WEB4LIB digest 1040

[Jim Jones]

> 
> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 16:41:26 -0400
> From: John Burke <burkejo at ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at library.berkeley.edu>
> Subject: Re: MS-DOS question
> Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980421164126.0069b9d8 at ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu>
> 
> I'm always glad to see new iterations of this cache deleting process come
> around.  The question I have for all of you is:  does sticking one of these
> lines in your autoexec.bat make this deleting process take forever?
> 

It all depends on the size of the cache.  Deleting files takes longer in 
MS-DOS under Win95 than it does inside of Windows95 proper.  I generally
keep the cache to under 1 meg (500K can usually accomodate a couple of pages
at a time).  When the cache gets too large netscape performance suffers 
anyway, so its a trade-off.  I currently don't have any security software  
running other than the windows 95 policies and operating custimizations, such
as running in a secured Program Manager Shell (old Win 3.x trick, though we
just got ikiosk and fortres and are looking at deploying them).  
The main problem with this setup is that users get to mess with Netscape's 
options, including the size of the cache.  We've had to deal with caches 
consisting of 700,000 files worth a couple hundred megabytes of space.  
Deleting stuff of this size from DOS can take up to two hours if called from
DOS.

Our interim solution has been to create a batch file which is set to have the
netscape icon and appears to be netscape itself.  what it actually does is 
silently import the netscape arm of the registry (using the /s command line
switch) into the PC's registry.  The is arm of the registry includes most of 
the user defineable options, plus some things that linger from general  
surfing.  After the registry has been "updated" with the proper settings      
(nullifying any long term damage that may occur from user's changing the
default settings), we start netscape from the DOS command line with the "start'
command.  

With this little batch file in place and with deleting and restoring a number of files at startup from the Autoexec.bat, we've been able to significantly
decrease the downtime of these stations as well as decreasing the amount of 
"routine" maintenance we need to do on them to keep them running.


> A little background:  I have implemented this before on our workstations,
> all of which run Win95, and are split between 200MHz (3) and 75MHz (5)
> Pentiums.  Each time I have done this, I have had complaints (nice ones)
> from staff about the time this process takes.  I have the Netscape cache
> set at 5MB, and other than when I've just cleared the cache manually,
> rebooting with the delete line in place takes no less than ten minutes.
> What's up with this?  Any thoughts?  It's not a horrible hardship, but as
> you all know, a minute in front of a non-operational computer feels like an
> hour to many folks.  Thanks! 
> 
> John
> 
> John J. Burke, MSLS  |  Systems/Public Services Librarian
> University of Cincinnati - Raymond Walters College Library
> E-mail: john.burke at uc.edu  |  I Corinthians 1:25
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Need a great workbook for Internet training?  Need Net presentation
> materials?  See www.neal-schuman.com to order _Learning the Internet_.
> 


Jim Jones

System Coordinator/LAN Specialist
Ball State University Libraries
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306