Compaq T1500 manual Netscape Communicator Constraints

36Chapter 5

•Your company has standardized on a browser other than Netscape Communicator.

Reasons to execute the browser locally:

•Less network bandwidth is available.

•You require faster start-up of the browser application.

•Many users are on the network.

•Your terminal is connected to the network via a serial or phone line.

If you choose to execute Communicator locally, there are several configuration options you may choose, each of which will enable different components of Communicator. Refer to the help available from within Communicator for instructions.

The user should also configure network services (Select System Setup Administration Network Services) for optimum performance of the local browser.

Because the network terminal has limited local memory, there are constraints on the use of Netscape Communicator. See the paragraph below for a summary of the constraints imposed.

Netscape Communicator Constraints

Netscape Communicator is made up of the composer, the navigator, and the mail/ news subsystem. There is additional support for Java and Java applets. The follow- ing applies to Netscape 4.61, released in July 1999, running on the network termi- nal.

There are three boot models for the network terminal:

1.Network boot - in this environment, all the software is stored on a server and downloaded as necessary to the terminal client. Under this boot model, there is no issue with the Netscape Communicator on the terminal since nothing is stored locally.

2.Local Boot with network-based user directories - in this environment the user's home directory (other than root and guest) is stored on the network server. See the following table for constraints imposed to protect the flash memory.

3.Local Boot with local user accounts - this is the most precarious of environments. Anything saved is written to the flash file system. See the following table for constraints imposed to protect the flash memory.