Bill -
I guess I'm not sure what you're referring to.
Are you referring to a status bar at the bottom of the browser window (which on the edition I have shows a bar similar to Mozilla with progress meter on the right-hand side of the bar and a written status on the left-hand side).
Outside of that, Camino has it's own Download manager window (though it's not called that - that's a Mozilla thingy) that will allow you to bring to front to see the status.
Nothing out front right away, you're right, but I look at the status bar and normally I've got d'loads running in the background.
'Course, I'm on DSL at home and a dedicated circuit at work, so I don't have to worry about the dial-up problem. TOTALLY understand that issue, though, Bill, and can totally sympathize.
I did it for so long and finally took the plunge as my contract came up and jumped on Bell's $34.95 deal.
Works well.
My wife really likes it, but she doesn't understand why Mozilla is so much faster than IE (on the PC side, AND rendering on the Mac side - takes more to get the engine up on the Mac).......
Told her I thought it was great that she could use Mozilla.
I'm the M$ Police in our casa.
Take care, Bill.
Chris