Browser

How can I change the useragent string to access stupid sites that check for certain browsers?

If need be, you can change the user-agent of Netscape/Mozilla to account for those toffee-nosed sites out there sniffing for a certain browser... To change the user-agent add the following line to your user.js:

user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/4.8 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)");

"Mozilla/4.8..." is just an example, of course. Some common user-agent strings are:

Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP2: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Internet Explorer 6 Standard: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en)
Opera: Opera/8.50 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
Netscape 4.8: Mozilla/4.8 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)
Netscape 7.1: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030619 Netscape/7.1
Netscape 7.2: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-DE; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040625 Netscape/7.2

Alternatively, you can also use about:config -> look for "general.useragent"...
Even more convenient is "User Agent Switcher", download it at http://chrispederick.com/work/useragentswitcher/

Please note that any entry in user.js is transferred into prefs.js. So if you want to revert to the original user-agent it is not enough to delete the user_pref in user.js, you also have to delete the line in prefs.js.

How can I access sites on certain high ports?

Netscape does not allow access to certain high ports. To deactivate this add the following line to your user.js.

user_pref("network.security.ports.banned.override","1080,2080,3080");

1080, 2080 and 3080 are examples only. Add any port you may have problems with, separated by a comma.

How do I get background sounds on webpages?

If a page uses <embed>, you need a plugin. Netscape Communicator's Live Audio player or Beatnik still work with Netscape 7 / Mozilla:
Netscape Live Audio Player is available at http://www.holgermetzger.de/ple.html
Beatnik Audio Player: http://www.holgermetzger.de/plugins/npbeatnk.zip (better sound quality than Netscape Live Audio, please read readme.txt in the zip file)

Unzip and copy the files into your Netscape 7 plugins folder, \Netscape 7\plugins\ . Restart Netscape to activate the plugins. "Embedded" Sounds should work now.

Microsoft's proprietary <bgsound> tag is not supported in Netscape.

Please note:
<embed> is not part of the W3 specs, so you should avoid using it. Use <object> instead.

Here's an example for the object tag:

<object data="background.mid">

See the following two example pages: Test 1 Test 2

Working with the Microsoft Knowledge Database (problem with overlapping text)

See an example of the problem by going to any MS KB article, for example http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q328874
To solve this problem add the following lines to your userContent.css (a plaintext file which has to be created in your profile's directory /chrome/ folder):

/* Fix for MSKB articles, to stop the overlapping text. */
.KBPUBV1 LI,
.KBPUBV1 OL LI,
.KBPUBV1 UL LI,
.KBPUBV1 UL UL,
.KBPUBV1 UL UL LI,
.KBPUBV1 .appliesto,
.KBPUBV1 .appliesto UL,
.KBPUBV1 .appliesto UL UL,
.KBPUBV1 .appliesto UL LI,
.KBPUBV1 .postappliesto,
.KBPUBV1 .postappliesto UL,
.KBPUBV1 .postappliesto UL UL,
.KBPUBV1 .postappliesto UL LI {
margin: 5px !important; font-family: Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica
!important; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.25em !important;
}
.KBPUBV2 LI,
.KBPUBV2 OL LI,
.KBPUBV2 UL LI,
.KBPUBV2 UL UL,
.KBPUBV2 UL UL LI,
.KBPUBV2 .appliesto,
.KBPUBV2 .appliesto UL,
.KBPUBV2 .appliesto UL UL,
.KBPUBV2 .appliesto UL LI,
.KBPUBV2 .postappliesto,
.KBPUBV2 .postappliesto UL,
.KBPUBV2 .postappliesto UL UL,
.KBPUBV2 .postappliesto UL LI {
margin: 5px !important; font-family: Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica
!important; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.25em !important;
}

Personal Toolbar is gone after installing and using the Kmeleon Netscape plugin

After installation of Kmeleon the Personal Toolbar in Netscape is gone (the folder itself is still present but not on the toolbar) when you selected the toolbar as toolbar in Kmeleon.
Solution:
Go to Bookmarks --> Manage Bookmarks, rightclick on the toolbar folder and rename it to "Personal Toolbar Folder". Restart Netscape.

Using the default system internet clients with Mozilla (Email, WWW, ftp, News)

Add the following lines to user.js/prefs.js (works in Windows and Mac only!):

Mail:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.mailto", true);
For ftp:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.ftp", true);
For News:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.news", true);
For HTTP:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.external.http", true);

For convenience you can also use the following addon: http://mozex.mozdev.org

Use third party download managers with Netscape

Many Download Managers support Netscape:
Getright: http://www.getright.com/opera.html
Stardownloader: http://www.stardownloader.com/faq/index.php?op=view&t=4
Download Accelerator: http://www.downloadaccelerator.com/FAQ.asp#19
Flashget: http://www.amazesoft.com/browser.htm

Netscape saves a file with a wrong file extension

You downloaded a file and Netscape adds the wrong file extension.

For example:
You click on the download link for coolmovie.mpg and Netscape starts downloading the mpg file but adds the extension mpeg so that the saved file looks like coolmovie.mpg.mpeg.

This is not a Netscape bug, it's a webserver configuration problem: the server sends the wrong MIME type information in the HTTP headers. The file is named coolmovie.mpg, but the server sends video/mpeg as the MIME type. That means Netscape will save the file as mpeg.

Background information:
Both HTTP requests and HTTP responses use headers to send information about the HTTP message.
For example:
When I check the HTTP headers for our coolmovie.mpg Netscape receives the following http headers information:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2003 05:58:31 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.20 Sun Cobalt (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.4 OpenSSL/0.9.6b PHP/4.1.2 mod_auth_pam_external/0.1
Last-Modified: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 00:07:23 GMT
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 46454788
Connection: close
Content-Type: video/mpeg

Instead, so that Netscape saves the file as .mpg, it should be

Netscape will always adhere to the http headers information and save a file accordingly.

The next time you save a file and Netscape adds the wrong extension check out the http headers the server sends it with: http://www.delorie.com/web/headers.html - copy the link into the box and click view page to display the http headers information. I'm 100% sure that you will see that the server sends the wrong mime type for the link.
So what can you do about it? You can notify the webmaster that he should configure the server correctly.
What about the saved file, is it worthless? No, the file will still download fine. Simply rename it.