SillyDog701

[akbash]

The only explanations I know of for failure to remember preferences are:

• a read-only prefs.js file
  • (or a read-only profile directory)
  • (or a profile directory writeable only by a user other than the one you use to run Netscape)
• the existence of a user.js file

Another possibility: some third-party antivirus or antispyware sentinel could possibly be messing with your prefs.js. Some are known to do that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040928 Firefox/0.10

[Lone Wolf]

First I want to say thanks to all of you that have posted to this thread.

Ramona, I did find the path just as you said. I renamed localstore.rdf logged out. Shut down the laptop, rebooted it and logged back in to my ISP. Netscape did create a new localstore.rdf. However the problem is still there, it won't save my settings.

Akbash, I think that you are on the right path. Something is changing my prefs file. I right clicked on it, selected properties and changed "open" with Netscape (it was Microsoft Windows Based Script Host). Netscape is my default browser. Also the .slt floder and any files in it were not set as read only. Anyway since I changed it from Microsoft to Netscape I'm still loosing my settings. I even tried making the prefs.js as read only after I made my changes. Computer or third-party application made a 1-prefs.js file and removed the read only from the file(s). I do have Norton Systemworks 2005 installed. But I had the same problem before I installed Norton. The system shipped with McAfee and I uninstalled McAfee beore installing Norton. I don't know of another application that Dell could have on here that would conflict with Netscape.

I also have two paths to same folders/files. Both are under Documents and Settings. One is my name and the other is my name.compurer serial #. The last one is the one that Netscape uses. I know this because in mail under Edit / Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings (at the bottom) the path is listed. I did make the same changes in both though, just in case. I think maybe the new one was created when I reinstalled Netscape. Old folder was created September 18, 2004, 4:54:36 AM, new one was created September 25, 2004, 11:56:14 PM. Both are under Documents and Settings. Don't know if it would do more damage if I were to remove the old folder. But I don't know if it would help either. Old folder would have been there before on the first install of Netscape. Anyway that's where I am at.

Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[Ramona]

Akbash, I think that you are on the right path. Something is changing my prefs file. I right clicked on it, selected properties and changed "open" with Netscape (it was Microsoft Windows Based Script Host).

When you did the right click on the prefs.js file, and selected "Properties", and "Open" that is for opening the file itself, and has nothing to do with writing to the file.

What you want to use to open prefs.js is either Notepad or WordPad. Highlight prefs.js, press the "Shift" key and at the same time right click, and select "open with". This time select Notepad, or WordPad, your choice. Also insert a tick in the small box beside "Always use this program to open this type of file." Now when you double click any js file, it will automatically open in the text editor you selected. Otherwise you will get an error:

Windows Scripting Host - Security Execution Error

Script: (Path to the prefs.js file)
Line Number: ....
Category: ....
Description: ....

This error indicates that Windows Scripting Host is currently set up as the default application to open .js files. The error occurs because prefs.js isn't a Windows Script file. Use Notepad to edit the file instead.

Ramona

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10

[akbash]

I'm starting to run out of ideas. Just a notion: try launching Netscape, changing some setting that will be written back to prefs.js, and checking the time stamp on the prefs.js file before and after.

For ease of discussion let's say the main Navigator preferences pane, in the "Select the buttons you want to see in the toolbars" section, check (or uncheck) the "Go" checkbox. This I think is an innocuous pref, definitely stored in prefs.js. Quit Netscape to be sure it has tried to flush the prefs to disk.

Does the timestamp on the file indicate that it's been touched? Is the setting still not remembered? We're investigating two things here: whether the prefs file is being touched at all, and if so, whether innocuous, simple settings that probably wouldn't interest even something as potentially nosy as Norton Systemworks are being interfered with.

If the file and its parent directory are writeable I expect the timestamp to change. If the timestamp doesn't change on a writeable file then something must be wrong with Netscape but I've never seen Netscape fail even to try to save the file. If the timestamp changes then I want to think Netscape in general is trying to save prefs changes but is being prevented. If this innocuous pref change, unlike other settings, is not lost, things just get more interesting.

Another thing you may want to try, change the "Go" pref yourself by hand. (With Netscape not running, use Notepad to) add this line to prefs.js, anywhere:

user_pref("browser.toolbars.showbutton.go", true);

Save the file, launch Netscape. The Go box had better be checked.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040928 Firefox/0.10

[Lone Wolf]

Akbash and Ramona

I did notice when I left clicked on the prefs.js file that notepad did bring up a textbox with the settings configuration. So I will try and make the manual changes to the file. What I don't understand now is why I am getting so many of these files. I the .slt folder it started making copies each time I logged out. Prefs-1.js prefs-2.js and so on. I did go back to the prefs.js and unchecked the read only attribute. Hopefully tonight I will have time to try the above. I have put allot of hours into this over the last week.

I'll also look at the timestamp when I logout. Then shutdown the pc and wait a few minutes and start from a cold boot. I want to find out if the timestamp gets changed again.

You guys are giving me allot of good ideas. Thanks much....Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; H010818)

[akbash]

Also the .slt floder and any files in it were not set as read only.

Which caused us to branch very far afield, looking for alternative explanations. But later:

I did go back to the prefs.js and unchecked the read only attribute.

If prefs.js was in fact read-only, we can throw out the last half of this thread because that is certainly the cause of your lost settings. A read-only prefs.js is also the only likely explanation for the numbered prefs-n.js files.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040929 Firefox/0.10

[Lone Wolf]

akbash

I found out why I was getting all of the files named prefs-1.js and so on. I must have deleted the prefs.bak file. Because I had reinstalled this browser on my laptop there were two paths and I went to the old one and copied the prefs.bak to the new folder. Each time I would exit Netscape it would create another prefs-#.js because there was no backup file there. That took care of that problem.

Now to the original problem. I did look at the time and date on prefs.js after fixing the above. I shutdown the pc. I left it off for several minutes. This way I started with a cold boot. When I would bootup the laptop that timestamp would go on prefs.js. So something was overwriting the file after Netscape was done with it. Something at bootup. I have dialup with what my ISP calls Turbo Connect. Many ISP's have it. It just compresses the data at the server then decompresses it at the user end. For more on this check out http://www.provide.net/. You probably already know this. Anyway when I took the Turbo Connect out of my startup menu and did another cold boot the prefs.js was not altered. Opened Netscape and all of my settings were just as I left them. The timestamp remained the same. To test this I put the Turbo Connect back in the startup menu. Did another cold boot. Took a look at prefs.js and the time was altered. Opened Netscape and my settings were all messed up. Took Turbo Connect back out and got my settings the way I wanted them and logged off, shut down the pc and did one last cold boot. The timestamp on prefs.js was not changed. Logged back into my ISP all settings were okay.
Over the next few days I will know for sure if I did find the problem. I may contact my ISP and find out if anyone else had upgraded to 7.2, using XP Home Edition and Turbo Connect.

I use Turbo Connect on my desktop without problems. But this machine has Windows 98 and Netscape 7.1.

thanks for all of your help. By the way I did manually configure the prefs.js file with notepad and it did work.

Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

[akbash]

Cool! Thanks for figuring that out, and please keep us informed.

It's very, very naughty of some startup service to club Netscape's prefs.js file. I'm guessing it's implemented as a proxy server, and therefore feels the need to tweak the proxy settings stored in prefs.js. I think there's no good way to do such a thing automatically, but they could have been a lot less heavy-handed about it. Maybe Turbo Connect has some setting that you can use to tell it it's done setting up your proxy and can leave you in peace now.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040929 Firefox/0.10

[Lone Wolf]

I just wonder if other ISP's like Juno and their SpeedBand are like Turbo Connect? If SpeedBand / Turbo Connect have the same affect on Netscape 7.2? Almost every dialup ISP has some sort of data compression program. If so then this leaves open Netscape 7.2 on a pc with data compression (and maybe Windows XP) to have this problem.

I did a cold boot on my laptop this morning before work and the prefs.js file still was not changed from last night. It was off for at least 6 hours. I am still going to keep an eye on this for a few days but I feel as the problem is solved. I need to find some others that have had the same problem to find out what their system configuration is.


Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; H010818)

[Fulvio]

I do not know if this is the case, but it may explain problems that people with such software have.
I did send a feedback to your provider, if nothing else because I used to live possibly half a mile from their offices. And, I will check with a friend of mine in California who used to be a Netscape user, but gave up because of several problem (turbo connect?).
You are good!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[Lone Wolf]

Fulvio

Good morning and I appreciate your vote of confidence. I did have allot of help from the folks on this board. Is this problem unique to my computer or can it be reproduced on other systems with the same configuration? I would love to have some feedback from others that have had the same problem.

Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; H010818)

[Fulvio]

Lone Wolf,
I never heard of the specific problem, but in view of what you reported, anything could go. I contacted your provider, and sent a feedback, but I got no reply. Do you have your mail set up in OE? It may work there, or this software is a convenient way for the provider to keep its server clean.
I don't use OE, but I have to keep it to check any new features, because Netscape is not supported by my provider. Fortunately no change has been incompatible with gecko based programs.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040910

[Fulvio]

I got a reply from provide.net.
i guess that they admit that there is a problem, or defer to TurboConnect.

"Fulvio,
Thank you for contacting us about this problem. I will make sure that
your findings are forwarded to the correct people who can possibly
address this problem in future versions of TurboConnect."

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) (CK-SillyDog)

[Lone Wolf]

Fulvio

Thanks for posting the information from my ISP. I did call one of the owners last week and left a voice mail but my call was never returned. Hopefully they will follow through and repair Turbo Connect.

Lone Wolf

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; H010818)