[WEB4LIB] Revisiting mouse/Netscape problem

[Dan Lester]

Friday, May 05, 2000, 11:08:26 AM, you wrote:

JS> We have an irksome problem with the mouse suddenly not
JS> working in Netscape on our public computers.

JS> I checked the archives and found that this list addressed
JS> the problem back in November 1999.  Unfortunately, no one
JS> had a solution beyond "migrate to IE" which on our campus is
JS> not acceptable.

And why would that be, particularly if you're using Windows computers?
If you're using Win9x or Win2k computers, you've got a browser and a
telnet application already.  If your techies are supporting WinXX,
they should be supporting ALL of it, including those two basic
components.

JS>   Besides the computer services saying they
JS> will only "support" Netscape on campus-owned computers, when
JS> we do install IE it screws up other settings.

I'd be interested to know what those are.

JS>   Notably, we
JS> use Ewan as our Telnet plugin for Netscape, and IE adds a /
JS> to the address in Ewan, rendering it next to useless.

As others have pointed out, you need to use a decent telnet client.
Again, there is one built into Windows, so why not use it?  Not fancy,
but it does the job, and one generally doesn't need fancy to view an
online catalog.

JS> Question the first:  Has anyone found a Netscape based
JS> solution to this mouse problem yet?

We supported NS from pre-1.0 to 4.7, which we finally dumped a couple
months ago.  However, on over 200 machines of all types and qualities,
we never had mouse problems, so don't know.

JS>  How come I've never
JS> been able to find anything about this problem on the
JS> Netscape site?

Could it be unique to something in YOUR environment?  Type of
computer?  Type of mouse?  Does it occur on ALL of your computers?  If
not, narrow it down to what the common thread is on those that have
the problem.

JS>   And has anyone tried Netscape 6.0 trial
JS> version?

Try it.  You'll hate it.  Or not.  It doesn't look, feel, or act like
any other Windows program.  Some may consider that a plus.  However,
if you're in a Win environment, your users will probably have
problems.  Also, it is an early beta, and you're on your own, unless
your techies are nutty enough to support it.

JS> Question the second: what's a good Telnet plugin that allows
JS> the user to print from the session in a straightforward way
JS> (screen prints)?  Almost all the ones I have investigated
JS> either have no print capabilities, or make you go through
JS> contortions to print.  Ewan has been good to us for over two
JS> years, but it is no longer supported.

I don't know of any good free ones that will do that, but check out
the usual ZDNet, TUDOGS, etc, and try several out and see what works
for you.

JS> Sidenote:  we are using Deep Freeze (mentioned earlier this
JS> year on this list) on our public computers, and I love it.
JS> The only thing approaching a glitch I have experienced was
JS> having to reset all the clocks when the time change hit,
JS> since the computer kept the date straight but Deep Freeze
JS> eliminated the software time change correction.  And I don't
JS> have to worry about destructive viruses, because you just
JS> restart the computer and the virus and its damage are gone!
JS> We also use Ghost, so we can reconstruct a clean terminal
JS> anytime we want to.

Since we don't use those particular security packages, perhaps the
mouse problem is related to one or both of them.  Have you talked to
their support people about the problem if it exhibits itself on secure
machines?

Good luck.

dan


-- 
Dan Lester  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com