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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


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