Last updated November 26, 2001 [These notes are updated as we receive feedback, so please check back for new information.]

These release notes describe new features, installation issues, and known problems in Communicator 4.79.

Contents:

• What's New in This Release
• What's New in Previous Releases
• Before You Install
• General Issues
• Component Issues
• Navigator
• Mail, Address Book, and Pinpoint Addressing
• Composer
• Roaming Access
• Java and JavaScript
• Platform-Specific Issues
• Windows
• Quality Feedback Agent and Automatic Proxy Configuration
• Palm Synchronization
• Mac OS
• UNIX/Linux
• International Issues

• 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.
• Mac Only: Sizing when printing problem on certain Epson printers fixed.
• Mac Only: Composer now retains the default URL of the edited document.
• Unix Only: You can now add multiple personal address books.
• 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.
• Upgrades to Components: Netscape AOL Messenger version 4.3 (Mac only)

• 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 autocompletion.
• Improved Mousewheel support on Windows platforms.
• Improved support for Sun Java plug-in.
• Support for Solaris2.8.
• Support for AIX5.x.
• Updates to components:
• Netscape AOL Instant Messenger version 4.3 (Windows only)
• Flash Player 5 (Windows only)

• A Netscape version of AOL Instant Messenger (4.3) is bundled with Communicator. If you have installed a more recent version of AOL Instant Messenger, we recommend that you reinstall AIM after you install Communicator 4.79.

 
• Smart Update may not work properly on Windows 2000 and Windows XP when upgrading from Communicator 4.78. We recommend that you use the base install or complete install instead of Smart Update. The base and complete installs are available at ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/english/4.79/windows/windows95_or_nt/ .
  

• Communicator 4.79 only runs on Mac OS 8.1 and above.

• On Mac OS and Windows systems with an existing version of Communicator: If you use SmartUpdate to upgrade to 4.79, be sure to click the Grant button when the Permissions dialog box appears during the installation. Clicking Grant enables the installer to continue, and you can still cancel the installation later in the process. If you click Deny, a series of Permissions dialog boxes appear, and the system sometimes quits with an error -1.

• If you are upgrading from Navigator 2.0 or 3.0, you need to reinstall any plug-ins that you want to transfer to Communicator 4.79. In order for Communicator to transfer plug-ins from 4.0x versions automatically, you must install Communicator 4.79 in the same folder as the old 4.0x version. If you install 4.7 in a different folder, you must reinstall any plug-ins.

• If your computer does not have a sound card, and you visit a site with RMF (Beatnik sound) content embedded in it, your system will crash. If you installed Beatnik (installed by default in Communicator 4.79) and you don't have a sound card, and you want to avoid any potential problems, you can remove Beatnik from your system. Follow the steps at http://www.beatnik.com/nosoundhw/.

• If files with a .depot suffix are displayed in the browser instead of being downloaded, your proxy server needs to be configured to download depot files. Your system administrator should update the mimetypes configuration file on the proxy server.

• Printing problems may occur with the use of the Adobe PostScript printer driver (ADOBES4.drv, version 4.10.126) in Windows 95 and Windows 98. If you have this printer driver in your c:\windows\system folder, you can obtain an upgrade from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/pdrvwin.htm.

• On Mac OS and Windows systems: New profiles created in Communicator 4.79 aren't recognized by versions of Communicator or Navigator earlier than version 4.5.

• If you change your user name on an IMAP server, you need to restart Communicator for the name change to take effect.

• Exported certificate names are appended with either letters or numbers. Communicator doesn't check for duplicate names, so make sure to use a unique name for each certificate.

• A zero length "cert7.db" file in the profile directory can cause Communicator to crash at startup. To avoid this, delete the zero length "cert7.db" file from the profile directory.
• You can disable the Shop@Netscape button and Netscape Radio feature by editing the prefs.js file (preferences.js on UNIX).
• To disable the Shop@Netscape button, open the prefs.js file and add the following statement: user_pref("browser.chrome.disableMyShopping", true);
• To disable the Netscape Radio plugin, open the prefs.js file and add the following statement: user_pref("browser.chrome.disableNetscapeRadio", true);

Navigator

• When Communicator updates a page, either through the Reload button or a meta tag, it checks for changes in HTML descriptions, but doesn't check check for changes within individual elements on the page. Because the HTML description of an image can remain the same even after the content of the image is updated, there may be applications, such as a webcam, for which you want to "force" an update.

To force the update of individual elements on a page, you can use the following meta tags:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="60">

Mail, Address Books, and Pinpoint Addressing

• Problem: You get the error "This program has performed an illegal operation" when you open your Inbox or read an mail message.

Solution: With Netscape closed, find the file Inbox.snm and delete it. (You won't lose any e-mail messages).
 
• Problem: You get the error "This program has performed an illegal operation" when opening your address book.

Solution: With Netscape closed,

1. Find the file pab.nab and rename it to import.nab.
2. Start Netscape and open your Address Book.
3. Select File --> Import, then Communicator Address Book, then browse to the file import.nab and select it.

• Certain IMAP servers cause an error when a mail message is moved from a subfolder to the Inbox. The workaround is to file the message in a top-level folder, and then move the file to the Inbox.

• IMAP mail users: Certain servers may prevent you from renaming or deleting subscribed mail folders if you have specified that deleted messages should be automatically moved to the Trash folder. If you try to delete a mail folder and then see an error message that the command failed, you should choose Subscribe from the File menu, and then unsubscribe your Trash folder.

• If you are upgrading from Navigator 3.0x, you must manually import your 3.0x address book into Communicator 4.79 by opening the address book window and choosing Import under the File menu. On Mac and Windows systems, select Communicator Address Book at the prompt. Enter the name of your 3.0x HTML address book file.

• On Windows and UNIX systems: Removing ns_imap folders causes Communicator to lose the mail filters you have set up. If you suspect corrupted mail summary files, be sure to just remove the files, not entire folders or directories.

• Communicator 4.79 allows you to create multiple address books. Pinpoint addressing searches the first 15 address books in your address book window. If you have more than 15 address books, you can select the 15 you want to use by reordering them in the address book window.

• Pinpoint addressing in Communicator 4.79 searches for matches against the display name, last name, email address and nickname. Communicator 4.0x gave precedence to nickname matches. If you want exact matches against a nickname to have precedence over matches against the other fields, add this line to your JavaScript preferences file:


user_pref("ldap_2.autoComplete.nicknameHasPrecedence", true);

• If you have an LDIF file representing an address book that was generated from Communicator 4.0x and contains 8-bit data, you can correctly import the 8-bit data into Communicator 4.7 by changing the file extension of your LDIF file to .4ld. Then, import the LDIF file like you normally would, using this new extension. You only need to do this if the file with 8-bit data was generated from a previous version of Communicator.

• "Department," "URL," and "Prefers to receive rich text (HTML) mail" values are not exported/imported with CVS and TXT format.

Composer

• When editing an HTML file, Composer may remove Cascading Style Sheet objects.

Roaming Access

• On Windows systems: Clicking Cancel while uploading or downloading to an HTTP roaming-access server sometimes causes Communicator to quit.

• When using a slow connection, progress dialog boxes don't immediately respond to your input during file transfers.

• If you choose not to transfer your preferences, Communicator does not transfer your address book and IMAP mail filters, which are stored with preferences.

• On Mac OS systems: If you enable Roaming Access, Communicator doesn't save subscribed newsgroups. To save subscribed newsgroups, go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Under Roaming Access, choose Item Selection, and remove the check from the Mail Filters box in the right frame.

Java and JavaScript

• Java Plug-in Support. A new Java plug-in preference option allows users to take advantage of the latest Sun Java plug-in (available for free at http://java.sun.com). When enabled, the Sun Java plug-in delivers an improved user experience for Java-enabled sites and completely replaces Netscape Java.

 
• JavaScript 1.3 contains an ECMA-compliant fix regarding assignments such that if (a=b) is no longer interpreted as if (a==b). You can update the code or, if you want the old behavior, specify <SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.2">.

• If you use an applet that uses RMI callbacks, you must call netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalConnect") before your first call into the RMI runtime.

• Changes to Java classes have been made to improve security and simplify internal use of the reflection API.

Windows

• Windows 2000: To install Communicator 4.77 or later, a user must have Power User permissions. After installation, users of any permission level can start the program, create profiles, delete profile directories, and modify profiles without special operating system permissions. Refer to http://www.help.netscape.com/communicator/install/install_guide.html, for more information.

• Windows 2000: To upgrade from RealPlayer 7 to RealPlayer 8, which is the version that comes with Communicator 4.77 or later, you must uninstall RealPlayer 7 prior to installing Communicator 4.77 or later.

• Windows 2000: To change the Mapi.dll a user must have Power User permissions.

• Windows 2000: If you use a dialup (modem) connection and want Communicator to dial over that connection when you start the program, follow these steps:

 
1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Select Administrative Tools, then Services.
3. Change the Remote Access Auto Configuration Manager service to "Automatic (at startup)."

• On Windows NT systems, to prevent a "system32" Windows Explorer window from appearing when Windows starts up:

1. Launch the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2. Open this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
3. If the (Default) Name variable has a value of "" (an empty string), delete the Name variable. After the deletion, the value for (Default) should be "(value not set)".

• Messenger sometimes quits when new folders are subscribed to with SSL. This problem apparently occurs only when you automatically subscribe to all your folders on the server. To avoid it, manually choose the folders to which you wish to subscribe.

• If you are downloading a large file and you click Cancel, Communicator may quit.

• If you send an email message and attach a web page that contains frames, the recipient will receive the message, but with a blank attachment.

 
• If you open a link from Microsoft Word and the page includes frames, Communicator may not shut down completely when you exit.

Quality Feedback Agent and Automatic Proxy Configuration (Windows only)

• 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:


1. If you are using an HTTP proxy, or both an HTTP and SOCKS proxy, create a file named talkback.ini, containing these three lines, using your proxy host name, domain, and port:
 

UseUserHTTPProxyInfo=1

UserHTTPProxyHost="yourproxy.yourdomain.com"

UserHTTPProxyPort=xxxx [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 [your SOCKS port number]

2. Replace the existing talkback.ini file with the version you created.

On Windows 95 and Windows NT systems, copy the talkback.ini file to this location, in the directory that contains the Netscape.exe file: \Netscape\Communicator4.79\talkback.ini.
 

Palm Synchronization (Windows only)

• Upgrading to the Palm OS 3.0 may cause problems with Netscape Calendar Sync. You may have to check your connection settings for Netscape Calendar Sync after installing Palm OS 3.0.
• Back-up your Palm-compatible address book before using Address Book synchronization.
• These are issues to be aware of when you synchronize the Palm address book with the Netscape Address Book:
• If there are multiple lines in Palm fields (not including address and notes) Communicator converts those entries to a single line separated by commas.
• Communicator does not automatically synchronize Palm custom fields. For more information on how to map fields between Palm and the Netscape address book fields, see the Palm Synchronization Read Me.
• To synchronize with a directory that is synchronized offline, set Communicator to Offline.
• To work with mail synchronization, we recommend that you send mail from Palm.

 

Mac OS

• To optimize plug-in loading time, move any read-me files that may be installed in the plug-ins folder to another folder on your hard disk.
• On Mac OS systems: If you are using a 3.0x version of Navigator and want to transfer your preferences automatically to Communicator 4.79, you need to run NSMacPrefs. First, install Communicator 4.79 and run it once. Then, download and run the NSMacPrefs utility.
• Mac OS 8.1 or greater is required to run Communicator 4.79. For current Apple Mac OS software, see http://support.info.apple.com. These are the recommended minimum system hardware configuration is 24MB physical RAM for Mac OS 8.1:
• Before you install Communicator, make sure that your hard disk names do not include the slash (/) character. Account Setup won't run if any of your hard disk names include the slash (/) character.
• When uploading a file using ftp, Communicator only sends the data fork of the file. If you want to upload a Macintosh file that has a resource fork, convert the file to BinHex or MacBinary first.
• Folder aliases are not supported. You can drag a folder to an ftp directory window for upload but only aliases to files are resolved before they are uploaded.
• When dragging a folder to upload, the directory hierarchy of the folder is not maintained. All files contained in the dragged folder, even those in subfolders, are uploaded to the directory you are logged into.
• Older versions of Norton CrashGuard are incompatible with Communicator 4.7 and may cause your system to freeze or quit.
• If you see errors or problems while running plug-ins, Communicator may be low on memory. To provide Communicator with more memory, quit Communicator. Then, select the Netscape Communicator application icon, and choose Get Info from the File menu. Increase Communicator's Preferred Size by at least 1000. (If you're running Mac OS 8.5 or later, choose Memory from the Show pop-up menu to change the memory size.)
• If you use RealPlayer with Communicator 4.79, be sure to keep the Communicator memory setting at or above the default preferred size: 8192K with virtual memory turned on. Reducing this memory setting may cause your system to quit when you use Real Player. For more information, see the Real Player site at http://www.real.com/help/index.html for documentation regarding recommended memory requirements.
• If you have Adobe Type Manager installed, Communicator sometimes quits after you use the Font Preferences panel or pop-up menus on some systems.
• Versions of Speed Doubler up to and including 1.0.1 are incompatible with Navigator and Communicator. Some disk cache operations may cause b-tree corruption on your hard drive. To correct this problem, download the latest version of Speed Doubler from the Connectix site: http://www.connectix.com
• If you choose the "Go Offline" command and you see a dialog box that says, "The command could not be completed, because you have not set up your server preferences. Would you like to set up those preferences now?", select "OK" and enter a generic user and server name in the preference panel.
• If applications such as AOL Instant Messenger or Netscape Import Utility cannot be launched from Communicator, rebuild the Desktop file. For instructions see: http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n10182.
• If you see an error message that says, "A Communications error has occurred" (or "Communications exception"), and you are using a disk-compression program such as StuffIt SpaceSaver, try disabling the disk-compression program to fix the problem.

 

UNIX/Linux

• Solaris 2.6 only: Solaris 2.6/OpenWindows Communicator 4.0x does not render fonts properly. OpenWindows 3.6 patch 105633-05 fixes this problem, and is available from http://sunsolve.sun.com. Alternatively, you can add the following lines to your $HOME/.xinitrc file:


xset +fp /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/
xset fp rehash

CDE users on 2.6 will need to add the first of the two lines above to their HOME/.dt/sessions/session etc (be sure the permissions on this file are 755). Exit Communicator and then restart.

• Linux only: Using the Insert Link command (or the Link button) in Composer or when composing HTML messages may cause Communicator to crash. The workaround is to create a link by simply typing the complete text of the URL (for example, type "http://www.netscape.com"). URLs entered as text are still displayed as links in the body of a mail message; in Composer, the text is converted to anchor tags.


Alternatively, you may want to upgrade to XFree86 4.0 or 3.3.7 when they are available. These versions include a fix in XLib that eliminate the crash problem. Or, you can set an environment variable:
MOZILLA_LINUX_INSERT_LINK_FIX

An example for bourne shell users is:
MOZILLA_LINUX_INSERT_LINK_FIX=1; export MOZILLA_LINUX_INSERT_LINK_FIX

• On Linux/UNIX systems you may see the message "Can't convert string 'false' to type boolean" after launching Communicator from the terminal or console window. To suppress this message:
1. Delete all white spaces at the end of strings in ~/.Xresources.
2. From the command line type "xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources".
• The DirectColor visual class is no longer supported. If you specify a DirectColor visual with the -visual argument, or connect to an X server which implements DirectColor as the default visual class, Communicator uses a TrueColor visual instead.
• If you register a mime handler for 'application/x-javascript,' errors occur when you attempt to display pages that have that mime type. For example, if you use the Navigator Applications preference to add a new mimetype for 'application/x-javascript,' then choose Save To Disk, a core dump error occurs when you display pages containing that mime type.
• The Linux 2.0 version of Communicator is linked against libc 5.4.22, libm 5.0.8, and XFree86 3.2.
• The Linux 2.0 glibc version of Communicator is linked against glibc 2.0.7 and XFree86 3.3.1
• If this is the very first time you've run any version of Communicator on your system, start Communicator, then exit, then start Communicator again before you use Messenger to access your mail. If you attempt to use Messenger the very first time you run Communicator, it may quit with an "Illegal instruction" message.
• If you are using IMAP mail and would like your Sent, Templates, or Drafts folders to be located on your IMAP server, first create the folder on the server, then use Communicator Preferences to specify that you want Sent, Templates, or Drafts folders to be kept on the IMAP server.
• To copy messages from one IMAP server to another, use the File toolbar button. You cannot drag and drop of messages from one IMAP server to another.
• If you delete your only IMAP server and then add a POP server, Communicator may quit.
• In the Help window: The Index "Look for" field is small and it might be difficult to read; however, when you type a word and press Enter, matching topics do appear. You can also scroll through the index entries.
• If you receive Motif warnings that appear as dialog boxes, you can send those warnings to the command line instead by adding these lines to the file ~/.Xresources:


Netscape*useStdoutDialog:False
Netscape*useStderrDialog:False

• You should set the CLASSPATH environment variable only if you need to install special Java files in Communicator. Communicator uses CLASSPATH to find local .class files. If CLASSPATH is set in the user's environment, only the .jar files and directories specified in the CLASSPATH are searched. If you set your CLASSPATH variable, you need to make sure that each .jar file in $MOZILLA_HOME/java/classes is listed individually in your CLASSPATH.
• A previous workaround for UNIX systems, to avoid the freezing on startup of the edit or compose window, has been changed. If you previously set editor.disable_spell_checker in the preferences.js file, you can now implement the improved fix by deleting this line from the preferences.js file:


user_pref("editor.disable_spell_checker", true);

Replace it with this line:

user_pref("editor.dont_lock_spell_files", true)

This preference setting prevents the spell checker from locking files over NFS, thereby preventing the window freezing problem.

• If Communicator exhibits consistent problems on pages containing JavaScript, check your ~/.mailcap file, and remove this line if it is in that file:


application/x-javascript;;\x-mozilla-flags=save

• Communicator does not heed the TMPDIR environment variable when creating temporary files.
• In order to create an IMAP container folder on servers that do not support folders containing both messages and subfolders, the folder should be created with a trailing slash, e.g., "toplevel/".
• AIX systems: Some pages and windows may not display correctly the first time you run Communicator. Restarting Communicator corrects this problem.
• HP-UX systems: To export security certificates:
1. Enter the certificate password.
2. In the Filter field that appears in the File dialog box, delete the "*" (asterisk) and press Enter. The File Name field at the bottom of the dialog box now shows just the directory path, without the file name.
3. Enter the File Name and press OK to export the certificate.

 
International Issues
• Communicator currently does not support Hebrew to Unicode conversion. This may cause "???" characters to be displayed instead of valid characters in JavaScript. Communicator 4.61 with Arabic/Hebrew support is available for download from IBM at http://www6.software.ibm.com/dl/netscape3/bidi-p.
• Global IME support: users of Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.0 can now download Global IME modules that enable input of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters into mail messages and web forms. For more information on using Global IME under Communicator, choose International Users from the Help menu.
• Users of Korean Windows 95 and 98: A problem with erratic behavior in non-HTML text editing fields was reported for 4.72 and 4.73 when global IMEs for Chinese and/or Japanese were installed. This problem has been fixed in 4.75. For more information on the status of global IME support in Communicator, please see http://home.netscape.com/eng/intl/gimesupport.html.
• On Windows 2000, Korean IMEs (including Korean global IMEs in other Windows 2000 languages) may not work well.
• Windows 2000 users do not need Global IMEs since it comes with its own improved CJK IMEs. Use the fonts and IMEs available on the installation CD instead.
• If you're running Windows 98, just select the Windows Update icon in the Start menu. From there, select Product Updates, and download the language support and IMEs you wish to use.
• vCards (Personal Cards): if you usually attach vCards that contain 8-bit characters (e.g., Western accented characters, Chinese, Japanese, Korean) to your outgoing mail messages, we strongly recommend that you follow these suggestions when creating your vCard:
• Place the information for the Address, City, State, Zip Code and Country fields into the Address field (on the Contact tab) separated by either a carriage return (for Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters) or a space (for Western/accented characters), or,
• Insert an ASCII character at the beginning of each field (e.g., "+" or "-"), except the Address field.
• Iso 8859-15 charset support has been added to Xterm in order to provide euro support for UNIX. This charset support currently is not available on Windows and Mac OS.
• Some email sender applications use "UNKNOWN" as the charset name in the MIME2-encoded subject field. In such cases, Communicator uses the global default (which is set by View->Character Set->Set Default Character Set) as a reasonable guess.
• On Windows systems: To print the Euro currency symbol, see: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/euro.asp#printing.
• If you are using a profile created in a previous version of Communicator (that is, earlier than 4.5), you need to overwrite the old preference settings with the correct ones. To correct the preference settings:

 
1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Under the Navigator category, select Languages.
3. Either confirm that all the selections in the right pane are correct, or delete and re-enter them.
4. Click OK.
• When using the User Profile Manager to create a new profile, some Japanese characters that you enter in the Profile Name field of the "Choose a Name and Directory for Your Profile" dialog box don't appear correctly in the directory. To correct the directory entry, delete the directory name and manually type the correct Japanese characters.
• When copying DBCS text from Communicator to other applications under Windows NT, some characters not in the common cross-platform (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX) codepoints can become corrupted.
• Some characters may not display correctly when using certain Microsoft fonts. Communicator uses the Unicode 1.1 Shift-JIS encoding, whereas the Microsoft fonts may use different encoding. To avoid the problem of incorrect character displays, use a non-Microsoft Unicode font, such as Bitstream's Cyberbit.