Previous by Date | Next by Date | Date Index
Previous by Thread | Next by Thread
| Thread Index
| LM_NET
Archive
| |
From: Gail Faughn <lm_net@M10.ASTORIA-PARK.LEON.K12.FL.US> Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 08:38:58 -0500 From: Gail Faughn <lm_net@M10.ASTORIA-PARK.LEON.K12.FL.US> Subject: HIT: Netscape freezes SRecently I asked for suggestions on what to doOne of our teachers is looking for information about the author Dick Francis -- especially whether he lives in Florida and an address at which he can be contacted. Can anyone out there help? TIA. Gail Faughn, Media Specialist Astoria Park Elementary School 2465 Atlas Road Tallahassee, Florida 32303 (904) 488-4673 lm_net@m10.astoria-park.leon.k12.fl.us any of you asked me to share the replies because you were having similar problems. Here's what I received: Which version of Netscape are you using? We had the same problem and Apple told us to be sure and use version 2.02, NOT other version of 2 because the others corrupt the system. We have not moved to 3.0 because of the amount of RAM it requires right off the top. Floyd Don't know if this is your problem -- but I have found it is best to open up your PPP connection first, then open Netscape. If I don't do that, but let Netscape make the connection, it's fine the first time, but not the second time. So that might be what is messing you up, too! I think I remember going into Apple shareware and getting a patch for Netscape 2, but it was about a year ago and that is all I remember. Anyway, I think it has stopped the freezing up. hope it helps a little, can't remember anymore. Trish I'm glad to hear that our school is not alone in the frozen Netscape situation! We also have Microsoft's Internet Explorer on our Macs, and I suggest - make that insist - that students use it instead. I have some of the same frustrations and have stopped some of the freezing by making up my ow little rules. I don't know if it really works or if I just think it does! If I am having back to back classes that will be using Netscape, I just leave Netscape on. I just tell the kinds to click home and leave it. If I need to quit Netscape, I quit and immediately restart the computer. This prohibits someone quitting Netscape, then someone else opening Netscape and having it freeze. The freezes seem to occur more frequently when Netscape has been started, stopped, then started again. The restarting of the computer in between seems to help. Restarting is takes less time than waiting for a freeze and then having to rebuild the desktop. You might consider grabbing the extension "Netscape Defrost." http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive /Archive/comm/inet/web/ntscp/netscape-defrost-09b2.hqx Sounds like a Windows problem. On PC's, the RAM behaves in a way that when Windows programs have been open, then closed, they refuse to give up some of the RAM they were using resulting in the GPF's or General Protection Faults that have plagued PC/Windows 3.1 users for years. The solution was to restart the computer to force the offending programs to give up that needed RAM. (Random Access Memory) I'm curious as to how much RAM is on these Macs and which model are they. I would say you have a legit question for the Apple tech people to answer. In our case, it was a memory problem. Any of our Macs with only 4 MB of RAM repeatedly crash trying to run Netscape. Any that have been upgraded to 8 MB, don't. The only solution to this problem may be to throw money at it. What a bummer! 1. I would increase the memory allocated to Netscape...on Macs, go to "Get Info" on IBMs go to "Properties". 2. In the "General Preferences" there is a place you can reduce the "cache" - the cache saves web pages so it easier to refresh the page if needed. Reduce the amount in the "cache" . These are two things that have worked for me. I have the same problem all the time with my Mac/Netscape combination at my school. Fortunately, I have a stand-alone connection, and I keep rebuilding the desktop and run Norton Utilities (i.e.Dicsk Doctor) to keep it from freezing. There seems to be a common problem with Mac and Netscape with freezes. You may want to do a DejaNews search or post to newsgroup internet.broswsers.mac (I probably have the name incorrectly written..do a ng search of browsers.mac and see what you find). The people on those groups are really helpful. I never have problems with Netscape on my Win95/home pc... I had a similar problem with my Mac when I first went online. After many hours on the phone with Apple, I discovered that I really didn't have enough memory to run Netscape. Turning off unnecessary extensions solved the problem. At school I use Win95 with the same amount of memory and have had no problems with Netscape. Hi Gail, our solution was to make Microsoft Internet Explorer our preferred browser, it's free and has some good features. I had trouble with Netscape as well. We've had so many problems with Netscape for two years at Swift Creek that we are almost exclusely using Microsoft Internet Explorer. We still have freezes but much less than Netscape. We think something is happening with the Netscape cache especially when you've just closed out of another software program and try to open Netscape. You almost have to turn your computer "off" and restart it everytime you want to go on the internet. I'm looking forward to reading the items in your hit. I've asked the same question myself to this group and have received answers such as : 1. increase the Ram allottment for Netscape 2. increase overall RAM 3. upgrade your MAC operating system and use newest version of Netscape 4. Don't know why! Even Apple doesn't know why; possibly some incapability between operating system and Netscape.. 5. Defective machines; contact Apple; will fix them. 6. No problem at all! Machines in their lab run flawlessly. 7. Ditch Netscape and put in Internet Explorer. ('I've been threatening to do this but just haven't had the time to do the download. I run it at home on my PC and it works very, very nicely and rarely freezes, however, it is on another platform.) I've down #1 and 2 at school and the problem is lessened. Choice your poison! Good luck! We get netscape freezes in out district because we are operating on a 56kb line. When usage goes up, usually around noon, and then again around 2:30, we experience so much frustration with accessing the Internet. We also get lots of messages regarding "no DNS entry". Our technician assure us that when out T1 lines go in we won't see these problems. There's really nothing you can do about Netscape freezing on a Mac, it's just the way memory leaks and seizes the machine. Some solutions are : 1. allocate more memory to Netscape 2. download and load an extension called _Netscape Defrost_, available at http://search.shareware.com/code/engine/File?archive=info-mac&file=comm%2finet%2 fweb%2fntscp%2fnetscape%2ddefrost%2d09b2%2ehqx&size=12366 3. restart the computer after a Netscape session, to clean out the memory. Good luck, all of us Mac lovers have to live with this problem until they get the new system software out later this year. Gail Faughn Tallahassee, Florida faughng@m10.astoria-park.leon.k12.fl.us