Display/print problems with pdf's in Netscape 6

[VanderHart, Robert]

This may have been covered before, but I couldn't find anything in the list
archives.  By the way, the search function for the Web4Lib archives has been
enhanced and is a big improvement.

Our public machines (Windows 2000) have Netscape 6 and Acrobat Reader 5.
When a patron clicks a pdf, a box pops up and says the file type is
unrecognized by Mozilla.  I click the Save button and try to open up the
file in AR 5, but it hasn't been saved as a pdf so I get an error message in
AR as well. 

I can't add the application/pdf file type in the browser's Helper
Applications, even when I'm logged in as an administrator.

To make things even stranger, the same machine a half hour later opened the
same pdf with no problem.

FWIW, my machine (Netscape 6.2, Windows NT4) has no problems opening pdfs,
and I noticed in the Helper Applications that there is nothing listed for
application/pdf there either.

Other than posting signs and telling everyone to use IE as their browser
(which was essentially the advice I got from the technician at our IS Help
Desk), is there a workaround for this problem?



Robert J. Vander Hart
Electronic Resources Librarian
The Lamar Soutter Library
University of Massachusetts Medical School
55 Lake Avenue N
Worcester  MA  01655

Voice: (508) 856-3290
Fax: (508) 856-5899
Email: Robert.VanderHart at umassmed.edu
Web: http://library.umassmed.edu