These release notes describe system requirements, installation instructions, and known issues for Netscape 6.1. These notes are updated as we receive feedback, so please check back for new information. These release notes were last updated 29 August, 2001 13:49 PST.
For more information about specific issues, read the latest Mozilla release notes.
Solutions to some common problems with Netscape 6.1 can be found at the Netscape Support site. Click here to see if your problem is described.
If you are upgrading from Communicator
4.x or a previous version of Netscape 6, you can find information about the
new features and the upgrade process at http://home.netscape.com/browsers/upgrade.html.
If you have the Crescendo 5.01 plug-in, you must update to the latest version of Crescendo. Otherwise, Netscape may crash at startup.
If you are using an ATI Rage video card, images are correctly displayed initially, but may not be properly re-drawn when you minimize and maximize or resize the window.
If you use True Type fonts with Netscape , some characters are displayed as squares.
See the upgrade guide for problems associated with using a profile created in 6.0 or 6.01 that was abandoned. If you continue to use 4.x profile, information in 6.0 or 6.01 profile will appear out of date. The upgrade guide has suggestions and instructions for working through this problem.
If you have version 4.5 (or earlier) of StuffIt Expander, you may see an error message stating that the archive is corrupted. You can ignore the message and continue with the installation. To get a newer version of StuffIt Expander, go to http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/expander_mac_login.html
If you attempt to run Netscape on Mac OS using a language pack (such as the Japanese Language Pack) and a Language Kit, all menu bar items will be incorrectly displayed. To resolve this problem, register Netscape using the Language Register. For instance, if you're using the Japanese Language Pack and the Japanese Language Kit, register Netscape as a JA application.
If you use the SmoothType control panel instead of Apple's "Smooth all fonts on screen" option in the Appearance control panel, you need SmoothType version 2.1.1 for Netscape . Netscape is not compatible with earlier versions of SmoothType, and some pages may be improperly drawn. To get an update, go to http://www.kaleidoscope.net/greg/smoothtype.html.
Turning on font smoothing in Adobe Type Manager (ATM) can cause windows to
come up blank. The workaround is to turn off the font smoothing option
in ATM.
If you have a dual-processor G4 running Mac OSX, Netscape will stall. There are no problems with dual-processor G4's running MacOS 9.
In Netscape Mail, the import utility only supports Eudora and text files.
Netscape requires glibc 2.1 or later.
If you have Red Hat Linux 6.0, you can't launch Netscape if Java 2 is installed. The problem doesn't occur with Red Hat 6.1 or higher.
For Red Hat Linux 7, you must install the Standard C++ libraries for Red Hat 6.x compatibility. Get the package from the Red Hat 7 installation CD or download it from Red Hat.
To run Netscape on SuSe Linux 6.2, you must install the libjpeg.so.62 file available here.
To install Netscape on Solaris8 (64 bit), you must first install libstdc++. Download the Sun Netscape 6 install package and install libstdc++ from that package before installing or running Netscape .
When using VTMW 5.4.5, transient windows must be decorated (not the default) for popup windows such as Find, Save and Preferences to function.
Install into a new empty directory. Installing on top of previously installed builds may cause problems.
Windows Users: If you get the message, "uninstall.exe file is linked to missing export shell32.dll", delete %TEMP%\ns_temp.
If you are installing Netscape on a multi-user operating system such as Linux, Unix, or Windows 2000, you should install it separately in the user directory of each user who plans to use Netscape . If you install Netscape in a shared write-protected directory, it may not run properly.
When you install language packs and other .xpi files, downloading pauses until you click the browser's Stop button.
If you receive the message 'The program must close to allow a previous installation to complete' when launching, it means that file cleanup after an additional installation has not completed.
Suggested workarounds:
Windows and Mac OS: It is strongly recommended that you exit all programs before running the setup program. Also, you should temporarily disable virus-detection software.
Mac OS:
Netscape
will not run when the application is installed on a UFS partition. The workaround
is to move the application folder to an HFS+ partition and it will
run correctly.
Mac OS: Netscape installation requires some system extensions including QuickTime.
Mac OS: You should not restart your system with all extensions off before running Netscape installation.
Windows, Mac and Linux: Personal Security Manager (PSM) provides security (cryptographic) features for Netscape .
cd linuxtar -zxvf netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gzgzip -dc netscape-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz | tar xvf -cd netscape-installer
./netscape-installer./netscape If you collapse the Navigation toolbar and close the browser window, the next time you start the browser the toolbar will not be visible. To restore the toolbar you will have to open a new window. Make sure that new window is the last window you close and the toolbar will be fine on the next start.
Mac OS: There is a known incompatibility between Netscape and WebFree, a Control Panel commonly used to block HTML-based ads. When using Netscape , disable WebFree.
Linux: Printing crashes with RedHat Linux if you don't have a printer name lp configured. Workarounds: 1) Configure the printer named lp (which is by default the printer name assigned on Redhat Linux). 2) Use a printer that is configured, e.g., lp0, by changing the print command in the print dialog so that it reads lpr -P lp0 (replace lp0 with the name of your printer). To see the list of configured printers, you can log in as root and use the following command: 'lpc status'. Alternately, you can use the RedHat 'printtool' application to graphically view and configure the printers on your system.
Double right-clicking on a page can disable the keyboard.
Linux: Keyboard shortcuts on Linux now use Ctrl instead of Alt as the modifier key, while Alt is used for menu shortcuts. If you wish to modify these shortcut keys, edit your prefs.js file as follows:
user_pref("ui.key.accelKey", 18);
(This changes the accelerator key from Ctrl (17) to Alt (18).)
user_pref("ui.key.menuAccessKey", 0);
(This changes the menu access key from Alt (18) to none.)
Linux: You must have your X server properly configured to enable mousewheel scrolling. For XFree86, add a line to the Pointer section of your XF86Config files such as "ZAxisMapping 4 5". Also be sure that the Protocol line is set up correctly for your mouse.
Windows: Mousewheel scrolling does not work with all drivers. If you have problems, try updating your driver or disabling any "helper" programs that your mouse uses.
Mac OS: Mousewheel scrolling does not work with all drivers. If you have problems, try updating your driver or disabling any "helper" programs that your mouse uses.
(Mac OS 9.x ) Scroll wheel support for Kensington input devices requires Kensington MouseWorks 5.7 or higher. Version 5.7 is not yet shipping as of this writing; please check the Kensington website at http://www.kensington.com/support/sup_1170.html#mice for updates.
If Netscape is locked up but doesn't seem to have crashed, make sure there are no dialog boxes still open. Close each window on your desktop one at a time and if you uncover a dialog window, dismiss it. If you have multiple desktops, repeat these steps for each desktop.
This problem may affect Linux users downloading plugins. Follow these steps to resolve the problem:
Form Manager is not fully implemented in the Japanese version of Netscape .
Many Linux systems (in particular, Red Hat Linux systems) have bad Arial fonts. If many Web pages, especially those using the Arial font, look unclear, small, or hard to read, the following links explain two ways you can change your font server to get better Arial fonts:
http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html#ttf
http://home.c2i.net/dark/linux.html#fuzzy
If that doesn't work, you may be able to fix the problem by renaming or removing /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2. For instance, enter the following command:
mv /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2 /usr/share/fonts.ISO8859-2
and then log out of Linux and log back in again. You can always undo this, if necessary, by entering the following command:
mv /usr/share/fonts.ISO8859-2 /usr/share/fonts/ISO8859-2
Netscape
needs to be configured to work properly with proxies such as Junkbuster that
do not support the most recent HTTP specification. By default,
Netscape
tries to use HTTP 1.1. To use
Netscape
with a proxy that only supports HTTP 1.0,
add this line to the pref.js file in your profile:
user_pref("network.http.version",1.0);
Netscape only accepts hostnames for manual proxies. If you migrate a Communicator 4 profile, you will need to change the settings manually.
If you have a single profile from Communicator version 4.5 or later, that profile is automatically copied and converted for use with Netscape . Profiles from earlier Netscape versions cannot be converted.
If you have multiple profiles to copy and convert, the profile manager dialog box appears. Click the profile you want to use and then click Start.
If problems occur during installation and your Communicator profile was not
copied and converted, you can still use your profile. Launch
Netscape
from the command line, adding the "-installer" option
, or re-install
Netscape
to see the profile manager dialog again.
To prevent the Activation window from appearing whenever you start Netscape 6.1, press the Cancel button (and press Cancel in the confirmation dialog). The window will continue to reappear if you close the window using a method defined by the operating system.
The following table lists the the location of profiles used for Netscape:
| Windows 95/98/98SE/Me |
If password protection is disabled: If password protection is enabled:
|
| Windows NT 4.0 | C:\Winnt\Profiles\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>\*.slt |
| Windows 2000 | C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>\ |
| Mac OS | Documents\Mozilla\Profiles folder |
| Linux |
Enter the following command to find where home is pointing to (registry and profiles in are located in $HOME/.mozilla):
|
Note: Netscape 6.1 profile locations are different than the storage locations used by Netscape
Communicator and allows users to run both programs without changing profiles
of the other version.
Note: Netscape 6.0 and Netscape 6.01 profiles are stored
in a directory ~\Users50 instead of ~\Profiles. Netscape 6.1 will
be able to detect and use these older profiles.
Additional Internet Search Engines can be obtained at http://sherlock.mozdev.org
The "View Frame Source" feature is not available from the View menu; however, it is available in the context menu. To see the context menu, click the left mouse button to put the mouse pointer in the frame and then click the right mouse button (Control-click on the Mac OS).
Several features of Page Information are not yet available, including: the File MIME Type, Source, Local cache file, Content length, Expires, Charset, and Security. Also, you cannot view information on frames, XML pages, or FTP pages.
Pages that appear to be rendered incorrectly may be due to standards compliance issues. See the Netscape Evangelism site for more details.
For this release, Send Page will be disabled for pages containing post data which cannot be cached.
The "Copy Link Location" context menu item does not work for links inside image maps.
Windowless plugins don't get some events.
XSLT support still has bugs.
The scrollbar in the Preferences dialog sometimes doesn't appear after expanding categories. Workaround: collapse other categories --or, resize the dialog, if possible.
XML files that have processing instructions without pseudo-attribute named 'type' do not display.
In preferences for proxies, "No Proxy for:" does not support the *.domain syntax. If you migrate, remove any "*" characters that appear.
Linux: telnet:// URLs do not work in Linux.
Netscape does not recognize changes in DNS servers while running. PPP and VPN users should restart the browser after connecting to a different network.
SOCKS V4 is not supported in this release. SOCKS V5 is supported, Netscape will attempt to make a SOCKS V5 connection to the server in your settings. If your server supports only SOCKS V4, you will not be able to connect.
WAIS is not supported in this release.
NTLM authentication is not supported in this release.
Digest authentication is not supported in this release.
Active FTP (PORT) connections are not supported in this version. You will not be able to connect to Active-only FTP servers.
File URLs will not be read if they are inside a network based (HTTP) document. To disable this feature, set "security.checkloadURI" to false in your prefs.js in your profile.
When you turns off the "Always ask before opening this type of file" checkbox, you can manually undo this by removing the entry[ies] for "browser.helperApps.neverAsk.openFile" from the prefs.js file.
Plugins do not print in this release.
Printing web pages may not printout all pages due to table pagination problems.
Problems printing pages with frames; not all pages may be printed.
Transparent backgrounds are printed as black.
Tables don't print when between pages or more than one page.
Mac and Linux: Cannot print landscape mode on Mac and Linux
Printing may be cut off at the right end.
Printing newsgroup messages with images leads to a crash.
Netscape may not be able to connect to some secure (https) IBM Web servers. This is a problem with the servers' software, not with Netscape .
If you use "Last page visited" as your Home (starting) page, if the last page you viewed had frames, it may not be displayed correctly when you next restart Netscape .
You can't use arrow keys or edit commands in the URL bar if the URL bar received focus when the browser window was created.
Clicking on the Search button the first time reverts your preferences to the preset Netscape search engine. This does not happen after you set the Default Search Engine preference again.
Netscape only supports the use of SOCKS proxies for http and https connections.
Windows: Double browser window appears when opening an html or image document from the Windows environment.
Linux: You can't view hidden files or directories (such as .mozilla) using Netscape .
Linux: Flash may crash with exported X display.
Linux: On Linux, there may be problems with ESD Audio and Flash.
Hourglass cursor, progress meter, and throbber do not stop spinning although downloading has been finished. Status bar says "Transferring data from ..." when page is done loading.
Bookmarks cannot be rearranged if you have sorted them. To rearrange them, select Unsorted from the View menu, or click the Name column header until the arrow disappears.
To view frame source, point to the frame and click the right mouse button (Control-click on Mac OS) and then choose View Frame Source from the context menu.
Page content generated by an online form isn't correctly reflected in the view source window.
Mac OS: The horizontal scrollbar in the View Source window might be missing. Resize the window to see the scrollbar.
In the Mail/News Account Settings: Server Settings dialog box, any changes you make to local directory settings won't take effect until you exit and re-start Netscape .
Undo/Redo and Stop may not always work as expected.
Delete Message doesn't always work when you're using Next Unread Message. Try clicking the message again to enable Delete.
Biff (a feature that automatically checks your server for new mail) works only on the first account and does not work for any other accounts in the same profile. Work around: select each account's inbox once and click on Get message.
'Get All New Messages' checks the default account, with or without passwords saved. Workaround: Select each account's Inbox and click on Get Message the first time for that session. "Get All New Messages" should work.
Netscape does not warn the user of a low disk space condition. Some symptoms you may see are:
Mail account identity is not stored along with an unsent message.
Linux: You may encounter problems if you install Netscape in a root user environment then run as another user. Problems include saving to Sent folder, Drafts, Templates or general authentication problems.
Not all of the choices offered in the Search Messages window are implemented or valid for certain mail folder or newsgroup selections.
You may not see the message header (From, Subject, Date, To, Cc, and so forth) when you read messages. This problem often occurs when you switch mail folders or newsgroups. To see headers, resize the window or the message content pane.
Don't try to download multiple attachments simultaneously. Download them one at a time.
In some cases you can't view more than one HTML/Web page attachment to a message in the mail window. The attachments will not all be shown or you may experience a crash when attempting to display them.
A crash may occur if you try to open or save a message attachment of a content type unknown to Netscape .
Double-clicking on a JPEG file attachment will lead to a hang.
You can't forward a message that has a signature file containing the HTML tag <div class="signature">.
To import Outlook address books, you must have the default mail client set to "Microsoft Outlook" in the Microsoft Internet Explorer. Do this:
1. Launch Internet Explorer.
2. Click Tools in menu bar, then click Internet Options. The Internet Options
dialog box appears.
3. Click the Programs tab and select "Microsoft Outlook" as the default
e-mail client.
4. Hit OK and exit Explorer.
(Windows) You may need to try more then once before Outlook Express address books are imported successfully.
In Address Book, using "Select All" and "Delete" more than 500 cards may crash application.
Copying a large number of addresses between address books may cause crash.
If you have multiple filters configured for a mail account, incoming messages will continue to be evaluated against each filter (in the order listed in the Message Filters dialog) until a filter action of Move to Folder or Delete is executed. This differs from Communicator 4.x where any filter action would stop further filtering on a message.
In the Message Filters' Rules dialog some users may not be able to enter or access more than 3 criteria lines. If you encounter this problem switch to the Classic theme.
user_pref ("mail.allow_at_sign_in_user_name", true); will allow
you to enter a username when you login to use mail. Add this string to your
prefs.js file in your profile.
Note: Your prefs.js file is located in the Users50 directory on Windows and Mac OS, and in the .mozilla directory on Linux.
You must exit and restart Netscape to see the effect of a change to the option: "show All IMAP mail folders" or "show only subscribed IMAP mail folders." To access this option: click the Advanced button in the Server section of the Account Settings dialog box.
When sending email from Cyrus IMAP mail accounts, you will get "The current command did not succeed. The mail server responded: Permission denied". Workaround: Redefine the special folder (sent, draft, template) under the Inbox folder.
Deleting in "Mark as deleted" mode may not work in the same way it did in Netscape Communicator 4.x. If you delete marked messages immediately when Mail launches for the first time in "Mark as deleted" mode, you will not be able to recover them unless you use "Undo" immediately.
The Subscribe dialog box may not work with news servers that require authentication. If you open a password-protected newsgroup you may be prompted more than once for the user name and password combination.
LDAP directory entries that have ","s in their CNs (e.g. "Doe, John") may not be correctly quoted.
Saving as a template from an IMAP account doesn't work offline.
Saving a downloaded file (text, html, eml, template) while in offline mode
does not work.
Saving a message while composing (Copies and Folder preferences) does not work
properly.
Some mail items (offline and disk preferences, offline item selection, online/offline indicators in search/history/subscribe) do not display properly.
If using a theme other than the Modern theme, downloaded messages headers are displayed in italics.
New newsgroups can not be downloaded unless you have previously open the newsgroups and retrieved headers first.
For both Mail and Newsgroups accounts, the Disk Space UI preference: "Do not download messages locally that are larger than X kb" can't be set/changed. As a result it prevents you from downloading messages that are > 50kb. The only way you can download messages greater than that is to select the message and do a "Get selected Messages". Workaround: For messages > 50kb, select the message and use Get Selected Messages (File|Offline|Get Selected Messages)
Can't download messages approx. > 1Mb in size with Get Selected Messages or Get Flagged Messages.
In News, The preference 'Remove message bodies older than x days' can't be checked.
Moving/Copying a downloaded message (while offline) will result in not being able to read the message at the new folder while you are offline. Workaround: Go online to read it, then redownload the message to have it accessible when you are offline.
Can't 'Save a draft' or 'Save a Unsent Message' to a online folder. Workaround: To 'Save a Draft' or store an 'Unsent Message' use the default folders [Drafts or Unsent Messages] which are located under "Local Folders" as this works.
(Mac OS) Buddy Lists do not automatically transfer from AOL Instant Messenger to Netscape 6.1. You must export the AOL Instant Messenger 4.x Buddy List and import it to Netscape 6.1.
If the Confirm Account option fails to confirm the screen name, an alert appears with the text "null" in it. Click OK to dismiss the alert.
When the AOL Instant Messenger server cannot be reached, you may get alerts that indicate the service has been terminated. Check your network connection, or try again later.
Setting the "Sign On at Launch" option doesn't sign you on when Netscape 6.1 launches, but it does sign you when you click in (give focus to) the Buddy List tab in My Sidebar or you open the Instant Messenger standalone window.
The Password field does not clear if signon fails for any reason, even if the Save Password field is unchecked.
The default My Sidebar tab includes the Buddy List even when Instant Messenger is not installed.
After you sign on, there is a 15-second delay before sound preferences for Instant Messenger are recognized.
Instant messages sent to AOL Instant Messenger users may have HTML tags in them if some text options in Netscape 6.1 are used.
The Delete menu item the People menu is grayed out in the standalone Buddy List Window. You can select a name or group and right-click to see a menu with an activated Delete item.
(Linux) Some hotkeys won't invoke IM functions in some cases.
The key shortcut for Import Buddy List (Ctrl+Shift+O) opens the Export Buddy List dialog.
(Mac OS) If you open Netscape Mail without first setting up Instant Messenger, you will get two dialogs. Complete the steps in the Mail dialog before using the Instant Messenger one.
Background colors work when you compose a message but not in the conversation log. Text color changes work until the message is sent, then they revert back to the default black color before you type the next message.
A smiley disappears if you try to make it larger by using the larger font size button on the Compose Toolber of the Instant Message or Chat window.
Instant Message and Chat conversations can only be saved in HTML format. You cannot save as text.
When the "Tab key inserts tab" preference is selected, tabbing results in only a single space when viewed in the Instant Message window by other Netscape Instant Messenger users. However, a full tab space does appear in the conversation log of AOL Instant Messenger users.
Netscape and AOL instant messaging limits your messages in a Chat session (not Instant Messages) to no more then 109 characters (including markup). The Chat or Instant Message will appear to have been sent, but the message does not appear to the recipient, and it does not appear in your log.
You cannot use Backspace to delete a smiley that you've added to a message by using the toolbar in an Instant Message or Chat window. To delete the smiley, select it and press the Delete button.
The presence icon for users with Netscape.net email addresses does not appear in Netscape Mail, so you cannot see whether those users are online.
In some cases (particularly when your Buddy List is large), your Buddy List may seem to disappear after you import or delete groups in the Buddy List. Resizing the Buddy List brings the list into view again.
In some cases, you can't scroll to the bottom-most or top-most group. Collapsing and re-expanding the groups closest to the group you can't reach enables you to access the group. To fix this in the My Sidebar panel, vertically resize the panel.
Exported Buddy Lists do not have the .blt extension. However, the file can be imported to AIM or Netscape Instant Messenger if the file is selected for import.
The Buddy List may not import completely if the existing Buddy List has similar group names. In this case, you may need to add the buddies manually.
Inviting a buddy who is using AOL Instant Messenger version 4.3.2, and who is away (that is, in the Away state), incorrectly results in an alert: "'[Screen Name]' has declined your Chat invitation."
(Linux) Instant Messenger may appear to freeze if you send messages very quickly within Linux chat sessions. Please wait 5-10 seconds if this occurs.
After you've been warned, and your warning level decreases, you will receive an alert incorrectly saying your warning level has increased.
You may not be able to simultaneously edit a document using both Composer and another editor.
You can't apply a font style across paragraphs and images. Font changes must be done within each paragraph.
Applying a font style across several words yields multiple font tags in the HTML code.
When the background color on a page is set, only the frames behind the lines of selected text are colored. Resizing the window triggers the proper repaint.
After applying a color to text, the text may appear partially highlighted.
Certain pages (such as ones that set frames) can't be edited. However, you are still able to choose the Edit Page option in the File menu for such pages. An editor window opens, but you are unable to edit the page.
Edit|PasteAs function is not functioning.
File|Open Web Location, selecting to render in Composer does not open document in Composer.
When saving remote files, associated images are not saved.
Switching between Normal and HTML Source mode inserts break (br) elements.
You can not print HTML Source.
Numerous shortcut keys do not function properly.
Hourglass does not show when application is busy.
Broken image icon does not display in the application.
Some element icons do not render in Show All Tags mode.
List editing can cause nested lists to outdent to next level list.
Remove option from personal spell check dictionary does not work.
A blank window opens when clicking on the Browse button the 2nd time. Workaround: After editing the page more, if you want to view the new changes in Browser, first save the Composer file, go to the Browser window loaded before, and click the "Reload" button (or use "View | Reload" menu command).
TLS support: The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol defines rules governing authentication between a web site and browser software and the encryption of information that flows between them. The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is an IETF standard based on SSL. TLS 1.0 can be thought of as SSL 3.1. Netscape 6.1 supports both SSL and TLS.
Some servers that do not implement SSL correctly cannot negotiate the SSL handshake with client software that supports TLS. Such servers are known as "TLS intolerant."
When you select the "Enable TLS" option in the SSL preferences panel, the browser will attempt to use the TLS protocol when making secure connections with a server. If that connection fails because the server is TLS intolerant, the browser will fall back to using SSL 3.0--with one important exception: If you are using a proxy for SSL connections, the browser will not attempt to use TLS at all. Instead, it will attempt to use SSL 3.0.
Certificate Manager sometimes slow to open. If you have many personal certificates listed in the Certificate Manager, it can take thirty seconds or more to open. This problem is exacerbated if you have selected the option "Use OCSP to validate all certificates using this URL and signer" in the Validation preferences panel. Turning off this option improves opening time.
Certificate Manager may crash if you select fields in the Details tab of the Certificate Details window. The workaround is not to select anything in the Details tab.
Incorrect computer clock time can cause new certificates to be temporarily invalid. If your computer's clock is not set correctly, attempting to use a new certificate immediately after receiving it may result in a "not yet valid" error. If you reset your computer clock to the correct time, the problem will disappear.
Generating a key while obtaining a new certificate can take a long time. No feedback is provided while a new key is being generated, which can take a long time for long keys or dual keys. As a result, it may appear that your computer temporarily hangs while you are obtaining a new certificate.
Restoring a certificate to a smart card can take a long time. No feedback is provided while restoring a certificate to a smart card, which can take a long time since smart cards are relatively slow devices. As a result, it may appear that the restoration is not happening.
Under rare circumstances, Netscape 6.1 may crash if certain security warnings
are turned on. These preferences are found under Edit, Preferences, Privacy and Security, SSL.
Turning off the "Entering a site that supports encryption" and "Entering a site
that uses low-grade encryption" warnings ahead of time is a workaround to
preventing a crash.
For security reasons, netscape communicator does not allow connections to
certain ports. To override this on a per-port basis, add a comma-separated list
of ports to default/all.js (in your mozilla installation directory). For
example, to unblock ports 1, 3, and 7, use the following line:
pref("network.security.ports.banned.override", "1,3,7");
Note that this cannot be done on a per profile basis - it must be done for the
entire Netscape installation.
If you are using the Classic theme, some preference panels may be displayed incorrectly or may have missing elements. If you view a different preference panel and then return to the one you're working in, the display is corrected.
Preferences window initial size doesn't always give hints on all options available. Resize the window from its lower right corner to see them all.
Plugins installed for Communicator 4.x may not be available for Netscape . Workaround: install these plugins in the Netscape Plugins folder.
Microsoft Media Player file embedded in web pages may not work.
Macintosh: Netscape now scans for plugins in the system's "Internet Plugins Folder" first.
Macintosh: Users will see the browser context menu pop up after dismissing a plugins context menu on Mac. Workaround: To remove the unwanted browser context menu, click inside the plugin area with the mouse once.
Netscape has been tested with all 1.3.0_* versions of the JRE, and JRE 1.3.1, and beta versions of JDK 1.4. J2SE releases previous to 1.3.0_01 will not work with Netscape .
LiveConnect does work with Netscape 6.1 . There remain some LiveConnect problems with the combination of Netscape 6.1 . and JDK/JRE 1.3.X. Fixes for a number of remaining LiveConnect problems are being incorporated into JDK 1.4 and will be available when that release of JDK/JRE is available later this year.
Running J2SE in 256-color mode may cause a flicking problem.
Linux: Redhat users who have problems with Java hanging should try setting the environment variable LD_ASSUME_KERNEL to "2.2.5".
Linux: Netscape on Linux includes J2SE v1.3.0_01. The Java support on Linux is not complete (for instance, LiveConnect is not yet enabled), but will be functional in a later release.
Linux: LiveConnect support now works if you use Netscape 6.1 with JRE 1.3.1. Additional LiveConnect problems are being addressed in JDK 1.4 as mentioned above.
If Java doesn't work, make sure the following is true:
On Windows:
Copy the NPOJI600.DLL from C:\JDK*\jre\bin to "\plugins" directory of your installation.
On Unix:
Make a soft link from /plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
to /usr/java/j*/jre/plugins/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so
On OS X, there is no "Default Downloader Plugin" (aka. the Default Plugin) and Java is not working yet.
Using spell check in OS X may lead to a crash.
Netscape has been designed to display many different languages without extra steps. The user should be able to browse and use e-mail without complicated setups or efforts when necessary fonts are available on the system.
Netscape can be used with more than one language pack, which lets the user change the menu language and relevant URLs.
Bi-directional text support enabled for Hebrew and Arabic thanks to the contribution by IBM. Arabic shaping currently works only on Windows platforms which have full Arabic support installed. Arabic support is available for Win 2000 by installing an Arabic locale from the install CD. Other Windows platforms may not provide full Arabic support except under Middle Eastern enabled or localized versions. Arabic shaping is not currently available on Macintosh, Linux or other platforms.
My Sidebar tabs and bookmarks will not change when you choose another region.
Language/Region Packs downloaded in 6.0x appear in View menu after upgrade but do not function. A user that wants to continue to use locale packs that were downloaded in 6.0x should keep 6.0x by installing 6.1 in a new folder. The old content packs will not appear in the 6.1 View menu, but will still be available for use in 6.0x. Any profile set to a non-default locale in 6.0x will revert to the default locale in 6.1. To use locale packs in 6.1, it is necessary to download new locale packs via the View menu (View>Set Language/Region>Download More) or via Preferences (Edit>Preferences, expand Appearance category, select Content Packs panel, then click Download More on lower-right).
Java (JRE 1.3) is installed under the "Complete" or "Custom" Install option of the installer. All language versions of Netscape installs an international version of JRE 1.3.0_01 for Windows and Linux, which makes it possible to display both European and Asian characters. Earlier versions of JRE which shipped with Beta versions of Netscape may not work properly with the shipping version of Netscape . For those wanting Java functionality, we recommend "Complete" or "Custom" Install option.
If you are using Chinese, Korean or Japanese language Windows 9x/ME and are having a non-start or crash problem when trying to start up Netscape , read the Java section of the Known issues section below.
You may be unable to print out Japanese characters from Win98-J with HP Laser Jet driver (Japanese version). Workaround: Install the driver that comes with the Japanese Windows 98 installation CD.
Windows NT/2000: If you create a non-ASCII user name (e.g. Japanese) and if it does not have the Power user or Administrator status, a new profile creation may fail. In such a case, instead of accepting the default location for profiles, choose an alternate location whose path name does not contain non-ASCII characters.
A path name that contains non-Latin 1 characters is not saved correctly. Initially they look OK but when saved, they turn into unreadable characters. A file that is defined using such characters may not be found, e.g. a mail signature file. A workaround is to use only ASCII characters for file and path names.
Profile migration does not work correctly if Communicator 4.x profile names contain 2-byte characters (e.g. Japanese) with 0x5C byte Shift_JIS character.
Shift_JIS Full-width tilde character (0x8160) and a few other Japanese symbol characters have differing correspondences to Unicode mapping tables depending on platforms. This causes characters like these to display incorrectly in some situations on Macintosh.
Linux: Under a Japanese locale, the window title in Japanese (reflecting the title of a Web page) may not show correctly if the Web page does not match the charset of the Japanese locale, e.g. Shift_JIS title on an EUC locale.
Linux: On Red Hat Linux 6.0 Japanese, the license agreement for the Japanese installer may display empty. Workaround: Click OK and move on to the next step. This problem does not occur on RH 6.1 and later.
Netscape does not support Dynamic Fonts. (Note: It was supported in Communicator 4.x.)
Files and directories on a local disk bearing non-Latin 1 names may not be accessed by inputting the names into the Navigator location field.
The charset attribute within a SCRIPT tag, i.e. for JavaScript, does not work. Instead JavaScript uses the charset of the document.
With the Windows 2000 IME, most of the new IME features (e.g. reconversion) are supported but some features may not work correctly.
Mac OS: Non-ASCII non-Latin 1 info stored in Internet Config will not show correctly in auto-fill fields such as "Your name" field in the Mail account setup dialog. If this happens, you can manually correct auto-filled entries.
Mac OS: The Japanese language pack or Japanese release can be used on an English Mac OS if the Japanese Language Kit has been installed on the Mac OS. (The Japanese Language support comes free with Mac OS 8.5 or later as an optional install item.) The menu and dialogs, however, will not show as Japanese unless the " Netscape " program is registered as a Japanese language program. To do this, use the (Japanese) Language register program found in the "Apple Extras" directory.
Mac OS: The Character Coding menu check mark does not get updated promptly and shows incorrect indication of the current page encoding.
POP and Local message body search does not work with non-Latin 1 key words.
Filtering by body key has not been implemented.
The "Edit as New" menu does not correctly quote the original non-ASCII text body if the original message does not contain MIME charset information.
When you quote the original message in reply, sometimes you see the quoted text as corrupted and unreadable. If this problem occurs, check that you don't have multiple Mail folder windows open. When multiple mail folders/windows are open, the reply charset reflects the charset of the selected message in the last window opened rather than the current message from which the reply message is created. Workaround: The user can either close all Mail folder windows except the current one, or select a message in the last window opened which bears the same charset as the one that is being quoted in reply.
Character Coding menu is not effective in a standalone message view window. The standalone window also does not inherit the encoding of the Mail view window if the original message contains no MIME charset or incorrect charset information. The latter two can be overridden but its effect is not inherited into the standalone window.
Japanese Auto-detection may fail sometimes with EUC-xx and UTF-8 attachments, which lack MIME charset information.
The Character Coding menu cannot correct the thread pane display of non-MIME encoded headers. If the message displayed lacks MIME charset information, the thread pane display obeys the default message display charset set in the Preferences dialog box under "Mail & Newsgroups | Message Display | Languages". Correctly setting this option to the charset most often used in the user's mail viewing helps avoid display problem of this type.
Mac OS and Linux: View Page Source does not work for viewing a message source when the Auto-Detect (All) is on. To use this function in Mail, turn off the Auto-Detect (All) from the Character Coding submenu of the View menu.
You may see an extraneous vertical bar or a question mark in the window title display of a header subject line. This is a misinterpreted Tab character sent from an IMAP server as part of a line folding sequence. This problem does not occur under a POP mail account.
Renamed/Deleted IMAP non-ASCII folders show up as utf-7 strings. Restarting Netscape will correct this issue.
Some cases have been reported in which Windows 9x/ME Japanese users have a problem starting Netscape when there is a prior installation of older JDK or JRE under the operating system in use. The JRE 130_01 that ships with Netscape contains many fixes since the official release of JRE 1.3. If you are using an older version of JRE 1.3 or the US version of JRE 1.3 under Japanese Windows, you may experience this non-start problem.
To determine if the non-starting problem is due to Java installation, follow these steps:
If you have the Java problem as described above or want to install updated JRE 130_01 shipped with Netscape , follow these steps (Note: This type of problem has not been reported for Windows NT4/2000, but if you experience this problem on the latter two platforms, follow these steps for those platforms also):
Mac OS and Linux: Display of non-ASCII characters (particularly Chinese/Korean/Japanese) in applets may not work without correct font settings in font.properties file.
Windows: If you are using automatic proxy configuration, and you want to use the Full Circle Talkback Quality Feedback Agent to send incident reports to Netscape , you need to replace the talkback.ini file with one that contains the appropriate proxy configuration information. Follow these steps to do so:
UseUserHTTPProxyInfo=1
UserHTTPProxyHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
UserHTTPProxyPort=xxxx
where xxxx is your proxy port number.
If you are using a SOCKS Proxy, create a file with these three lines:
UseUserSOCKSInfo=1
UserSOCKSHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"
UserSOCKSPort=xxxx
where xxxx is your SOCKS port number.
On Windows 95 and Windows NT systems, copy the talkback.ini file to the following directory location within the directory that contains the N6Setup.exe file: \Fullsoft\data\talkback.ini
For a list of known issues with support for Web standards (HTML 4.01, CSS1/2, DOM1/ 2, XML, RDF), JavaScript, Java, and Plug-ins in Netscape , see the Netscape 6.1 Developer Release Notes: http://developer.netscape.com/docs/technote/gecko/n6release.html