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Setting up Netscape Communicator for Mail and Bulletin Board:

This setup procedure is for Netscape 4.5+ series of browsers.  It will not work with the new Netscape 6.0, and I do not recommend that you use Netscape 6.0 with this course, as it has many bugs at the time of this writing, and several features that we use for this course are not included in the early release of 6.0.

Once you have created your account, and have Netscape Communicator on your computer, you must configure it to access your mail account, and if you are using the Collabra bulletin board, configure it to see this board.   Remember that MCC has an excellent technical support telephone number for you to obtain help if you have difficulty.  Help Desk:  480-461-7217 or 461-7466.

Note: Although written for Windows 95/98, the MacOS pictures are quite similar. Differences will be noted by this icon:

After installing NC 4.61 on your computer, to begin setting it up, go to Edit, Preferences on the menu bar. From the menu that appears, select Mail and Groups.  If a plus appears next to the name, click on it to open the selections.

Identity Menu:

In this menu place your name as you want it to appear on your messages and your e-mail address (the username that that you chose when you initiated your account). Be careful to type in your e-mail address carefully, for if it is wrong, when you send a message, people will not be able to reply to you using their "reply" command.

You can also set up a business type card that will go at the bottom of your messages by selecting Attach my personal card.  You can edit the card by selecting the Edit Card button.

Mail Server Menu:

The Mail Server settings are shown below.  The username you will use in these settings is the account name that you set up when you registered for your e-mail account.

When you first access this screen, no servers will show in the box.  Go to Add and a new small window will appear. ( This window on Macs will be titled Mail Server Info) The POP3 or IMAP mail server type (Server Type command) determines what happens to your messages after you access them.  If POP3 is selected, the messages are downloaded to your computer, and erased from the server unless the box underneath it is selected.  Messages are then stored in folders on your computer.  You do not want to use this setting if you are accessing your mail from different sites, but it may be preferable if you work entirely in your office and do not plan to access your mail from home. You should choose IMAP if you wish to be able to access the same messages from office and home.   When IMAP is chosen, the mail stays on the server in an Inbox that only you can access with your username and password.  With this setting, the messages are not downloaded to your computer for storage.  When you delete a message using this setting, the message goes into a Trash folder on the server (again, only where you can access it). However, you can always set up folders in the Local Mail area to store your mail on your local computer. Another advantage of IMAP is that your mail is backed up daily on the server.  If you are using POP3, and your computer hard drive fails, all your mail is lost. You set your mail for IMAP or POP3 by selecting the appropriate server type in the Server Type window.   If you choose IMAP (recommended), then your server's name will be imap.mc.maricopa.edu If you choose POP3, your server name will be pop.mc.maricopa.edu Put your username for your mail account (the one that you created when you self-submitted your MCC e-mail account in A1) in the final box and select OK at the bottom of the screen.

Be sure to select the middle tab on the Mail Server Properties and select Move it to the Trash folder.  If you do not do this, no trash folder will appear in your mail folder window pane.

Now your Mail server screen will show your choice in the top box.  You will also need to fill in the bottom of the Mail Server window.  The SMTP setting is as shown, and again you should put in your mail username.

News Group Server Menu:

The News Group Servers works just like the Mail Servers menu.  Choose Add and a small menu will appear for you to put in the name of the MCC news bulletin board listed in the graphic below.  You can add as many bulletin board servers as you wish, but you do not add a specific class bulletin board here, just the server.  Accessing specific bulletin boards on a server is completed later using a Subscribe command in Netscape.

When you select Add on the News Server window, this small menu will appear for you to add a news server (bulletin board).  For the MCC server, use the settings in the graphic to the right.   The Port setting is defaulted.

Messages Menu:

The Messages menu will need to be set up as shown below. Under Forwarding, you have three choices, Inline (quotes the message in the body of the message, Quoted (places ">" beside each line, and Attachment (sends the forwarded message as an attachment to the new message -- this is the normal setting).  The Automatically quote choice should be unselected, or every message that you try to reply to will automatically appear in the new message.  A Quote choice on the mail editor toolbar always allows you to quote a message if you wish.

The Spell Check box, when selected, automatically checks the spelling of your message before it is sent.

Windows Setting Menu:

The Windows Settings window gives you a choice of how you will see your mail folders, message headers, and the body of the message.

Formatting Menu:

Formatting is an important command until all Internet e-mail programs are HTML compliant.  The HTML messages checked on will allow you to use bold face, italics, underlining, different size fonts, colors, etc. in your messages. It will also allow you to send and receive graphics in your e-mail messages and news bulletin board postings.  If you are sending to an old "text only" service such as MCC's A1 service, the plain text must be checked.

Once these settings are made, you are ready to use Netscape Communicator 4.61.

You can also configure Netscape Communicator to access other mail accounts that you might have.  See Profile Manager on the index page for instructions.