Downloading, installing, and configuring Netscape 6.0 can be tricky and deceptive. If you accept all of Netscape 6.0's download, installation, setup, and preference defaults, you could end up defenseless in dealing with today's Internet and electronic privacy and security pirates and eavesdroppers. You also could end up with some bloat-ware that can eat up hard drive space and system resources.

The choices you make when you install Netscape 6.0 (NS6 or NS-6.0) can make differences in NS6 speed and performance -- as well as affect your system security and personal privacy. And those choices can affect the quality of your user experience when you run NS-6.0 too.

Section 1, below, let's you know why we make the download, installation, and configuration choices we make. Section 2 is the step-by-step, Netscape 6, download, installation, and configuration tutorial.

Even if you already have installed Netscape 6, you still should find this article helpful and instructive to you in adjusting your Netscape preferences settings -- particularly if you are concerned about privacy and security matters.

If you are running NS6 on a powerful computer with a 1-GHz (Giga-Herz) CPU, 512-MB RAM, and 80-GB hard drive, then it is not likely that how you install and configure NS6 will make any noticeable differences in speed and performance. However, the less powerful your computer system, the more noticeable the effects of your installation and configuration choices upon system and program speed and performance.

If you would like to know why we make the download, installation, and configuration choices we make, please read Section 1 immediately below. If not, please skip directly to Section 2 for the step-by-step, Netscape 6, download, installation, and configuration tutorial.

Bloat

Beware of Net2Phone, which NS/AOL includes in the Windows version of Netscape 6. Net2Phone is designed to let you make phone calls from your computer to any telephone in the world. However, Net2Phone is bloat ware.

When we tested Netscape 6 Preview Release 3 (NS6-PR3), we found that resources went up from 66% to 82% when we killed Net2Phone -- even though we never launched Net2Phone. And that's on a 128-MB RAM, Windows 98 system. So we did not bother to include Net2Phone in our NS 6.0 installation. (That rock-solid test system includes a 300-MHz AMD K6 CPU, SOYO SY-5EMA+ motherboard, 128-MB PC100 RAM, 20-GB hard drive, and Windows 98 Second Edition.)