Netscape recommends that users of Communicator Standard and Professional editions download Communicator 4.04. You can find out what version of Communicator you are running by choosing About Communicator from the Help menu.

If you are using Netscape Communicator Professional Edition (which includes Netscape Calendar, IBM Host On-Demand, and AutoAdmin) please read the information contained in these notes. In addition, you can click here to view the release notes specifically for Professional Edition.

• What's New in 4.04
• Known issues
• Known issues in Navigator
• Guide to Netscape Communicator

Additional information is available:

• From the Help menu, choose Help Contents
• From the Help menu, choose International Users
• Developer information
• Documentation information
• Technical notes

• Known issues in 4.0
• Known issues in 4.01
• Known issues in 4.01a

Communicator 4.04 supports the optional Netscape FORTEZZA PKCS#11 module (available separately). This module supports the use of the FORTEZZA Crypto Card and FORTEZZA cryptographic algorithms (KEA and Skipjack) when using SSL and S/MIME. More information about Netscape FORTEZZA support is available at http://home.netscape.com/assist/security/fortezza/index.html.

AOL Instant Messenger is included with Netscape Communicator and allows Communicator users and America Online users to communicate real-time in an efficient and convenient way. Users can immediately send and respond to personalized messages.

The Communicator 4.04 maintenance release also includes these new features:

Navigator and Composer

• Added compatibility with Novell Client 32 software and IWARE.
• Added support for PNG graphic format (not available on Windows 16 bit platform).

Java and JavaScript

• Java LDAP classes have been updated for LDAP version 3.
• Users can now retrieve images from a JAR file.

Messenger and Collabra

• Added support for PNG graphic format in messages.
• Added compatibility with CYRUS IMAP server.

General enhancements in the 4.04 release include:

Navigator and Composer

• Added functionality to allow background color printing.
• Communicator can now pass the server name to the T3270 application.
• Users can now paste from applications with multiple clipboard formats.

Java and JavaScript

• Java stability improvement
• In certain cases where Java applets appear to be loading after startup on Windows 95/NT, Communicator would cause the system to freeze. This no longer occurs in Communicator 4.04.
• Users can now use Java with TrueColor display settings
• Socket time-outs now function correctly in Java VMs

Messenger and Collabra (Mail and News)

• Improved handling of mail file attachments and file formats during Save As
• Improved stability of IMAP delete model
• Can now properly drag and drop in Address Book list
• POP Server messages no longer erroneously warn user regarding UIDL
• The logout command is now sent when disconnecting from the IMAP server. Therefore, all pending IMAP operations will be committed, including deleted messages.
• If the user password is changed on the Messaging server, mail notification will now correctly connect to the server.

General

• On some Windows 95 systems, installing Communicator causes the ODBC32 control panel to exit with an illegal operation. This may be related to an ODBC incompatibility with new system DLLs installed by Communicator. A workaround is to install a SmartUpdate package located at ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/smartupdate/msvc.jar.
• If you are using an applet that uses RMI callbacks, you must call netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalConnect") before the your first call into the RMI runtime.

Navigator

• If you are running Netscape Communicator on Windows NT 3.51 using a Matrox Millennium graphics driver, an application error may occur when viewing HTML pages. Obtain an updated version of the driver (version 2.25 or later).
• After entering a URL that does not exist, avoid clicking the Stop button before Navigator notifies you that no DNS entry has been found. If you do click the Stop button, no more URLs will be found by Navigator. If this occurs, restart Communicator. A simple workaround is to wait until Navigator notifies you that it does not exist.
• Transparency does not function correctly. If an image has a background chunk, it will be visible in transparent areas and the page background will not show through. To turn on background image printing, choose Page Setup from the File menu and enable the Print Backgrounds option.
• If a system halt related to the Kernel32.dll occurs, update the kernel. You can obtain the update from http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q148/3/36.asp. This may correct the problem.
• If you uninstalled beta versions of Communicator (Preview Release 5 or earlier) on Windows NT systems, you may experience trouble running .avi, .wav, .mid, or .rmi files.

To fix the problem:
1. Open the Control Panel and select one of the following:
• For NT 3.51, select Drivers.
• For NT 4.0, select Multimedia - Devices.
2. Add the following drivers if they are not already listed: (MCI) CD Audio, (MCI) Microsoft Video for Windows,  (MCI) Midi Sequencer, and (MCI) Sound.
3. Run regedt32.exe and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\MCI Extensions.
4. Select Add Value from the Edit menu; for Value Name enter avi, and for String enter avivideo.
5. Select Add Value and for Value Name enter wav, and for String enter waveaudio.
6. Select Add Value and for Value Name enter mid, and for String enter Sequencer.
7. Select Add Value and for Value Name enter rmi, and for String enter Sequencer. You don't need to modify the data type.

• In a frame document, only the activated frame is printed, because only one frame can be printed at a time. To activate a frame, click on it.
• Printing documents with applets, plugins, and webfonts on layer do not work properly.
• The paddings property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use topPadding, rightPadding, bottomPadding, and leftPadding instead.
• The margins property of Style Sheets is not supported. Use leftMargin, rightMargin, and bottomMargin instead.
• Width, height, and border tags for images in Style Sheets are not enabled.
• Under certain circumstances in a table cell, the EMBED tag parameter ALIGN=RIGHT causes the plugin not to be loaded or displayed. As a workaround, insert the ALIGN=RIGHT parameter in the table column and/or row descriptors.

Composer

• Starting Composer from the command line with netscape -edit (or double clicking on the Composer icon) does not start a new window if any other Communicator window is already active.
• Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 users: It is strongly recommended that you avoid adding images larger than 1 MB to the Composer window. Doing so may cause Communicator to halt.

Messenger

• If you encounter a general protection fault in msvcrt.dll when sending a message, exit Communicator.  This is caused by a .tmp file Windows limitation. See your system administrator or equivalent about removing these .tmp files from the Windows temp folder. Afterwards, you can send messages from Communicator.
• If a system halt occurs when invoking the Compose window, rename the address book file (abook.nab) located in the Program Files\Netscape\Users\<username> directory.
• A message saved as plain text (with a .txt extension) will be converted into plain text instead of in original MIME format. If you save the message to an existing file, the existing file will be replaced instead of having the message appended to it.
• If you get an error regarding expired certificates when sending/receiving signed or encrypted mail, please go to http://www.verisign.com/update/faq/index.html to update your certificate.
• If you make changes to the Advanced S/MIME Cipher Preferences in the Messenger tab of the Security Advisor dialog box, you must communicate these changes to people that you exchange encrypted mail with. To update their Certificate database information about you, send them a signed message. If you send only encrypted messages, they will not be aware of your preference changes.
• The file format for certificate import and export has changed between Communicator 4.03 and 4.04 due to the standardization of PKCS 12. Communicator 4.04 imports certificates exported with older versions of Communicator. However, older versions of Communicator will not be able to import files exported with Communicator 4.04.
• When downloading a user certificate, you will be able to save the certificate for backup purposes. If the certificate chain does not yet exist on the user's machine, the certificate will be exported without the certificate chain. In this case, it is highly recommended that you save the certificate after retrieving the certificate chain by going into the Security Advisor, selecting Your Certificates and exporting the desired certificate.

Plug-ins

• In 8-bit (256 color mode), you might experience color pallete problems while loading some plug-ins in Communicator. If this happens, minimize and then restore the window, or open a new Navigator window from the "File" menu to fix this. Running Windows in 16-bit (high color) mode will completely eliminate this problem.
• Sound files greater than 6MB are not supported in the 16 bit version and may not play back properly.
• Plug-ins installed in previous version of Navigator are not automatically transferred to Communicator. Re-install these plug-ins.

Netcaster

• It is required that you use Communicator 4.03 or later with this version of Netcaster.
• Java and JavaScript must be enabled to run Netcaster.
• It is recommended that you select the Go Offline option from the File Menu before viewing sites offline.
• The order of the channels in the selector may change after exiting Netcaster.
• The Automatically Load Images preference (Preferences, Advanced from the Edit menu) should be checked.
• If you specify an invalid URL when adding a channel, the channel is added under My Channels, but does not appear when you select it. A green light may also appear; ignore this light.
• If you change a webtop to a channel in Channel Properties, the webtop remains on your screen. Close the webtop and when you select it again in My Channels, it appears as a channel in a Navigator window.
• If you change your Communicator preferences, such as color or font, while Netcaster is open, a system halt may occur. Change your Communicator preferences before starting Netcaster.
• The buttons in the Netcaster window may disappear depending on the font you select.
• Select a channel before modifying any security information in the Options dialog.
• Your channel settings may not be preserved if Communicator terminates abnormally.
• If you change your screen's resolution while Netcaster is running, the Netcaster window may no longer be visible.
• The display and cache size of the Castanet channels cannot be modified.
• If you add a Castanet channel by specifying its IP address and then access the channel again by specifying its DNS name, Netcaster will attempt to resubscribe to the channel.
• Unless you specifically use the Update Now command to update a channel, at most, two channels will update at the same time.
• Some of the channel preferences may not be visible until you restart Netcaster.
• If you add two channels with the same name, an error may occur.
• You cannot move a webtop, as indicated in the Netcaster NetHelp.

Other Sources of Information

The Netcaster Developer's Guide and other information about Netcaster is available at Netscape's DevEdge Online web site. Refer to the Netcaster Developer Central URL:

http://developer.netscape.com/one/netcaster/index.html

SmartUpdate

• If a SmartUpdate download of an item occurs while the item to be updated is open or in use, restart your system for the update to take place.
• On Windows 16-bit platforms, the install script cannot be larger than 32K. If it is larger, the script will abort after download.
• On Windows 16-bit platforms, you should ensure that you are using Communicator 4.04 before using the SoftwareUpdate GetWinProfile() and GetWinRegistry() methods. If you are using a previous version, Communicator may halt.

Cosmo Player

• On Windows 3.1, you may experience a system halt when exiting Cosmo Player.

Web Publisher

• The Web Publisher shipping with Enterprise Server 3.0 will need to be upgraded to work with Communicator 4.04 and higher. If the Web Publisher does not start correctly with Communicator, please contact your Enterprise Server administrator to install the new Web Publisher. To download this patch, please go to http://help.netscape.com/filelib.html.

Navigator

• On Windows 16-bit platforms, if you get the error message, "No valid encryption policy was found," delete the cert7.db file located in the \Program Files\Netscape\Users\username directory, start Communicator, and then shut down. This should create a valid cert7.db file.
• On Windows 32-bit platforms, if you have trouble installing trusted certificates, delete your cert7.db file located in the \Program Files\Netscape\Users\username directory, start Communicator, and then shut down. This should create a valid cert7.db file.

SmartUpdate

• If a SmartUpdate download of an item occurs while the item to be updated is open or in use, restart your system for the update to take place.

Cosmo Player

• On Windows 16-bit platforms, you may experience a system halt when exiting Cosmo Player.
• During loading of Cosmo Player within Communicator 4.0, there is a direct draw initialization error with some older graphics display drivers on Windows NT 4.0. Click OK to continue.