Academic Computing Services
QUICK STUDY #5
March 2001
Using Netscape Mail on Your PC
These instructions are for using Netscape Messenger, the mail portion of the
Netscape Communicator Web browser program, on your personal computer.
If you're a PC user who's currently running another web
browser, you can use your current browser
to download the software. (Please refer to the webpage located at
http://www.netscape.com for how-to information.)
Note: If you are connected through an alternate ISP, you will not
be able to send mail outside the rpi.edu domain using the mail.rpi.edu
SMTP server. Please contact your ISP for the appropriate SMTP server
information.
To start up Netscape Messenger on your PC, first
double-click the Netscape Communicator
icon on your desktop to open the program, then click on the mailbox icon
on the component bar,
or select the Messenger option
from the Communicator menu.
Alternatively, you may start Messenger by
opening the Start menu, and then selecting the Programs,
Netscape Communicator, and Netscape Messenger menu options.
Regardless of how you start Messenger, you will be running the same
application, and will end up in the same window.
Before you can send or receive mail, you will need to provide Netscape
Messenger with the appropriate mail setup options. To do this,
pull down the Edit menu and select the Preferences... menu option.
A Preferences window will appear. Select the Mail & Newsgroups
option in the Category: field, then select the Identity option.
Enter your full name (for example, Mary Jones) in the Your name: field, then
enter your e-mail address in the Email address: field (for example,
jonesm@rpi.edu).
Next, click on the Mail Servers option listed in the Category field.
Enter mail.rpi.edu in the Outgoing mail (SMTP) server field. Next,
click on the Edit... button to edit the Incoming Mail Servers listed in
the window. A separate Mail Server Properties window will appear. Click on
the General tab, and enter mail.rpi.edu in the Server Name: field.
Make sure that the Server Type is POP3 Server. Finally, enter your
RCS userID (for example, jonesm) in the User Name: field.
Next, click on the POP tab. Select both the Leave messages on
server and When deleting a message locally, remove it from the server
options. (The Leave messages on server option allows you to pick up
your e-mail from multiple computers.)
It is often a good idea to compose and send your mail messages in plain text
because some users' mail programs cannot read files such as Word documents,
HTML files, etc. To do this:
- 1.
- Start Netscape Messenger if you have not already done so. From
the window that
appears, open the Edit menu and select the Preferences... option.
- 2.
- In the Preferences window that appears, click on the Mail &
Newsgroups option in the Category: field, then on the Messages option.
- 3.
- Click on the small drop-down arrow that appears to the right of the
By default, forward messages: field and select the Inline option. (You
should consider doing this simply because some users' mail programs are unable
to open and read attachments.)
- 4.
- Next, click on the Formatting option in the Category: field of the
Preferences window.
- 5.
- At the top of the resulting window, select the Use the plain text
editor to compose messages option; at the bottom of the window, select the
Send the message in plain text and HTML (uses more disk space) option.
- 6.
- When you have finished editing your Netscape mail preferences, click
on the OK button.
To retrieve new mail from the server, left-click on the Get Msg icon.
Messenger will ask you to authenticate your userID, if you have not done
so already; use your RCS userID and password to authenticate your access.
To read any mail (new or old), left-click on the header of the message you
want to read. This will open the message in the text area below the
message listing.
To create and post new messages, left-click on the New Msg icon. This
will activate the Composition window. Enter the e-mail address(es) of the
desired recipient(s) in the To: field. (Please note that if you are
sending mail in the RPI domain (rpi.edu), you do not need to enter the
domain as part of the e-mail address. However, if you are sending mail
outside of the RPI domain, you must enter the complete address, including
the domain - e.g., doej@aol.com.) Click the Send icon to send the
message. Messenger will save your outgoing mail in your Sent mailbox,
which you can view by opening the pull-down menu next to Inbox and
selecting the Sent option.
To reply to a message while reading it, left-click on the Reply icon.
Messenger will give you an option to reply only to the original sender (
Reply to Sender), or to everyone who received a copy of the message (
Reply to Sender and All Recipients). Once you make a selection,
the Composition window will appear. Messenger will complete the
reply e-mail address(es) for you, as well as append the text of the original
message. Messenger will also automatically save
your replies in the Sent mailbox.
After you read a message, you may forward it to other users by clicking
on the Forward icon. A Composition window will open; enter the
e-mail address(es) of the message's intended recipient(s). If you want to send
a carbon copy (cc) or blind carbon copy (bcc) of the message to another
e-mail address, you can click on the small drop-down arrow to the right of
the To: field, and then select either the Cc: or Bcc:
option. If you wish, you may add your own personal message to
the mail you're forwarding; note that
the original forwarded message will also appear in the text field.
Published by Academic Computing Services, RPI, Troy, NY 12180
Send comments to consult@rpi.edu.