Browsers: Is Netscape 4.08 Getting Crappy?

In My Humble Opinion
1
      • I have two browsers on my Win98 partition, IE 5.5 and Netscape 4.08. Over about the last month and a half, Netscape has gotten very sucky: very often slow, hanging completely or downloading the whole page, showing it for a half-second or so, and then “whiting out” (just showing a white screen). Reloading the page doesn’t change this behavior, and most of the time, the same pages that Netscape can’t get right, IE gets completely, quickly and normally.
        ~
        I swear it wasn’t always like this; I remember that Netscape 4.08 used to be just a bit faster-responding than IE 5.5, and get more pages too. Either IE got better or Netscape got worse. I didn’t do any updates around the time that I noticed it had changed, and I hadn’t installed or updated any new MS or other software that could/would have screwed with it. And this isn’t just a SDMB issue; I see the difference net-wide. ??? -I have been running ZoneAlarm on a 56K dialup, don’t recall any odd hits or (any) e-mail attachments, haven’t swapped any disks with anybody else, and haven’t had any problems with any other software in that time. Has anybody else noticed any difference? - MC
2

God, how can you tell the difference? Any version of netscape over version 3 is sub-par. The only reason I keep it installed on my system is for debugging web page designs.

3

I’m using 4.73 and get weird things happening that don’t happen with IE.

I tried Netscape’s version 6 and it was a nightmare. I’m thinking of switching all my bookmarks over to IE and just using Netscape for email.

4

[hijack]

Just downloaded it last week. Best broswer in the world
[/hijack]

5

Current version of Netscape is 4.77, although if you’re a masochist you can try v6 (I don’t recommend it). You should definitely upgrade to 4.77…

6

I suddenly realized I know exactly what is happening to you, when I reread your OP. You are being hit by an unpleasant side-effect of popunder advertising. It is not your fault, it is caused by incompetent and malicious advertisers who want to hijack IE windows. Their code malfunctions on Netscape.
A good example of this is http://theregister.co.uk which uses popunders. About one in every 5 or 10 page loads (depending on how heavy the ad rotation is) causes the page to load completely, then disappear to white space. Hitting reload will cause the page to reload with a different ad and the page usually comes right up. But it gets even worse. Look at some of the sub-pages of nytimes.com (the effect does not occur on the main page load, just when you click on their links). Again, about once every 5 or 10 pageloads, you will get a popunder ad. Except their HTML is even worse, the story will load, then it will be replaced by a popunder ad in a buttonless browser window, preventing you from hitting Reload or Back. You can only close the window and start over. Usually the second page load does not have a popunder, so a second try will work.
What can you do about it? Nothing except complain to the webmaster and tell them that popunder advertising is unacceptable. There is a firestorm of protest over popunder ads and until website operators learn that you can’t abuse your readership like this, they will continue to pull this sort of stupid stunt.

7

Whoever suggested Opera is right on the money. Fast, free, customizable and with a GREAT transfer format. Basically, whwn you start downloading exe or other files, you get a separate window for the transfer. If something screws up, you can resume the transfer from where it stopped. Just downloaded 5.12 yesterday and I’m really impressed. I refuse to use IE because its caching protocols mean it stores a lot of stuff, and even if you’re good about cache clearing, it’ll still rap up your hard drive. Mozilla is also good, but can be slow at times.

As far as Netscape goes, I find that if you’re not using it for anything other than webmail and browsing, the standalone Navigator gives better performance than the full Communicator suite.

8
      • Well here is part of it: I D/L’d 4.77 from my ISP’s own site, but only asked to install the browser, -and, it seems, only got browser 4.08. ? I just reinstalled everything and now it says ver 4.77. I dunno that the browser’s any different though… (yet)…
  • I remembered using 4.77 previously, but when I went to the site for an update, it only tried pushing ver 6 on me.
  • I have seen version 6 on faster computers than mine, and noticed that it runs visibly slow. I tried DLing it once anyway, 3.5 hrs, installation failed: “file corrupted”, tried DLing again but it starts over at the very beginning! Fuuuuuuu** that. If they want me to have it, they can send me a free CD.
    ~
    -I am stunned that anyone considered smart enough to be placed in charge of the matter could be so f**ing stupid as to offer a huge 10-20-30+ meg multifile download that requires re-downloading the entire transmission if any single part of it is recieved in error.
    ~
  • Last time I checked, Opera still didn’t suport many plug-ins. - MC
9

I agree with Amp. I use Opera exclusively for all of the previously listed reasons. The only exception is if I run into a web page that has some Java or JavaScript that Opera cannot handle (usually due to some sort of proprietary coding). Only then do I use IE or Netscape.

In fact, I’m posting with it.

10

How do you restart the file transfer?

11

When you start to to download, Opera will open a “Transfer Window” that shows you the status, speed and file. Right-click on each file to get an option menu, of which you have resume or retransfer as options. Resume will complete a partial download, retransfer will start it from scratch.

12

Got a question about Opera. I’ve been using it for a little over a week now and I’ve noticed that the SDMB just doen’t show up right. The borders seem to be off. Anyone else having this problem? Is this because Opera is based on Netscape?