Email in Netscape Communicator 4.5 through 4.78

Email in Netscape Communicator 4.5 - 4.78

This is a "quick start" guide to setting up email with Netscape's Communicator. It applies to versions 4.5 through 4.78. (It will probably apply to any future version below 5.0)

If you are using Netscape 6, please see Email in Netscape 6.

If you are using Outlook Express (the mail reader that comes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer), this page will give some information.

You may wish to print this page, since it's going to be hard to read the page while you're setting up Netscape's preferences.

HOWEVER, if you print it, please don't print it until you've filled in the information below.

First, a quick check to make sure you have what you need:

Are you connected to the network? If you're at home, this means that you have a modem, and have dialup networking set up. If not, see the Networking Quick Start page.
Do you have the right version of Netscape Communicator installed. This page applies to versions 4.5 through 4.61. However if your netscape is older than 4.61, we recommend updating to 4.61. For information getting installing a new browser, see Getting a Browser. To check the version, pull down "help". The last entry should be "about communicator".
Do you have a OIT computer account? If you're using the Rutgers modems, you already have an account. If you use any of the main OIT computers (eden, rci, andromeda, pegasus, crab, or clam), you already have an account. If you need an account, see Creating a OIT Account.

We Need Some Information

In order to give you specific instructions, we need to know some information about you:

Please enter your name in the box below, and hit the "enter" or "return" key:
Name:
(This isn't a computer username -- it's a name as you would normally type it, e.g. John Q. Smith.)
Please enter your username in the box below, and hit the "enter" or "return" key:
Username:
(This is the user name that you selected when you created your OIT computer account. It is a single word, not longer than 8 characters.)
Please select the system where you created your OIT computer account:
Camden faculty/staff: crab.rutgers.edu
Camden students: clam.rutgers.edu
Newark faculty/staff: andromeda.rutgers.edu
Newark students: pegasus.rutgers.edu
NB faculty/staff: rci.rutgers.edu
NB students: eden.rutgers.edu

(A few few faculty and staff from Newark and Camden have accounts on the NB system, RCI. If you would prefer to read mail on RCI, please choose that system.)

If this isn't right, please go back and fix the appropriate box.

If these boxes remain blank, you are probably running a brower that does not support Javascript. Please use Netscape 4 to view this page. (Normally we write pages to be viewable on all browers. But since this page contains specific instructions for Netscape 4, it seems reasonable not to support old browsers.)

Setting up Netscape

In order to read mail, you need to tell Netscape what your mail server and username are. The first time you set up Netscape, it may take you into a dialog where it collects information about you. Based on this, it will automatically set up email. It asks for the same information we describe below. But these instructions assume you are setting things up yourself.

(Outlook Express wants the same basic information. To get to the email setup, pull down the "tools" menu and choose "accounts". Choose the "mail" tab. At the upper right there will be an "add" button. If you choose add and then mail, you'll get a wizard that's very similar to Netscape's setup wizard.)

If you are in Netcape's setup wizard, you can skip down to the "Identity" section. If you have to start things yourself, here's how:

Pull down the "edit" menu and choose "preferences". It will bring up a panel with the following menu on the left side:

Appearance
Navigator
Mail & Newsgroups
Roaming Access
Composer
Offline
Advanced

The items you need are in the "Mail & Newsgroups" section. Click on the indicator at the left of "Mail and Newsgroups" to expand it. You'll now see a submenu that looks like this:

Identity
Mail Servers
Newsgroup Servers
Addressing
Messages
Window Settings
Copies and Folders
Formatting
Return Receipts
Disk Space

Click on "Identity". You'll see a menu that looks like this:

Fill in "Your name" and "Email address" as shown. Your name should be your name as you normally write it. Email address is your email address as described in the previous section.

Click on "Mail Servers". You'll see a menu that looks like this:

(If you're in the startup wizard, the outgoing mail server and incoming mail server are set in two separate boxes, but the information is the same.)

Here's how to fill this in:

Incoming Mail Servers: There can be more than one server listed. This lets you read mail from more than one place. Make sure the Rutgers server is listed, as shown above. If it isn't, click on "Add" to add it. See the next section for information about the menu that will come up.
Initially, an irrelevant server may be listed, such as "default" or "mail". Select it with your mouse and then click on "Delete" to remove it.
Outgoing Mail Server: This should be your Rutgers mail server name, as shown above. (However see below for ISP users.)
In the checkboxes, make sure "Never" is selected.

WARNING FOR ISP USERS: These instructions are correct if you are part of the Rutgers network. This includes the Rutgers dialups. However if you connect to Rutgers from a commercial Internet Service Provider, you'll need to make one change. In the box labelled "Outgoing mail (SMTP) server", you'll need to fill in the name of your ISP's mail server. The other boxes should still use Rutgers information. You will probably have to contact your ISP's customer support group to find the name of their mail server. If they ask what kind of server, tell them you need their "SMTP server".

(If you're in the startup wizard, just fill in the outgoing and incoming mail servers as shown. With the incoming server, make sure you choose the "IMAP" button, rather than POP3. Your "Mail server user name" -- or "account name" in Outlook Express -- is

After those two boxes, the wizard will ask for a newsgroup server which should be left empty.

If the right incoming server name was present, click on "Edit..." to review the server properties. Otherwise click on "Add..." to add the right server. You'll see something that looks like this:

Depending upon whether you are doing "Add" or "Edit", one of these boxes will be grayed out so you can't change it.

In addition to the entries shown, you may wish to check "Remember Password", and in the "IMAP" tab, "Mark it as Deleted".

OPTIONAL: If you have a large directory, you may wish to do one additional thing. The mail software has access to your directory. It uses that to save messages. If you have a very large directory, it can take netscape a good deal of time to start, because it scans your directory looking for new files. In that case, you can tell netscape to use a subdirectory rather than your whole home directory. Commonly, you would use a subdirectory call "mail".

To set this up: Click on the "Advanced" tab at the top of the menu shown above. In the box labelled "IMAP server directory", fill in the name of the subdirectory, e.g. "mail".

Using Netscape for Mail

To read mail in Netscape, pull down the "Communicator" menu and choose "Messenger". This will bring up a screen showing your messages. It will ask you for a password. This the password for your OIT computer account.

To send a message, click on the box "New Msg".

If you want to check your server for any new mail, click on the box "Get Msg".

Last changed Aug 3, 2005 by webmaster@nbcs.rutgers.edu