While using Netscape, I've come across links to e-mail
addresses. How do these work?
These are a special type of link that allow you to send e-mail to the
person named directly from Netscape, without having to leave it and enter
your regular e-mail program. If you click on the link, a box should appear
asking you to type a subject and a message (just as you would with a regular
e-mail message). However, if you have never used this function on your
computer, or if you are using Netscape in a public computer lab, you need
to configure your mail preferences first. Here's how:
- In Netscape Navigator, choose "Mail and News Preferences"
from the "Options" menu. (Note that this is the wording used
for the most recent versions of Netscape, but other versions of the program
may use slightly different wording.)
- A dialog box will appear with various tabs across the top. Clicking
on a tab will bring the appropriate list of options to the front of the
stack so you can change them. Click on the tab marked "Identity"
and you should see a screen that looks something like this:
- Complete the boxes marked "Your Name," "Your Email,"
and "Reply-to Address." (Completing "Your Organization"
is optional.) The boxes "Your Email" and "Reply-to Address"
will almost always be identical.
- Next, click on the "Servers" tab; the list of Server preferences
will appear. In the line makred "Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server"
type the name of your mail server. (Note: At Wesleyan, this is mail.wesleyan.edu
or just simply mail.) The boxes referring to "Incoming
Mail Server" and "POP3 Username" should be left blank.
- After you've made these changes. you should be able to click on any
linked e-mail address you see on web pages and send messages right from
Netscape!
If you're feeling adventurous...
- You can explore the other tabs in Mail and News Preferences for other
neat things you can do. For example, under the "Composition"
tab, you can tell Netscape to send a copy of all e-mail it sends to a certain
e-mail address. If you are in the habit of keeping a record of all e-mail
you send, you can enter your own e-mail address here and you will be sent
copies of messages you send from Netscape.
- To send an e-mail message from Netscape without having a link to click
on, you can "trick" Netscape into opening a message window. If
you want to send a message to fsmith@wesleyan.edu, here's what to
do: From the "File" menu, choose "Open Location." When
the Open Location box appears, type "mailto:fsmith@wesleyan.edu"
(without the quotations) and the blank message box should pop up.
- Newer versions of Netscape also allow you to use Netscape to handle
your incoming e-mail. While Netscape does not have all the flexible features
of many e-mail programs (such as PINE or Eudora), it does have some useful
capabilities:
QuickStarts home