Turning off Java and/or Javascript in Netscape
Java and Javascript are two different languages used with the internet. Netscape gives you the option of whether or not you want to allow Java applets to run on your computer and also whether to allow Javascript scripts to run when attached to web pages or when attached to emails or news groups.
The options to allow or disallow these can be found by selecting Preferences from the Edit menu. Next you need to click on Advanced in the selection list at the left of the preferences dialog box to bring up the page where you can select whether to allow or disallow these options.
The options that are displayed are allowed to run when the checkbox next to them is selected and are not allowed to run when the checkbox is not selected so to disallow an option all you need to do is to uncheck the appropriate boxes. The options available are:
- Enable Java which allows Java applets to run. Some crackers have written Java applets that exploit security holes in Java to attack your system particularly the holes in the earlier versions of Java. These are rare but even so you may wish to consider turning this option off particularly if you are not running the latest version of the browser..
- Enable Javascript in Navigator (Netscape 6) or Enable Javascript (Netscape 4) allows Javascript scripts to run when you display web pages. Many web pages rely on Javascript for the pages to work properly so disabling this option will probably make a significant fraction of the web unusable. It is almost impossible to use Javascript to break into a computer system so leaving it enabled does not pose much of a risk. On balance you are probably best off to allow this option.
- Enable Javascript for Mail and News controls whether Javascript scripts will run when attached to Emails or Newsgroups. There are very few cases where running Javascripts attached to emails or news is desirable and you are probably best off disabling this option.
