Netscape Hacks - Part 1

[Andrew Mutch]

I've been playing around some more with Netscape 6 and I'm making some headway
in locking down various parts of the browser.  Here's my initial discoveries.

Netscape Preferences
First and foremost, there is still a prefs.js file.  For those not familiar
with prefs.js in Netscape 4.x, this file controls many of the browser
preferences in Netscape.  By setting this file to read-only, you can clear any
user-changes by simply closing and restarting Netscape.  It does not prevent
users from changing preferences but it makes it easy [and free!] to reset the
browser to the settings that you have specified.

You can find prefs.js in the following location:

\Netscape\Users50\default\default_folder_name\prefs.js

I've tested setting prefs.js to read-only and it appears that this functions
the same way as it did in 4.x in preventing preference changes from being saved
when the browser is closed.

Browser History
The History file is located in the same directory and is named "history.dat".
Again, setting this file to read-only prevents the browser from saving entries
into the History when the browser is closed. This helps prevent the problem of
patrons accidently sumbling into sites that a previous patron has visited.  I
would note that this only affects the browser history which can be accessed
using CTRL-H.  This does not affect the URLs that appear in the drop-down menu
on the Navigational Toolbar.  I'm still trying to figure out how to keep those
URLs from being saved in that menu.

Bookmarks File
The bookmark file is located in the same directory and is named
"bookmarks.html".  Again, set this file to read-only to prevent bookmarks from
being saved when the browser is closed.  If you don't want Netscape's default
bookmarks, edit this file and delete everything after "<H1>Bookmarks</H1>" and
then save and set as read-only.

Menus, etc.
I've been looking at some of the themes that are being developed for use in
libraries.  One that looks promising is the "Sullivan" Skin that is part of the
Aphrodite theme/interface at mozdev.org:

http://aphrodite.mozdev.org/

The advantage of this skin is that is has cut out a lot of the extraneous fluff
that the default Netscape interface provides.  It also has an  improved toolbar
which incorporates the home and print button into the main toolbar.  It may be
possible to further modify the interface to make it even more secure - we'll
see.

As I get these issues worked out, I'll be adding new pages with graphical
instructions how to do this at my Netscape help pages at:

http://northville.lib.mi.us/tech/netscape.html

If anyone has any success in locking down other elements of the browser, I
would appreciate hearing about it!

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI