These shortcuts are available from all Netscape windows:

Changing Cache Settings

Your computer stores copies of frequently accessed pages in the disk cache. This way, the computer doesn't have to retrieve the page from the network each time you view it.

To set the size of the cache or to clear it (Windows and Unix only):

1. Open the Edit menu and click Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)
3. Enter a number in the Cache field to specify the size of the disk cache. 8000K on Windows is sufficient (5000K on Unix). To clear the cache immediately, click Clear Cache.

Important: A larger disk cache allows more pages to be quickly retrieved, but more of your hard disk space is used.

When you quit Netscape, it performs cache maintenance. If maintenance takes longer than you wish, try reducing the size of the disk cache.

To specify how often Navigator checks the network for page revisions (so that you don't keep "stale" pages in the cache too long):

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Advanced to expand the list.)
3. Choose from the following options:

• Every time I view the page: Select this if you want Netscape to compare a web page to the cache every time you view it.
  
• When the page is out of date: Select this if you want Netscape to compare a web page to the cache when the page is determined by the server to have expired.
  
• Once per session: Select this if you want Netscape to compare a web page to the cache once for each time you start Netscape.
  
• Never: Select this if you do not want Netscape to compare cached information to the network.
  

If pages that should be in the cache are taking longer to appear than they should, make sure the preference is not set to "Every time I view the page," because the verification requires a network connection that takes time.

To refresh a page at any time:

• Click the Reload button in the browser's Navigation Toolbar. The computer checks the network to make sure you have the latest version of the page.

Setting Proxy Values

Many organizations block access from the Internet to their networks. This prevents outside parties from gaining access to sensitive information. The protection is called a firewall.

If your organization has a firewall, the browser may need to go through a proxy server before connecting you to the Internet. The proxy server prevents outsiders from breaking into your organization's private network.

Before you start:

• If there's a proxy configuration file at your workplace, ask the system administrator for its URL.
• If there's no proxy configuration file, ask your system administrator for the names and port numbers of the servers running proxy software for each network service.

To set the browser to work with the proxy:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Advanced category, click Proxies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the Navigator to expand the list.)
3. Select one of the following:
• Direct connection to the Internet: Choose this if you don't want to use a proxy.
• Manual proxy configuration: Choose this if you don't have a proxy location (URL).
• HTTP Proxy, SSL Proxy, FTP Proxy, Gopher Proxy: Type the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server. Type the port in the Ports field.
• SOCKS Host: Type the name or numeric IP address of the proxy server. Type the port in the Ports field.
• SOCKS v4, SOCKS v5: When entering a SOCK Host, select "SOCKS v4" or "SOCKS v5," depending on what version of SOCKS is used for the proxy.
• No Proxy for: Type the domains that you do not want to use a proxy for. Separate each domain with a comma. (Example: .yourcompany.com, .yourcompany.co.nz)
• Automatic proxy configuration URL: Choose this if you have a proxy configuration file or URL, then type the configuration URL.
  

Domain names are the part of a URL that contains the name of an organization, business, or school—such as netscape.com or washington.org. If you use local host names without the domain name, list them the same way. Use commas to separate multiple host names. The wildcard character [*] cannot be used.

What Are Cookies, and How Do They Work?

A cookie is a small bit of information used by some web sites. When you visit a site that uses cookies, the site might ask your browser to place one or more cookies on your hard disk.

Later, when you return to the site, your browser sends back the cookies that belong to the site.

When you are using the default cookie settings, this activity is invisible to you, and you won't know when a site is setting a cookie or when your browser is sending a web site's cookie back. However, you can set your preferences so that you will be asked before a cookie is set. For information on how to do this, see Setting Privacy Levels.

How Do Sites Use Cookie Information?

Cookies allow a site to know something about your previous visits. For example, if you typically search for local weather or purchase books at a web site, the site may use cookies to remember what city you live in or what authors you like, so it can make your next visit easier and more useful.

Many web sites publish privacy policies that describe how they use the information they receive.

You can check a web site's privacy policy to see what it says about the information it collects, how that information is used, and what choices you have regarding the use of that information. To learn how to do this, see Viewing Privacy Policies.

For information on how to manage cookies with the aid of published privacy policies, see Setting Privacy Levels.

What Are Third-Party Cookies?

If your browser stores a site's cookie, it will return the cookie only to that particular site. Your browser will not provide one site with cookies set by another. Since a web site can only receive its own cookies, it can learn about your activities while you are at that site but not your activities in general while surfing the Web.

But sometimes a web site displays content that is hosted on another web site. That content can be anything from an image to text or an advertisement. The other web site that hosts such elements also has the ability to store a cookie in your browser, even though you don't visit the site directly.

Cookies that are stored by a site other than the one you are visiting are called third-party cookies or foreign cookies. Web sites sometimes use third-party cookies with transparent GIFs, which are special images that help sites count users, track email responses, learn more about how visitors use the site, or customize your browsing experience. (Transparent GIFs are also known as web beacons or web bugs.)

If you want, you can adjust your cookie preferences so that sites can store ordinary cookies but not third-party ones.

Using the Cookie Manager

A cookie is a small amount of information on your computer that is used by some web sites. For a brief overview, see What Are Cookies and How Do They Work?

Before loading a web page that uses cookies, your browser handles the page's cookies by doing two things:

• Accepts or rejects any requests by the web site to set (store) one or more cookies on your computer.
• Accepts or rejects any requests by the web site to read cookies it previously stored on your computer. A web site can't actually read cookies or any other data on your computer—instead, your browser gets the cookies and sends them back to the web site.

Enabling & Disabling Cookies

You can specify how cookies should be handled by setting your Cookies preferences. The default setting is "Enable all cookies".

To change your Cookies preferences:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Privacy & Security category, click Cookies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)
3. Set your Cookies preferences.

Managing Cookies Site-By-Site

To control cookies on a site-by-site basis:

1. Open the Tools menu and choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose "Unblock Cookies from this Site" or "Block Cookies from this Site."

Alternatively, if you have selected "Warn me before storing a cookie" in Privacy & Security Preferences - Cookies, you will be warned (while browsing) that a web site is asking to set a cookie. When you see such a warning, you can click Yes to allow or No to deny the cookie. You can also select the option for your browser to "Remember this decision."

If you select "Remember this decision," you will not be warned the next time that site tries to set or modify a cookie, and your "yes" or "no" response will still be in effect.

If you want to change a remembered response later, use Cookie Manager to edit your list of automatically stored cookies.

To stop automatically accepting or rejecting cookies from a site:

1. Open the Tools menu and choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose Manage Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. Click the Cookie Sites tab. The web sites for which you have allowed or denied cookies are listed.
4. Click to select the site from which you no longer want to automatically accept cookies, and then click Remove Cookie.

Viewing Cookies

To view detailed information about cookies:

1. Open the Tools menu and choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose Manage Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. To see details for a particular cookie, click it.

For more information about the information displayed, see Stored Cookies.

Removing Cookies

Important: To remove cookies, follow the steps in this section. Do not try to edit the cookies file on your computer.

To remove one or more cookies from your computer:

1. Open the Tools menu and choose Cookie Manager.
2. Choose Manage Stored Cookies from the submenu. The Cookie Manager window opens with a list of all the cookies stored on your computer.
3. Select one or more cookies and click Remove Cookie, or click Remove All Cookies.

Even though you've removed the cookies now, you will reacquire those same cookies the next time you return to the web site.

To prevent that from happening, select the checkbox labeled "Don't allow removed cookies to be reaccepted later". When this checkbox is selected, web sites for the cookies that you are removing are added to the list of sites whose cookies will automatically be rejected.

You must click OK for your changes to take effect.

Setting Privacy Levels

Many web sites develop and publish their privacy policies based on the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) standard. The information that follows applies only to web sites that post a privacy policy based on the P3P standard and the browser's implementation of that standard. The browser's implementation may not be, in all cases, identical to the standard published by the World Wide Web Consortium.

A web site's P3P privacy policy describes, in a standardized way, what kind of information the site collects, to whom it gives that information, and how it uses the information.

Navigator's implementation of the P3P standard defines three levels of privacy: low, medium, and high (the default is medium). You can select one of these predefined privacy levels, or you can specify your own custom privacy settings in detail. Once you have set your preferred privacy level, your browser can compare your preferences with the web site's P3P policy (if any) and accept or reject cookies accordingly.

For example, your privacy settings may require the browser to reject cookies that collect personal information without informing you. Alternatively, you can adjust your privacy settings so that the browser simply warns you when a cookie is used in this way, while allowing the action to take place.

To control the privacy settings you want your browser to enforce for all web sites:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Privacy & Security category, click Cookies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)
3. Select the option labeled "Enable cookies based on privacy settings."
4. Click View.
5. In the Privacy Settings dialog box, select the level of privacy you want, or select "custom" and specify your own privacy settings as discussed below.
6. Click OK to confirm your settings.

Your browser handles cookies according to the settings you select. If you do not select a preferred setting, the browser defaults to medium. The low, medium, and high options are predefined by Netscape. 

When the "custom" option is selected, you can specify your own privacy settings in detail. Depending on the P3P policy of the site setting the cookie, and depending on whether or not the site setting the cookie is the one you are viewing, you can select whether you want the Cookie Manager to accept the cookie, reject it, accept it just for the current session (that is, until you exit the browser), or flag it.

If you choose Reject, Flag, or Session for a given category of cookies, the Cookie Manager displays the cookie notification icon  near the lower-right corner of the browser window whenever a web site that fits the category sets a cookie. When this icon is displayed, you can click it to get information about the affected cookies.

"First party cookies" are cookies set by the site you are visiting. "Third-party cookies," also known as foreign cookies, are set by sites other than the one you are viewing.