Answers
Inside outlook express, Go to "tools" then "Accounts" then, select "mail". Now, choose "add" then "mail". This will activate a wizard which will help you install your mail configuration.
Fill in your name: Joe Public
Next, email address: joe@networksgy.com (all lower case)
next, POP3 server
fill in incoming mail server as :mail.networksgy.com
fill in outgoing mail server as: mail.networksgy.com
Next, internet mail logon, choose pop name: joe (all lower case)
Type your password: You know what that is
Next, Fill in the friendly name as: joe@networksgy.com
Next, connect using: telephone line. Then choose internetworks.
Hit finish. Congratulations
Then, close outlook express. This should complete your account setup for outlook express.
The settings for Netscape Messenger are similar.When Netscape is launched the first time, a wizard is activated which requests the information. If Netscape has been used before, a profile will already exist. In this case, look under "edit" then "preferences". Now double click on "identity". Fill in your name,"joe" and e-mail address, "joe@networksgy.com". Under mail server, fill in the mail server user name as "joe". The outgoing (SMTP) server is "mail.networksgy.com" and the incoming mail server is "mail.networksgy.com" (without the inverted commas). Hit "ok" to save the changes.
Eudora mail is slightly different. If you are using it for the first time, the wizard will request the following information. You can also find the configuration details under "tools" then "options".
POP account: joe@networksgy.com
Real Name: Joe Block
Return address: joe@networksgy.com
Now hit on "hosts".
Fill in the "smtp" as "mail.networksgy.com" (without commas )
Hit "ok" and you're done.
Your mail will be hosted under networksgy.com. If your user name is John, then your e-mail address will read
Actually, what happens with mail is not that complicated. First, the message is created by a program on your machine called a mail client (such a Outlook Express, Eudora Mail or Netscape Messenger). The message has what is called a "header" and a "body". The header contains all the address information, subject and other data required to route the message. Most mail clients will allow you to put more than one address into the "to" field separated by commas. If the message has an attachment, the file name and type is also indicated in the header. The body contains the content of the message. When you hit on "send" , the message is "compressed" , leaves your machine and is forwarded to your mail host , in this case "mail.networksgy.com". This is called your SMTP server (simple mail transfer protocol). If the host authenticates you as a valid user, your message is accepted and placed into a queue. At this point, the mail host will search its records for the host specified in the header of your message. For example, if your message is addressed to joe@mail.com , then the server will search for a host called "mail.com". When this host is found, "mail.networksgy.com" contacts "mail.com". Once the hosts agree to exchange mail, and your message reaches the mail recipients server "mail.com".
Now, the receiving server must sort all the mail that it receives and then place each message into the appropriate mailbox. Once "joe" is found, the host places your message into his folder. The next step, is allow the recipient to authenticate, and clear the appropriate mail. That function is performed by a POP server (post office protocol). This entire process takes place in a matter of seconds, regardless of your physical location on the globe !
Sometimes, if the address is has a type-O or the user is not active on the receiving server, the mail host will have to decide what should happen to this particular message. The understanding is that all addresses are unique and no two mail host can have the same name. That way if a type-O is made, the servers will do their best to find the recipient but will eventually figure out that something is not quite right about the address and then return the mail to its point of origin. In that case, the sender will receive a notification that the message could not be delivered. Most hosts have rules regarding how large a user's mailbox should be, the maximum size of a single message, hosts that should be refused (like spammers) or expiration dates on stored mail, that may also result in returned mail.
If you have not received messages, or you can't seem to send mail, it is probably an indication that something is not quite right with your mail setup. Either your incoming (POP) mail server address or your outgoing (SMTP) server address may be spelled incorrectly. Both of these should both read "mail.networksgy.com" (without the inverted commas !!). Your POP name is in fact the first part of your e-mail address.
Supposing you spent months creating your address book in Netscape and just decided to use Microsoft Outlook Express, or you want to have the same addresses and mail at home and at the office, you don't need to do it all over again. Don't despair. Microsoft Outlook Express makes it very easy to move mail, account settings and your address book from Netscape. Open Outlook Express and choose "file" then "import". Now select the appropriate option, in our case "messages", and select the version of Netscape you are using. Now hit "next". Outlook will check your system and should automatically locate you messages. You can then choose the folders you want, hit "next" and presto...your messages are now in Outlook Express. The same procedure can import your address book.
The import wizard works well the majority of the time but in some instances, may require some manual intervention. This will require you to copy some files. We will need to do this in our second situation, so here goes.
First, open "my computer" and the "c drive". Now look for "program files" , then "netscape". If you are using Netscape 3.x, look for folder in "navigator" called "mail". This folder will contain all the messages created in Netscape Mail. For Netscape 4.x, mail is located in "netscape", under "users" in a user folder which resembles your username, say "joepublic" in our case. If you have more than one user profile, you should see other user folders. Open the "joepublic" folder and look for a folder called "mail". In either case, right click on your "mail" folder and hit on "copy". Now you are ready to copy the folder. Lets place it on the desktop. To do that, simply close your screens, then right click on your desktop ( not on an icon !!) and hit "paste". Now you should have a folder called "mail" on your desktop.
Ok. Supposing, you want these messages at your office. You can compress this folder using Winzip, then e-mail to your office account. If you have a lot of mail, and this folder can be quite large. In that case, you may need to copy it to another media, such as an iomega disk. If the import wizard could not find your messages, you can now specify the desktop as the location of your messages. Restoring these messages to another machine is just as easy as copying the files to the same location specified earlier.
Now the address book. In Netscape 3.x, the address book is called "address.htm" and is located in "Netscape" folder. The Netscape 4.x address book must be exported to a file. To do this, launch Netscape and then open the address book. Now say "export". Netscape will choose the "ldif" format by default. Point the location to the desktop and call the file "user". You should now have a file called "user.ldif" on your desktop. Now you can use these files to recreate your address book. Both these files should be small enough to e-mail. Outlook Express will also read the "user.ldif" file. To restore the address book, use the import address book feature and point to the location of the "user.ldif" file.
E-mail is very versatile. You can send pretty much any type of file from your PC via e-mail as attachments. Typically, these include spreadsheets, documents and images, but could just as easily be voice mail, videos, music files or setup files for programs. There are a couple of basic rules of thumb about sending and receiving attachment.
You will probably need some kind of compression software (such as Winzip or WinRar ) to "pack and unpack" files. Using compression makes sense because it make sending and receiving attachment more efficient.
You are less likely to annoy the recipient with a smaller file than run the risk of clogging their mailbox. If you can break up a large file into smaller ones, this makes sense. Should this happen to you, get Remote Mail and clear your box of the errant message.
Image files can be particularly bothersome. You may find that the same image saved in a "BMP" file type is significantly larger than the same image as a "GIF" or "JPEG" (without any noticeable deterioration in quality !!). Some proprietary file types are even more efficient. Be prepared to experiment with different file types.
There is hardly any point in sending an attachment, if the intended recipient can't read it. The newer mail clients (such as Netscape Messenger and Outlook Express) can read images and HTML, which is the source code for web pages, within the e-mail interface. However, in some cases, you mail client will need the help of the program, which created the attachment. In other words, if your document was written in Microsoft Office 2000, and the recipient has an older version of Microsoft Office, there is a good chance that the document will be unreadable. (In this case, you can force Office2000 to save the document in the lower file version).
The easiest way to proliferate a virus is via e-mail. A deadly payload may arrive as a rather innocuous e-mail attachment. Don't open an attachment from someone your can't vouch for. You can configure your antivirus program to automatically scan downloads. Both PC-cillin and Mcafee Virus Guard have this feature. You will need to keep your antivirus engine current to catch the newest viruses. You should also know that the more recent varieties can infect your mail client and use your address book to perpetuate itself to your correspondents. Beware of any unusual mail even from known sources.
Be nice and let the recipient know what program you used to create you attached file.
Ok. Now that you know the basics, how do we read an attachment ? Your e-mail client will indicate that a message has an attachment. Typically, look for a "paper clip" . In older versions of Netscape, a table at the bottom of the message. If you click on these icons, your mail client will either launch an associated program or viewer to read the attached file, or will prompt you to "save the file to disk". If the file turns out to be unreadable in the program your mail client chooses, you may have to choose the second option. This will extract the attached file from your e-mail to a location on hard disk. You can then select a program that might read the file. If the file still turns out to be unreadable, you probably don't have the program that created the file (or something compatible), or the attachment got truncated and did not arrive complete. Your only recourse at that point, is to ask the sender to resend the file. Take a look at tips for more details on sending attachments.
Supposing you created a document embedded with several images in Microsoft Word. If you tried to e-mail this as an attachment, chances are, your e-mail client will report that the file limit has been exceeded. The first thing to do is to check the file size and see if compression can help.
To do that, click on "my documents". Now right click on the document, and select "properties". Windows will now report the size of the file and other details about the file type. Take a note of this. Now compress the file, using Winzip or WinRaR and then compare the size of the "zipped" file to the original. You might be surprised by the results. In this case, if compression cannot significantly reduce the file size, you may have to extract the images and send these separately.
Outlook Express allows you to easily verify the file size of an e-mail. Simply right click on the message and choose "properties". With Netscape, you can check the size of the "outbox" or "unsent messages" folder. Click on your outbox or unsent messages folder then go to "file" then "folder properties". One thing Netscape also does is report the size of the message as it is being sent. This should give you a good idea of whether or not downloading the message will be a tedious process. If you have very large files to transfer, a file delivery application such as Hilgreave's Dropchute, is more suitable than e-mail .
It's a good idea to sign up with a free online mail service even though you already have a mail account at inter.net.works. The main reason is privacy. If you will be chatting or acquiring software through the internet, you may have to specify an e-mail address which you may not want to make "public". And if you want to subscribe to receive online content, you can use your public mail box as your e-mail address.
There are a number of e-mail services on the net. Essentially, you browse to the site, then login, and this takes you to your mailbox. You can bookmark the location of your mail service to save time. Signing up may requires you to fill in certain information including your interests, hobbies and profession. If the mail address you want is already subscribed, you will be prompted with a suggested alternative. Once you have signed up, checking for mail simply means browsing to the site and entering your password. Some services may have restrictions on the size of messages that will be held in your post box so periodically delete old messages to free up space. To learn more about Free-email destinations click here.
People finders are online directory services that list e-mail addresses and other details, like a sort of huge yellow page. You can list your address with any of these services to allow anyone to find you. However, you should only do this with a "public address" such as yahoo or excite mail to avoid unsolicited junk mail. Some online services will even ask you whether you would like to be listed when you sign on. Fortunately, both Netscape messenger and Outlook Express make it easy to search through listings for addresses. These services are plugged right into the mail client. Here's how to can find an address.
Inside Outlook Express, hit on "address book". Now hit "find". The find function is really nifty for looking through a large address book. You can search by name, e-mail address or telephone number. This same functionality works for a directory service. Choose the "look in" window and select one of the directory services. By default Outlook Express lists (7) directory services including four11, Bigfoot and Verisign. Netscape 4.x lists 4 by default. In both cases, you can add or remove services if you choose.
Ok. Lets choose "four11". Type in either the e-mail address or name and hit on "find now". Outlook will generate possible matches and you can then add these to the address book. Click on the right match and select "adds to address book". It's a simple as that !!
In Netscape Messenger, the search options are centered around the address book. Select the service you would like to use and hit on the "search". Netscape has more advanced search fields available under "edit" then "search for". Netscape allows you specify up to five conditions for your people search, including city, street name and zip code. To add a find to your address list simply click-drag and release the "card" to the personal address book. That's it !!
Later, you may want new directory services. Once you have the server addresses(LDAP). In Outlook Express, hit on "tools" then "accounts" and "directory service". In Netscape Messenger, choose "file" then, "new directory" to accomplish the same thing. For example, you could add the following LDAP servers using port "389" by default.
Goto BigFoot ldap.bigfoot.com
Four11 ldap.four11.com
Goto Infospace ldap.infospace.com
Goto Yahoo ! ldap.yahoo.com
Goto WhoWhere ldap.whowhere.com
Verisign directory.verisign.com
Goto Switchboard ldap.switchboard.com
You can also reach some of these services within your browser. Look for more advanced search options online .
If you receive hundreds of messages each week, chances are you need some help sorting your mail. Enter the "inbox assistant". You can sort your mail by subject ,sender and in some cases by content. Supposing you have more than one e-mail user at home, who wants their mail "mixed up" ? Or lets say you receive a monthly report, do you want lost with your general mail ? Here's what to do.
Launch Outlook Express. Go "tools" then "inbox assistant". Now choose "add". Fill in your subject as "monthly report". Now in "perform the following action", check on "move to". Now hit on "folder", then "new folder" and name your folder monthly reports. This should create a new folder called "monthly reports". Click on this folder on the tree and choose "ok". This will automatically place any new mail whose subject reads "monthly reports" into a separate folder. You can add more tasks in the same way. The inbox assistant can even automatically delete message from pesky spammers trying to sell you something you don't need !!
Netscape Messenger can perform the same task using "mail filters". In message center, hit on "file", "new folder" and name your folder "bob" (lets say for your second e-mail user). Now choose "edit" and "mail filters ". Now choose "new", call your filter "bob" and fill in "if the subject of the message says to bob, move this to a folder called bob". This will automatically place any messages reading to bob into his folder. Netscape allows you to create very advanced filters with up to five sorting rules based on subject, sender, body, date and status. The result is, you save valuable time sorting mail !!
Ever had to send out invitations via e-mail ? How about an office circular ? Your mail client will probably allow you to input more that one address in the address field separated by commas. You could also use "cc" which means "copy" or "bcc", which blind copies the message. That means the addresses in "bcc" don't show up in the received message. Or, you could create the first message and forward it to the more recipients from your "sent" box. To forward a message, select the folder, which contains the message, right click on the message and hit on "forward" or "forward as attachment". This works but there is another way using groups.
Lets say your address book has all the addresses you need. Open the address book. In Outlook Express, hit on "new group", type a group name, say "invitation list", and "select members". Now choose the addresses from your address book or add any "new contacts" that are yet there. Hit Ok. Now you can specify in your "to:" field "invitation list" (without the commas ) and Outlook Express will send the messages to the appropriate recipients. You can also specify your group "invitation lists" in "cc:" and "Bcc:"
Netscape Messenger works in almost the same way. Open the address book. Go "communicator" then "address book". Now hit on "new list". Give the name "office circular" and use a nickname "chums". Now you can add addresses here manually but it is easier to drag the address card from you address book. To do this click on an address in your address book, hold it...now drag the card across into the list and release the button. You will see the address now appearing in your list. When you're done, hit OK. Now in the "to:" field, put the address as "chums" (without commas) and Netscape will input the addresses for you. That's it !!
There is also a third way using the "copy and paste" functionality of windows. Lets suppose you've alreadt done your message. Click in the body of the message, then choose, "edit" and "select all", then "edit", "copy". Now the next time you hit on compose, click in the message field, then choose "edit" , "paste" and all you won't have to type the message again !
Unfortunately, you won't know if there is mail in your box until you go online. Your mail client is probably configured to automatically check for mail every 10 minutes, and prompts you with some audible or visual indication of new mail once the mail host is contacted. When new mail is acquired,it is automatically "flagged" to distinguish it from previous correspondence. In Outlook Express, the settings are found under "tools" then "options". Under "general", look for the value against "check for mail every ...minutes". Outlook Express can also play a sound when a new message arrives. You can select the sound you would like in the windows "control panel", under "sound" and "new mail notification". In Netscape Messenger, notification is found under "edit", "preferences" then "mail and news". Check for mail every....minutes in under the incoming mail server properties.
If you need instant notification, "pagers" (such as Ichat, Yahoo or ICQ) are good alternatives to e-mail. Pagers integrate online chat, message boards,"chat rooms" , sometimes video conferencing and e-mail into one interface. If you don't need this these advanced features, a mail monitoring utility such as Mailtalkx or Avir Mail is competent alternative. Mailtalkx can keep track of several mailboxes, filter messages, and associate unique sounds with each of your correspondents. AvirMail is an advanced e-mail checker which reads mail headers inside your mailbox on the server, then notifies you of new mail. Look at other options including antispaming auto-deletion and event logging.
If your mail client is refusing to send mail, or reporting some strange seemingly encrypted gargle, it probably means one of a couple of things. You have a type-O in one of the addresses in the message you're trying to send or the user has changed their address; your password is incorrect or not valid; the mail server refused your mail for some reason or is down; or your mail configuration within your mail client is not quite correct. The corrective action is to recheck your addresses (remember they may be case sensitive), and ensure that mail client is setup correctly. Lets take a look at some errors
"error 550: unknown user". one or more of the addresses in the "to", "cc", or "bcc" fields is not correct. Delete the message from your outbox and send the message individually to each recipient to find out which one.
"error 550: unknown host name". the latter section of e-mail address, which follows the "@" sign is not correct for one or more addresses in the message.
"error 553: domain does not exist." there is no record of this mail host or host is down.
"Bad login. Password Rejected". your mail password in not valid or not typed in correctly
"Missing password argument". no password typed in for mail. Input the mail password in the dialogue box.
"error 552: message exceeds the maximum fixed size" the message contains a very large attachment and cannot be sent. Use compression to reduce the size of attachment.(see more on attachments)
"SSL error,no digital ID". one or more of the addresses is in the message are not correct.
In general, the first thing to do to delete any messages in your "outbox" or "unsent items" and try a test message to yourself. If you are able to send and receive this message, that probably means your mail settings are ok. If you are using addresses from your address book, the next step is to verify whether new addresses that you have recently added are correct. Try sending your message to individual addresses to until you find the errant address. You should be able to open the deleted message in the trash, choose "edit", "select all", "copy" then compose new message, click in the message area, "edit" and "paste". This will save you retyping the message.
If you cannot send a test message, you will need to check you mail configuration. You mail servers should read "mail.networksgy.com" and your POP name is the first part of your e-mail address. (see more on mail configuration). If you have sent messages but received no reply, one of the reasons could be the reply address is stated incorrectly in your mail configuration.
If you are unable download messages, it probably means that either your password, POP name or incoming mail server are stated incorrectly. If your mail download seems to stuck in a loop, use Remote Mail to see if you have a large message in your mailbox causing the download to time out.
If you are unable to resolve your mail problem, we would like to hear from you. Please let us know.
Encryption is the best way to protect confidential information in e-mail. This amounts to encoding a file and then securing it with a password. Of course, when the file is received, it must be decoded before it can be read. Since encryption algorithms are not the same, you must ensure that the intended recipient has the same type of encyption tool to "de-crypt" your e-mail ! One of the best known tools is PGP from Network Associates. Download a trial copy here.