator 3.x and turn on "Show an Alert Before Accepting a Cookie." (On the other hand, if you don't want to be asked whether or not you want to accept a cookie, this is where you can turn that off.) If you're running Netscape Communicator, you can refuse cookies entirely by setting an option in the "Advanced" section of the Preferences.

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