Engaged File Sharing and Netscape now crashes.

Question

Hello, setting aside the obvious point that I should be using a newer email client..
I have a G4 MDD Mac running OS 9 which I maintain solely so that I can use a certain audio application I prefer.
On that machine I have Netscape Communicator 4.8 that I've been using flawlessly for years -for email -yet now have a problem. I started messing around with trying to use File Sharing on this machine -(never used before...) and it seems to have somehow upset the stability of things, particularly Netscape 4.8.
I began getting "memory-low" errors when launching NS...and subsequently it simply would quit on launch, with Type 2, Type 1 errors and no longer launch at all. There is email in the NS Mail folder that I have to retrieve.
I quit/disengaged all File Sharing features I could find, saved the old version of NS, setting its Mail folder aside on another disk - and subsequently reinstalled a new copy of NS 4.8, including identical profile data as the one that was having problems and am able to use that to send/receive mail again.
But, I want to access the contents of the Mail folder that I was using on the copy of NS 4.8 that I replaced. The folder and contents are intact, but several of them were in fact pretty bloated and i suspect that's a large part of the problem. The previous copy of NS was hanging on the 'building file summary' phase of start-up when I tried to open Mail in it.
With regard to the Netscape mail client I know this is not directly Apple related but will accept any suggestion of how to get the old Mail folder to open, be it in a newer version of Netscape - or imported to another app. Since there's address book data in there, I'd like to at least be able to open it, downsize the foldersby deleting unnecessary old mail - and then drag this Mail folder back into the "new" version of 4.8 on the OS 9 machine.
I'm also seeing on the newly installed version NS 4.8 copy, that email with large attachments are randomly causing the app to quit upon hitting "send" -
Seems there's a memory issue that's been introduced somewhere in the system. This is with very few new emails in the "In/Out" box...
I don't remember what I had the NS app. Memory set for on the version I replaced but could that be something i need to adjust...and if so, any rule of thumb on best size to allocate? Wondering if this may have something to do with any 'low memory' situation.
The machine an MDD G4 is maxed out on Ram btw- 1024MB (can't even use VM).
As i say i'd been tweaking the File Sharing option --for the very first time and that's what seems to have triggered all the problems - (extensions had been off but i was trying to set it up for sharing).
Now even though I've disabled all that there seems to be almost like a memory 'leak. This machine had never even been assigned an identity for File Sharing. There's this sort of 'hang time'now when I startup, i.e., before the desktop folder opens - which also had never been there before...
I did run DiskWarrior (twice actually) on the startup Drive. No errors showed up.
The MDD is bootable in OS9 or OSX, and as I recall, any Software Restore of OS9 is a little more complicated - i remember that I can't just boot up from the SW Restore disk to reinstall OS9, or selective components of it.
Thanks for any suggestions on how to get my 'stability' back. (The thing was pretty rock solid til I started toying with File Sharing options).
Sorry for the long question(s).and thanks for any thoughts!
Mike in Mich

Answer 1

I don't remember what I had the NS app. Memory set for on the version I replaced...
Set it to at least 40,000K. When that Application was issued, folks had no idea how complex pages and emails would get.
The last Netscape version to run on OS 9 was 7.0.2. Version 7.2 was only for Mac OS X.