* Note: Many of the items below will specify how to either turn a specific browser feature on, or turn it off, but probably not both (because that's fairly redundant.) For the opposite result, just reverse the steps. (e.g. If it tells you to check a box to turn something on, un-check the same box to turn it off!)

Surf faster

• How to turn off automatic image-loading in your browser

Most of the digital clutter that eats your bandwidth and slows down your surfing (particularly with a slower modem) is in the form of useless images and advertisements littering just about every page on the 'net. If real, useful information and lightning-fast page loads suit your purposes better than fancy graphics, banners and animations, you might want to turn off your browser's image loading. Here's how:
 
• Netscape 2.x-3.x

Go to Options -> Autoload Images
• Netscape 4.x

Go to Edit -> Preferences. In the settings window that appears, select "Advanced" at the bottom of the lefthand frame. A list of options will appear in the right frame. Uncheck the first option, "Automatically load images".
• Internet Explorer 2.x-3.x

Go to View -> Options. In the settings window that appears, make sure the tab marked "General" is selected. Here you will have the option of turning off images, sounds, and video clips.

• How to prevent annoying alert boxes, popup ads, floating logos, unsolicited "teleportation", scrolling text messages and the like

There's a lot of annoying stuff on the Web. Some sites will spam you with intrusive advertising windows, others will display annoying "alert" messages or ask you what your name is. Some will even toss you onto other pages without asking! And it's all done with JavaScript. Here's how to disable JavaScript in your browser:
 
• Netscape 2.x-3.x

Go to Options -> Network Preferences... -> Languages. Uncheck the box for JavaScript.
• Netscape 4.x

Go to Edit -> Preferences. In the settings window that appears, select "Advanced" at the bottom of the lefthand frame. A list of options will appear in the right frame. Uncheck the second and third options, "Enable Java" and "Enable JavaScript".
• Internet Explorer 3.x

Go to View -> Options. In the settings window that appears, select the tab marked "Security". In the third box (labeled Active Content), uncheck the Java and ActiveX boxes as necessary. (ActiveX is a scripting language similar to JavaScript that is proprietary to Microsoft.)
• Internet Explorer 4.x

Go to View -> Internet Options... and select the Security tab. Select "custom" and click on the "Settings..." button. Uncheck the Active Scripting/JavaScript options as necessary.
• AOL Browser (3.x)

Go to Members -> WWW, and click the Security tab. Uncheck JavaScript under the Active Controls heading.
• AOL Browser (4.x, Windows 95)

Go to My AOL -> Preferences -> WWW, and click the Security tab. Make sure "custom" is selected, then click the "Settings..." button and scroll down to the "Scripting / Active Scripting" option. Here you will have the option of disabling scripts or prompting before they are run.
• Opera

Go to Preferences -> Multimedia. Uncheck the box for Enable Scripting Languages.
 
Disabling JavaScript will eliminate other annoyances including web pages that "trap" viewers, take away your right-click menu (cut, copy, etc.), force themselves to the top of your window stack, expand themselves across your entire screen, place your browser into "kiosk mode" (taking away your toolbars, back button, address bar, etc. and filling the entire screen), and more.
 
If you enjoy some Javascript features or routinely visit sites that require it, you can selectively disallow certain annoying "features" while leaving non-annoying Javascript intact, using the Proxomitron.

• Disable Cookies


Cookies are small files that are stored on your hard drive by remote Web servers. They are commonly used by Internet marketers to track you as you surf among different pages. Cookies, a real vice of privacy experts, may contain information on where you've been, what kind of clothes/CDs/beer/etc. you buy, what your interests and hobbies are, or special identification codes sites can use to identify you when you return.

Disabling all cookies may cause you to be locked out of a small number of sites that require cookies to access them (most notably, hotmail.com). To avoid this, you can install cookie-crunching software that will let you block all cookies but the required ones (Cookie Pal is a good one) ... or, you can avoid persistant session-to-session cookies in Windows/Netscape by deleting your cookies.txt file and replacing it with a directory by the same name (~/.netscape/cookies in Linux). Your cookies will be wiped clean everytime you exit the browser.
 

• Netscape 2.x-3.x

You cannot automatically disable all cookies in Netscape 2.x-3.x. To show alerts when a server attempts to set a cookie, go to Options -> Network Preferences... -> Protocols and make the necessary changes.
• Netscape 4.x

Go to Edit -> Preferences. In the settings window that appears, select "Advanced" at the bottom of the lefthand frame. You will see a box marked "Cookies" in the right frame. Select the radio button titled "Disable cookies" .
• Internet Explorer 3.x

You cannot automatically disable all cookies in Internet Explorer 3.x. To show alerts when a server attempts to set a cookie, go to View -> Options. In the settings window that appears, select the tab marked "Advanced". In the section marked Warnings, check the "Warn before accepting cookies" box.
• Lynx 2.8.x

Press "O" to go to the Options page. Near the top of that page there is a drop-down list labeled "Cookies".  The options in that menu are "Ignore", "Ask User", and "Accept All".  To get alerts when a site tries to send a cookie, set that to "Ask User".  To make Lynx reject all cookies, set it to "Ignore".
To see (and edit) the cookies that Lynx has stored so far, press "Control-K" to bring up the "Cookie Jar" page.  You can follow the links on this page to delete individual cookies, delete all cookies from particular sites, or tell Lynx to reject all cookies from particular sites.
 
• Keep your e-mail address private

 
Some activities, and some older browsers, present the risk of your e-mail address being divulged to the sites you visit or download software from. If you use a browser older than Netscape 2.x or Internet Explorer 3.x, it may give out your e-mail address to the webmaster of every site you surf; in other words, God knows who. Even if you use the latest browsers, your e-mail address still might be slipping out when you download files from FTP sites.
 
• Older browsers (before NS 2.x or IE 3.x)

You may want to upgrade to a later version. Early browsers may send a "FROM:" header to servers  containing your email address.
• Netscape 4.x

Go to Edit -> Preferences. In the settings window that appears, select "Advanced" at the bottom of the lefthand frame. Make sure last checkbox, marked "Send e-mail address as anonymous FTP password", is unchecked.


Additionally, your email address can be given out when you submit online forms. Most browsers will display a caution when a form is being submitted by e-mail. Many sites that lack CGI capability use email forms, and use them responsibly. If you don't trust the webmaster, though, you may not want to submit these forms.

 
• Clear your History file


The History file is a detailed list of everywhere you've surfed recently. Depending on your browser and settings, this list could contain every URL you've visited in, say, the last 3 months! Since security flaws have been found in a number of browsers/versions that can let a malicious Web site retrieve your history, it might be wise to clear/delete this file frequently or keep it from being written in the first place. For Netscape browsers, this file is netscape.hst in your Netscape directory. For Internet Explorer it is the set of files located in C:\Windows\History\. You can just delete these files to clear your browsing history. Alternatively, you can instruct your browser not to save history information in the first place:
 

• Netscape 2.x-3.x

Make sure the History file (netscape.hst) is recently cleared (<16kb), then tag it read-only.
• Netscape 4.x

Go to Edit -> Preferences. In the settings window that appears, make sure "Navigator" in the lefthand frame is selected. In the box marked History, enter "0" (zero) for the number of days until history items expire. When this is done histories will not be saved.
• Internet Explorer 3.x

Go to View -> Options. Select the "Navigation" tab. In the "History" box, enter "0" (zero) for the number of days to keep pages in the history.
 
Note: History is not the same thing as the "Location:" or "Address" bar (most browsers' address bars have a drop-down list of recently visited sites). These entries are usually stored in a separate file or the Windows registry, and clearing the history will not affect them. (However, it will clear Netscape's (and IE's?) URL auto-fill-in.)