There is a known problem if you are using Netscape Communicator 4.x for newsgroups. Netscape may freeze when you click on the New Msg button. This is caused by the Netscape spelling checker attempting to lock files over NFS.
The following is the workaround Netscape proposes in its release notes. Append the following line to your ~/.netscape/preferences.js file and restart netscape:
user_pref("editor.dont_lock_spell_files", true);
This preference setting prevents the spell checker from locking files over NFS, thereby preventing the window freezing problem.
webmaster@ece.nwu.edu.