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How To Use Netscape

Mosaic is not the only browser available at Purdue for "net surfing." Another well known browser is Netscape. Starting Netscape is as easy as starting Mosaic. After logging in and setting up your X windowing system on a UNIX workstation, type netscape& at the window prompt. The ampersand is added to the Netscape command to inform the windowing system to return that window to you. Make sure that netscape is typed in lowercase letters.

The Netscape Homepage will appear. If you want to get to the Purdue Engineering Homepage, (using the left button on the mouse) click on the Open button located below the main menu. A dialog box titled Netscape: Open Location will appear and it contains a smaller rectangular box with http://home.netscape.com/ inside; Netscape's URL. Press the Clear button and then move the mouse inside the rectangular box and type the URL http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/ for the Purdue Engineering Homepage. URL stands for the Uniform Resource Locator (page address). Each page on the Web has a URL and browsers use the URL to locate and link to the page. Two URLs you may find interesting are http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/ for Purdue Libraries and http://www.mdn.com/LafOnline/. Lafayette has its own homepage (made available by MDN Internet Services). After typing the URL, click on the Open button and the page should appear. If you have any questions about the URL or other WWW information, click on the WWW Resources button on the ECN Homepage.

From this point you should be able to browse through Netscape as you would with Mosaic. As you travel from page to page using Netscape, the encoded images and text of each page you visit will be downloaded into a directory. This is what is known as cache. The directory .netscape-cache is automatically set up when you initially start up Netscape. If you become a heavy user of Netscape, your cache directory will build up and you may exceed your disk storage quota. To prevent this you need to empty your .netscape-cache directory regularly. To accomplish this, click on Options and then click on Preferences. This will bring up the Cache and Network dialog box. Click on Clear Memory Cache Now and Clear Disk Cache Now. Click on OK and resume your work. Check the FAQs page on the ECN Homepage for more information. (Hint: Netscape Answers is a good place to start.)

To exit from Netscape move the cursor to the File option on the main menu. Click to bring up the sub-menu and click on Exit to quit.

The World Wide Web is at your finger tips with Netscape. Try it out and soon you will be a regular net surfer.

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