They cause damage because that gives them a way to have a large impact on other people without the burden of actually creating anything. Most grow out of it. Those that don't we call sociopaths.

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Originally posted by Tau Zero:
Firewalls won't help if you're getting a virus embedded in an e-mail.

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Originally posted by Dahak:
Sounds like she should get a software firewall for her PC. Once it's up and properly configured, she wouldn't have to worry about most viruses or hackers then.

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My dad help setup security suite on my mom's computer. I hope thing went well...

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Originally posted by quantumfluff:
Dahak: software firewalls are only a part of the protection puzzle. Most don't do email viruses, and virtually nothing protects you from security holes within IE. The firewall may prevent someone from using backoriface, but it won't stop attacks that simply want to ruin your machine, rather than control it.

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Originally posted by Tau Zero:
Firewalls won't help if you're getting a virus embedded in an e-mail.  For that, you really need to use a mailer which does not launch executable content (in other words, do NOT use Outlook or Outlook Express!).

This is really all Microsoft's fault.

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*gasp*! My mom use Outlook! Curse Microsoft!

What about Netscape 4.7 Inbox? Is that good?

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Originally posted by iballoondesign:

What about Netscape 4.7 Inbox? Is that good?

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As a web designer, I have to recommend against anyone using Netscape 4.7 except as a last resort. It renders pages very badly. It also cannot handle some updated security certificates. (I'm not trying to put anyone down; I realize some people use NN 4.7 because they have no better alternative.)

So what are some alternative email clients for Windows?

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Originally posted by Super Flippy:
As a web designer, I have to recommend against anyone using Netscape 4.7 except as a last resort. It renders pages very badly. It also cannot handle some updated security certificates. (I'm not trying to put anyone down; I realize some people use NN 4.7 because they have no better alternative.)

So what are some alternative email clients for Windows?

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Let the record show that the questioner was asking about Netscape 4.7 as an email client, not a web broweser. The two functions are different. I personally don't mind the interface of Netscape Messenger, but it's unfortunately laughyably unstable. As compared to Outlook, it should be relatively secure on Windows it doesn't have all the scripting capabilities and such that Outlook has and thus shouldn't be as vulnerable.

One other relatively popular Windows email client is Eudora. They have a free version with small banner ads, or you can purchase a full version without these.

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Originally posted by Super Flippy:
As a web designer, I have to recommend against anyone using Netscape 4.7 except as a last resort.

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Originally posted by quantumfluff:
[QUOTE]As a web designer you should write pages that work with the widest variety of browsers out there.

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I do. I make sure my pages work on all the major and minor browsers I can get my hands on. They degrade gracefully and all that. But I don't have to like every browser I test with , and all that testing makes it abundantly clear which browsers provide a better user experience.

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Originally posted by quantumfluff:
Wrong attitude. As a web designer you should write pages that work with the widest variety of browsers out there. I build web services too. I don't have the luxury of dictating what browsers people have, so I test against everything I can get my hands on.

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I agree that it's a good idea to be as accessible as possible (using minimal images, providing ALT tags, and being as compatible with various browsers as possible), but in some cases it is simply not feasible. "Web standards" are, in reality, not very much more than a nice ideal. The variation in the things different browsers support, how different browsers render the exact same code, and the different bugs in each browser puts a huge burden on the web developer in order tobwork well with as many browsers as possible. Out of all the prevlalent browsers, Netscape 4 is one of the worst, standards and compatibility wise. Code that works well in any other browser may utterly fail in Netscape 4. Netscape 4 has poor CSS support even though CSS has been a standard since 1996. I still make an effort to generate Netscape 4-compatible pages, but only because it's the only browser that will run on my laptop. Otherwise, I would not spend nearly so much time catering to such an obsolete, broken product.