Using IMAP with your Netscape Communicator 4.0 Mail Browser

What is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)?

          It is a protocol for accessing email messages that are kept on a central mail server (for example: Pegasus). In
          other words, it permits an email client to have remote access to the messages as if they were local. (i.e. deleting a
          message via mail browser removes it from Pegasus as well as from the browser. You are not downloading the
          messages off of Pegasus, but directly accessing them.) Many different email clients can use IMAP, but we will use
          Netscape Communicator in our example.

Why do I want to use IMAP?

          You can use an email client with IMAP rather than the traditional email client (pine) when you want a fast
          windows based tool for handling email. Pine is a old type of email client which uses the host for all operations.
          IMAP clients, on the other hand run with the full speed of the local PC and uses the host only to send/receive
          actual email.

          Using an IMAP client gives you greater flexibility in working with attachments.

How do I setup my Netscape Communicator 4.0 Browser to use IMAP?

          Run Netscape Communicator 4.0 and go to your Edit menu, select the Preferences option.

          (Note: Mac/PowerPC screens may vary from these screen shots from a PC)


          Open the Mail & Groups menu. 

          Select the submenu Identity and fill in your Name, Email Address, Reply-to-Address, Organization, and Signature
          File. 


          Select the submenu Mail Server. Fill in your Mail server user name (your account login id), Outgoing
          mail (SMTP) server, Incoming mail server, and select IMAP as your Mail Server Type.  Also, make sure that
          you do NOT check "Move deleted messages into Trash Box."

          (Note: For the Mac/PowerPC, the Move deleted messages into Trash option is under the More Options button.)

          Select the submenu Group Server and fill in for the discussion groups (news) server: news.cc.ucf.edu


          You can skip the information under the submenus Messages and Directory. To Run Netscape Mail, select the
          Communicator Menu and choose the Messenger Mailbox Item.

How do I use my Netscape Communicator Messenger Mailbox (Mail Browser)?

          OPENING MESSENGER MAILBOX

          To open your Messenger Mailbox, you select the Communicator menu from the browser and choose Messenger
          Mailbox

          (Note: For Mac/PowerPC, the Messenger Mailbox is known as Messenger Inbox. To access your Messenger
          Inbox, you click on the graphic in the menu bar that looks like this: )



          RETRIEVING MESSAGES

          To retrieve your messages, click on the "Get Msg" Button on the toolbar.


          You should be prompted for your password to verify accessing your email from the central mail server (Pegasus).
          Enter your password and select ok.

          Once your messages have been retrieved, you can browse them by highlighting the Message header in the upper
          window. The body of the message will then show up in the lower half of the window.



          If there is an image of a paper clip in the body of your message, this means you have an attachment. To view or
          execute this attachment, you simply double click on the image ad it will attempt to open it. If you want to save the
          attachment, right mouse click over the item and select "Save link as..."

          (Note: For Mac/PowerPC, substitute the right mouse click, by holding down the mouse over the paper clip icon)




         NEW MESSAGES

          To create a new message (sending mail), click on the "New Msg" button on the toolbar. Another option, which is
          similar to new message is to reply to a message that you have received. You can reply to a message by clicking on
          the "Reply" button on the toolbar. When replying to a message the "To:" and "Subject" information will be
          automatically filled in.



          A window will open up where you fill in the information of to whom you wish to send the message to, a subject,
          and the body of the mail. Once you've completed the mail you select the Send button, which will send the mail to
          the person/people you've sent it to.



          ATTACHMENTS IN NEW MESSAGES

          To attach an item to your mail, you select the "Attach" button and select if it's a File or a Web Page. 



          If you choose File, a File window will open and allow you to select the file(s) from your Hard Drive to send.



          If you choose Web Page, a window will open where you type in the URL to the web page you wish to mail to
          them.


          In the message window, there will be a tab with another image of a paperclip in the upper portion of the window.
          This is the area where you can view your list of attachments.



Any questions or problems, please contact the Help Desk at 823-5117.