Optimization question

[Edwin Sperr]

For the collective:

We have seen the future, and it is slooowwww.

To wit - our library has changed its internal workstations (around 9 of them)
to start up with a web page.  We've recently acquired access to three new
web-based databases and the most convenient way to access them (in addition
to the OPAC, which is via telnet anyway) is just to start up the PCs in
Netscape 2.02 and let a linked set of web pages lead to each resource.

So far, so good.  The problem is "disk churning" on the workstations.

Perhaps other have noticed this phenomenon: One hits the "back" button, and
Netscape locks up for a second or two. The dreaded hourglass appears, the C:
drive frantically churns, and the page in question (which should be _right
there_
in the cache) comes up with excruciating slowness.

This is bad enough when one is poking around the Web on one's personal time,
but it's downright unacceptable when this happens in a mission-critical
situation. 
All too often, a student will attempt to get from one point to another, only
to be greeted with the display noted above.  Even worse, this happens with
our main pages as well, which are loaded _locally_ on each PC.  How much
time should it take for Netscape to fetch something from the hard disk?  

It this a Windows problem?  A Netscape problem?  I know it's not necessarily
a LAN problem, because it comes up with pages on the C: drive as well. I don't
_think_ it's a workstation problem (for the most part 486DXs with 8 megs on
board).  I'm looking for FAQ's, tips, techniques and general hand-holding.  

Many thanks in advance.....

Ed Sperr  (esperr at colacoll.edu)     
Assistant Technical Services Librarian
Columbia College  --  Columbia, SC