Netscape's newest browser suite: Free, powerful and easy to use

technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Netscape's newest browser suite: Free, powerful and easy to use

Oct. 10, 1999

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©1999, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©1999, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Netscape has a new Web browser. It's free from the company's Web site.
   Go to http://www.netscape.com/ and follow the links for the new browser. You can choose the full Netscape Communicator suite (Web browser, e-mail, newsgroup reader and Web-page editor) or you can get just the browser, called Navigator. It's a big download, but don't be fooled if your initial download goes very quickly. In some cases, the first thing you get from Netscape is a download manager, and the real download doesn't start until you run that.
   Netscape Navigator was the first modern Web browser. It has lost ground lately to Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer. But interest in Netscape surged when reports surfaced about major problems with Internet Explorer. Basically, Internet Explorer allows anyone on the Internet to get into your Windows PC if they know how to break in. (Microsoft says it has a fix for this, but the company has made such claims before without actually fixing the problems.)
   Another difficulty is more of an attiutude problem than a software bug. Microsoft has tried hard to make Windows users believe they have to use Internet Explorer to get onto the Web. To put it bluntly, that's ridiculous. You can use any browser you want, no matter what your Internet service Provider tells you. (Get a new one if your ISP gives you a hard time.)
   The current version of Navigator is available for Windows PCs, Apple Macintoshes, Linux and more than 20 varieties of Unix. You can get high-security versions of Netscape using 128-bit encryption, for Windows, Macs, Linux and many versions of Unix. (Don't get the 128-bit version if you don't need it. It's only useful if the Web sites you visit require it.)
    Communicator comes with a good e-mail program called Netscape Mail. Some of the features of Netscape Mail don't work as well as Microsoft's standard e-mail software, Outlook Express, but other ones work better. I especially like the address book and the easy way you can create or change mailing lists. (I also like using e-mail software that doesn't add to Microsoft's bank accounts, but that's a personal thing.)
   I've used various newsgroup programs for years and still have some of the best programs ever designed for newsreading. They all seem to have quirks of one kind of another, and sometimes those oddities make an otherwise good program almost unusable. But Netscape News has only a couple of quirks, none serious, and is very easy to use. It also lets me check what's new in just a few seconds. I like Netscape News enough to use it exclusively.
   The Web editor that comes with Communicator is competent and works well at all the basic operations. Best of all, it does't impose some sort of moronic style on Web pages the way Microsoft's freebie Web editor does. (The Microsoft editor, Front Page Express, is so common these days that many users assume it's the only way they can edit Web pages. Unfortunately, this means they're creating pages that don't look right on Macs or Linux, and it also means they have no idea how basic Web-page coding works, since Front Page Express isolates the user from the code.)
   Netscape 4.7 has a "Shop" button that takes you to Netscape's Web-based shopping mall -- a dumb idea, so please shop any place you want -- and it has an Internet radio function that takes you more or less straight to radio stations on the Net. It actually takes you straight to advertising and marketing sites that then take you to radio stations.
   A much better idea is to do your homework and find the actual addresses for the Internet feeds of your favorite stations. Then create a bookmark for each one. A simple click will tune in the station live. If you want to see this in action, go to my new Web site at http://twcny.rr.com/technofile/ and click the "Radio Show" link at the left. The WSYR page will open, and then all you do is click the link for listening to the station live. If your computer has the Real Player installed (or if it has Microsoft's less capable subtsitute), you'll hear WSYR within a few seconds. Nothing could be easier.