To read and send messages, you'll have to enter your settings in the
Mail & Newsgroups category of
Communicator
( => ). You'll also
be able to save other related options in this category.
When you select Mail & Newsgroups, the
category will expand, revealing sub-entries for your account
information (see Figure 7-6).
On the first dialog to the right of the categories, you can select
how you want to have quoted messages appear. "Quoting" refers to
material from a previous message, which appears as part of a
follow-up message, such as a reply.
You can also select whether you want to view mail and news with a
fixed width or variable width font. Selecting Fixed width
font will preserve the display of fonts throughout
messages and articles.
In the Identity category, enter your name, your
email address, the name of your organization (if applicable) and the
path to your signature file (see Figure 7-7).
 | Your Email Address |
|---|
| | Often, your email address is your login name for your account,
followed by the @ symbol, then your ISP's
name (for example, "earthlink.net"). If you have questions about your
address, you should check with your ISP.
|
If you want to direct users to reply to an email address which is
different from the primary address you're entering in this category,
enter that different address in the Reply-to
address field. When users reply, they have the option of
sending their replies to the reply-to address.
A signature is a brief note at the end of an email or newsgroup
posting. Often a quote or joke, signatures say something about the
author of the message.
To create a signature, do the following, using the text editor
Pico:
Make sure you are in your home directory. At a shell prompt,
type pico signature.txt.
In the window which opens, type the text you want for your
signature. You can write on more than one line; however,
netiquette (conventions of politeness recognized on the
Internet) frowns upon signatures longer than a line or two.
Save the file by using the
[Ctrl]-[X]
keys. When you're asked whether you want to save the file,
select the [Y] key for "yes."
Now, you'll have a new file, called
signature.txt, in your directory. The
full path to the file will be, for example,
/home/newuser/signature.txt. When you write
email or post a message on a newsgroup, the text in
signature.txt will automatically appear at
the bottom of your message.
In the Mail Servers category, enter the server
name through which your mail is sent and delivered (see Figure 7-8).
To add your account information, select the
Add button. A new dialog, similar to Figure 7-9, will open.
On the General tab, enter:
Server Name — The server from which
your mail is sent and retrieved. Your ISP will be able to
provide you with this information.
Server Type — From this drop-down
box, choose POP,
MoveMail, or
IMAP. Note that not all ISPs support all
server types. Check with your ISP.
User Name — Enter your ISP account login name.
Remember password — Check this option if
you don't want to be required to enter your password each time
you check your mail.
Check for mail every _______ minutes
— Check this option and fill in the field to have
Communicator check your ISP for new
mail at specified intervals.
Automatically download any new messages
— When you check this option,
Communicator will automatically
download new mail from your ISP's mail server and place it in
your Inbox.
On the POP tab:
Leave messages on server — Check this
option if you don't want your messages to be deleted from your
mail server when you retrieve them. Messages will remain on your
machine and will not be deleted on the server machine. Note that
this option is unchecked by default; check with your ISP before
deciding you want to store mail on their server indefinitely.
When deleting a message locally, remove it from the
server — This option is also unchecked by
default. If you select this option, mail will only be deleted
off the server when you manually delete it on your machine.
When you're finished entering your mail account information, click
the OK button to return to the Mail
Servers window.
In the Outgoing Mail Server section, enter the
name of the mail server. Your ISP should supply you with this
information.
| What is SMTP? |
|---|
| | SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol designed
for the transfer of email messages.
|
The option to Use Secure Socket Layer refers to
encryption technology. For more information about security issues,
refer to Netscape's online help guide.
You can specify where you want your mail to be stored by either
typing in the location in Local mail directory,
or by clicking on the Choose button, and
selecting a directory in the navigation window which opens. By
default, mail will be stored in a directory in your user directory;
if your name is newuser, for example, the
path to the directory will be
/home/newuser/nsmail.
In the Newsgroups Servers category, enter the
server name through which you can retrieve and post newsgroup
messages (see Figure 7-10).
The procedure for entering the newsgroups server is somewhat similar
to entering account information for email services. In this
instance, you must enter the name of the server to which you'll
connect for access to newsgroups. Your ISP should provide you with
this information.
To begin, click on the Add button. In the
dialog which opens (see Figure 7-11),
enter the newsgroups server information supplied by your ISP.
The first option, for SSL, is similar to the
reference to Secure Socket Layer in the mail
configuration. Check with your ISP to determine if this option is
necessary.
The second option, Always use name and
password, will cause
Messenger to request your user name and
password before connecting to your newsgroups server. This can be
useful in preventing unauthorized users from accessing newsgroups
through your account.
The remainder of the categories in this section allow you to modify
or accept settings for such options as message formatting,
addressing, and disk space use.
| HTML or Plaintext? |
|---|
| | Among the options you have for sending and receiving messages,
you'll find Message formatting, in the
Formatting category. This category allows you
to decide whether or not you want to compose and send mail in HTML
format.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the format in which Web pages
and some other documents can be viewed. It can provide some rich
formatting tools for your messages; for example, you can change
the color or style of your fonts. However, not all users read
their mail or news with applications that can adequately display
HTML; netiquette also frowns on the use of HTML in mail and news.
Before sending your messages, make sure the recipients can read
them. You can select the option Ask me what to
do... in the section When sending HTML
messages..., which will allow you to convert HTML
messages to plaintext for easier reading by everyone.
|
Once you've finished entering your settings and options in
Mail & Newsgroups, you're ready to send and
receive messages. Select the OK button to
save your settings and exit the Preferences
dialog.
|
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