Anyone having problems with Netscape 8.0 ?

[Mike in utah]

I installed Netscape 8.0 so I could see how my website was working thru it. Holy Cow, that browser did all kinds of crazy things to me!

First off, it wouldn't send my shopping cart to PayPal unless I set it to render in IE, but…. when I did that, it wouldn't render the web page. Another problem showed up when I imported my bookmarks and it wouldn't let me edit them - well, sometimes it did and sometime it didn't. Then to top it off, IE started to do strange things too. I don't know what is causing the problem but I uninstalled it and now IE appears to be working normal. Coincidence? :rolleyes:

Is anyone else having any problems with the Netscape 8.0 browser or is something going wrong with my computer? Funny thing though...I'm using Firefox and it is working just fine!

Oh...one thing that was kind of amusing about it. It has a popup blocker and the FIRST popup it blocked was from Netscape’s very own home page! :D

Mike

[YvetteKuhns]

Maybe you installed a Windows update that does not allow the user to use other browsers! :D You could have had a corrupted download, a bad installation (that can occur if other programs are running during installation), problems with Windows (that can make anything go wacky) or other issues.

My sister told me she recently had problems using Netscape. Hmm....

[ntad]

Mike, you're not the only one with this problem. See these discuss threads:
http://www.paypaldev.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9872 and 9739
I'm also having the exact same problem. And I'm still waiting for a useful reply.

You should reply to that thread too. If we get enough people with this issue, maybe then PayPal look into it.

ntad

[Mike in utah]

ntad,

I finally gave up on Netscape! I tried everything and called everone but received no help. If you do a google search of "Netscape 8.0 Problems" you'll come up with lots of hits. Basically Netscape 8.0 has all kinds of bugs so I guess if one has it and IE installed on the same computer you will have problems. The only reason I was using Netscape was to check how my site was working with it.

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it!

Mike

[mam2077]

I am facing problem in netscape8.0. The window.open() method does not behave properly. Its not opening a new popup with the specified size, rather it opens it in a new tab without any specified size. Can anyone help me in this?

[Mike in utah]

mam2077,

I don't have an answer for you but it does that for me too! It seems every browser is doing something to get rid of popup windows so I wonder if it has something to do with that feature.

[YvetteKuhns]

The window.open() method does not behave properly. Its not opening a new popup with the specified size, rather it opens it in a new tab without any specified size.

My husband experienced the same problem using IE6 on one of the desktops. Did you check your browser settings? Have you updated Windows recently? Updating Windows can cause changes to your browser settings and other settings. We did NOT install popup blockers or toolbars that may have them. Something just changed and I believe it happened after updating Windows.

[John B]

I installed it yesterday, to test a web site. Netscape 8.0 says that it is based on Firefox, so I thought 'good'.

Well, my site works just fine on Firefox (1.0.6) (and IE 6/NS 7.1), but in NS 8.0.......

1. My anchor points, on all but the home page, are now underlined (my CSS says text-decoration:none). Why the home page is different, I have no idea !

2. Popup windows (window.open), that my site generates, don't do anything at all.

3. One page is generated entirely by JavaScript (dynamically builds a picture gallery) - it renders as blank in NS 8.0. Other pages have JS on them, no problem. If it was a case/spelling problem, I would assume Firefox would have the same problem, but it doesn't.

4. I may now give up, and hope that people don't use NS 8.0 !

John

[mjp]

I installed it yesterday, to test a web site. Netscape 8.0 says that it is based on Firefox, so I thought 'good'.Netscape is built around Firefox, but they are typically using an older version of the Firefox code (sometimes as much as a year older), which means in addition to the bugs they add in with the Netscape code, you also have to deal with the bugs of the older FF code, so using Netscape is kind of a lose/lose situation.

I certainly wouldn't design or alter code to accommodate Netscape...if your code works in IE, Firefox and Opera, you've got all the bases covered. That's IE 6.x, not the new beta version of IE 7 (which has yet to fix the basic CSS issues IE 6 had).

[Kitchensink108]

I agree that you only need to worry about FF, IE6 and Opera. The more obscure browsers (netscape, lynx, maxthon, konqueror, safari) make up far too small a percentage of internet users to go out of your way for. Bear in mind your target audience, though. Konqueror is big on Linux, Safari on Mac, so if you have any reason to be getting a lot of hits from those users, definitely try to make your site as least presentable in them.

I'm debating on, once IE7 is released to the public, how long I should wait to just drop support entirely for older versions of IE.

[YvetteKuhns]

I'm debating on, once IE7 is released to the public, how long I should wait to just drop support entirely for older versions of IE.

This depends upon your target audience. There are still Internet users using old computers, old versions of Windows and the default installation of IE. Many people don't update browsers! Many people do. I wouldn't worry about versions prior to IE5.

Using simple code whenever possible, especially for navigation, is recommended. But no one can guarantee 100% browser compatibility without sacrificing something else such as style, functionality, design or originality.

I must admit that for most clients, IE and Firefox are my main concerns and they don't even know or care about other browsers. But some clients may have a more knowledgeable target audience that may use other browsers. Those are the sites I test in more browsers. I do know that most strict HTML using current standards should work in most browsers and using CSS works for most current browsers. But that was not the case only a few years ago.

[Kitchensink108]

I don't think we're there yet, but we're getting to the point where keeping up to date with technology will be a requirement and not an option. When XHTML 2 is released and made a standard by the W3C, users won't have much of a choice but to upgrade their browsers to render the new code.

But until then, I have to hope my target audience stays within the realm of those who know other browsers exist, even if they don't use them.

[YvetteKuhns]

When XHTML 2 is released and made a standard by the W3C, users won't have much of a choice but to upgrade their browsers to render the new code.

Keep on dreaming. I have clients who don't know how to search Google or check email let alone update browsers, Windows or even antivirus software! :D We could post a statement on our websites and a link for visitors to upgrade, but we can't make them do it. ;)

[Kitchensink108]

Blarg. Yeah, I suppose when some users can't view half the sites they go to, upgrading they'll think it's just a bad job by the webdesigner and not realize they're using an outdated rendering engine. I guess I'll just be praying that Windows Vista will have automatic updates on by default, and that Microsoft decides to stay up to date with standards. Even then, it'll be years before Vista is even on the majority of computers, taking into account what its system requirements will be.

[YvetteKuhns]

Yeah, I suppose when some users can't view half the sites they go to, upgrading they'll think it's just a bad job by the webdesigner and not realize they're using an outdated rendering engine.

That IS what they will think. Or they may think there is something wrong with their computer or Internet connection. :rolleyes:

I guess I'll just be praying that Windows Vista will have automatic updates on by default, and that Microsoft decides to stay up to date with standards. Even then, it'll be years before Vista is even on the majority of computers, taking into account what its system requirements will be.

I wouldn't count on this, either. Just do the best you can for the most popular browsers. We cannot control what visitors use or do.

[Kitchensink108]

It's disheartening that so many people my age have no clue about this stuff, either, which means there's not a lot of hope for improvement in the future. Maybe...subliminal messaging :rolleyes:

"teach your kids the importance of staying up to date with web standards" - I don't think that virtue will catch on, though.