Australian PC World - When Netscape doesn't communicate

When Netscape doesn't communicate

Please help! This is driving me nuts! I use both browsers (Netscape Gold 3.0 and MSIE 3.0) to connect to the Internet. Due to some winsock.dll problems I had not long ago, I reinstalled Netscape from a CD-ROM I have. I also reinstalled MSIE, Eudora Mail and Win95! Since then, I have been unable to use Netscape. Whenever it tries to open at the page I have set as its home page, and whenever I try to enter a URL, I get an error message saying that "Netscape is unable to locate the server xxx.yyy (whatever I've put in). The server does not have a DNS."
I can't help but feel this is not a connection problem, as I can use MSIE and Eudora with no problems at all. I did a ping test and am getting through, so I presume this is a problem with Netscape itself, or something with Netscape and my PC configuration. I have triple checked all the information I need to put into Netscape for my ISP re general preferences, mail and news preferences etc and it is all correct. All my TCP/IP settings are correct (obviously, I wouldn't be accessing the Net with MSIE otherwise!), and I don't know what's wrong. I much prefer Netscape to MSIE and hope you can help with this problem.
Thanks for all your help, along with a great magazine.
- Marie McLaurin

Sometimes in Netscape people encounter a problem where they get the following error message: Netscape is unable to locate the server [server name]. The server does not have a DNS entry. Normally this would indicate that there is something wrong with your connection to the Internet. This same error can sometimes occur in Netscape yet you are still able to use other Internet applications such as MS Internet Explorer, Eudora, FTP, or Telnet. If just one Internet application works then there is nothing wrong with your Internet connection. One source of these errors in Netscape is the proxies. To view your proxy setup, choose Network Preferences from the Options menu. Click on the Proxies tab. If information is incorrectly entered, or some change has been made to the proxy servers at your ISP, or if the proxy server is not working properly, then you may start to get the "unable to locate server" error messages. Turn off the proxies and see if the error disappears. Also if you are using automatic proxies, try clicking on the reload button to see if this removes the error. You do not need proxies to surf the Net but it makes loading some pages faster. You will have to contact your ISP for the correct details regarding their proxy setup.
- Roy Chambers

Netscape's proxy information can be viewed or edited in the Preferences dialogue box

Category: Internet
Issue: Mar 1997
Pages: 164