NYU ON THE WORLD-WIDE WEB

Is Netscape Navigator for You?

by David Frederickson

[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]

Should you use Netscape? If possible, yes; its browser, Navigator, is free to academic users, and is faster than Mosaic. Other superior browsers may come along, but at this point the choice is clearly for Netscape. If you have an Ethernet connection or a high-speed modem -- preferably 28.8 kilobits per second, but at least 14.4 -- and an NYU DIAL (PPP) account or a similar connection through a commercial service provider, Netscape Navigator will work effectively on your computer. (Slower modems are inadequate for transmitting graphics files; for text-only browsing, use Lynx, which is included in your NYU-Internet account.)

You can easily get the latest approved version of Netscape (currently 1.1N) from NYU's own FTP server at {ftp.nyu.edu/pub/mac/netscape} (or, for Windows, {ftp.nyu.edu/pub/windows/netscape}).

This can be done easily using Fetch on the Mac or, in Windows, WinQVT/Net. Enter the following information:

Host: ftp.nyu.edu

User ID: anonymous

Password: your e-mail address

Directory: /pub/mac/netscape

-- but give your actual e-mail address as the password, and substitute windows for mac in the last string if you want the Windows version.

At this point you are ready to download. Take all three files: the license specifies the legal uses; the Readme file gives installation instructions; the third file is the browser itself. The browser files are compressed; the .exe file for Windows is self-extracting, so all you need to do is launch it to start the installation process; for the Mac, you'll need a program such as Binhex or StuffIt to uncompress the .hqx file. To customize Netscape to work with your system and e-mail, there are several Preferences setting you can adjust located under Options. [ C ]

David Frederickson was the editor of Connect at the time of this article's publication.
{david.frederickson@nyu.edu}

Posted 27 March 1996. Revised 30 January 2004.