Back to the beginning - and grasping for straws:

Often, when I type in a URL in the entry box at the top of my Netscape screen, on XP Pro, instead of being switched to the site specified I will get a RealPlayer site, whose URL does not even remotely resemble the URL I typed in. If I then retype the desired URL, it will work as intended.

A question that's open is whether this happens when you type any URL at random, or whether it happens when you type a particular URL that you visit fairly often.

IFF it happens only with a particular one (or few) URLs that you type, an obvious suspicion is that you might have made a typing error. "Muscle memory" can cause some of us to frequently repeat the same "brain fart" fairly consistently. For "working purposes" we'll assume that you haven't mistyped the URL.

As I don't have Netscape installed to look at, a Google for "Netscape screenshots" gets lots of apparently accurate views, although there are several different Netscape versions represented, sometimes ambiguously as to which version is shown. Assuming that there's some consistency in program features:

At Netscape Browser Screenshots, I find a number of shots of what's in the "new beta netscape." Since it was posted November 30, 2004 06:20 PM, I assume it's no longer beta so it might resemble what you're using. The site doesn't give a rev/ver number that I could find.

nsb13.png shows:

Under Options, Advanced, Accessibility

There is an option to "Use Find As You Type" with a sub-option for "to search links only."

IFF this works as it does in programs I have (and have had), when you type an entry it attempts to "guess" what you want and will "complete" the entry. If you type another character that doesn't agree with its guess, the "extra characters" should go away, but if you hit a "Go" while extra characters are visible, it uses them and goes to where it guessed, not just to what you typed. In a few older programs, the autocomplete function was slow enough that it would pop up as/after you hit the "go" so you wouldn't see it, but it was still there when the link executed.

IFF your problem occurs when you type one specific URL that starts with something resembling the Real Player URL, the "find" may be adding something to what you type – that results in you going "somewhere else."

There probably would need to be "some resemblance" between the starting characters you type and the URL you end up with, but "endings" could be added without you noticing them(?).

Some browsers I've used (sometime ago) seemed to give preference to sites in your browser history in choosing how to "autocomplete" what you type. Clearing the history to get rid of the Real Player URL there might make it less likely to insert that site(?).

Netscape may have other "autocorrect" and/or "assist functions" that could produce similar mangling of what you intend to do; but I can't suggest other places to look.

John