If you feel your general knowledge of Internet is low, then this section is for you. Others may want to browse those pages but keep in mind that this section will reveal only basic stuff about how to browse, write mails, etc.
![]() | Many web browsers and mail clients exist. For the purpose of this book, we will speak about netscape, which is arguably the most commonly used. All browsers and mail clients work in very similar fashions so, generally speaking, the information contained in this section applies to most web browsers and mail clients. |
To open netscape, access your GNOME or KDE menu and then go in the Networking->E-Mail->Netscape Messenger.
Then, you need to configure your mail client and browser in order to go any further. For this, you need your user name, your password, your POP/IMAP server name, your SMTP server name and your NNTP server name. If you do not have this info, get it!
To configure your mail client, go in the Edit menu and select the Preferences sub-menu. There you will find a Mail & Newsgroups category. Select the first one, that is Identity. Fill in the blanks: your name, e-mail address (the two latter fields are mandatory), reply-to address, organization and signature file items. You can create a signature file which will identify you. To do so, open your favorite text editor and write what you want your fellow web surfers to know you as. Then Save the file as .signature.txt and you are up and running.
![]() | The following sections are all configured in the Edit->Preferences sub-menu. We will not repeat this throughout since it would pretty redundant, don't you think? |
In order to log on to the Internet, you must go through a mail server. For it to work properly, choose the Edit button and type in your server's name (i.e.: Mandrakesoft.com). If you are using a POP mail server, you may only use one mail server and your mail will be held on your computer. On the other hand, if you use an IMAP mail server, you may utilize as many mail servers as you like while your mail is kept on the server. Finally, you write your user name in the appropriate field and you may enable the mail client to remember your password, although this is not secure. This information is provided by your ISP. The latter must also give you a SMTP mail server name for outgoing mail.
If you understood the latter paragraph, well, it's about the same thing for this type of server. Your ISP provides you with a similar server name but for news this time. You may also subscribe to other newsgroups via the File->Subscribe menu.
The Addressing sub-menu is very helpful since it allows your mail client to recognize a few essential assets of e-mail writing. If you tell the mail client to search in your address book when you type in a name, it will automatically give you a choice of users if more than one person has a similar name (i.e.: John Smith and John Woods). Your mail client will give you the choice between those two users when you start typing them and you want to finish your typing with the tab key.
This sub-menu enables personalization in regards with the look of your messages. When you reply to an e-mail, you may choose to quote (or not) automatically the original message. The best feature, however, is the Wrap Longlines: did you ever try to read an e-mail and had to browse horizontally with your mouse pointer? Not very exhilarating... This feature formats your e-mail with a maximum of 72 characters per line.
This feature allows you to send "blind-carbon copies" (or Blind Carbon Copy) to whoever you like. For instance, you might want to send yourself all the e-mails you send out instead of having them accumulate in your sent directory.
Now, some users prefer to receive e-mails in text mode, others in HTML. Which ever you like better does not really matter, but the recipient's opinion is important... For instance, some users hate to receive HTML-based e-mails: they might simply delete it because it is too long to download. Others do not care, etc. You know your e-mail partners better than we do, so make sure the format you use suits them.
This option insures that your recipient acknowledges that he received your message. Then again, users can choose not to send a receipt even if asked for, but for important/confidential documents, we strongly recommend you use this feature.
Depending on how many e-mails you receive every day, you might want to limit the number of messages you keep on your server. It is also important to limit the size of your e-mails so you do not end up with 5-megabyte messages in your Sent folder...
If you never sent an e-mail or participated to any mailing lists, what were you waiting for! Seriously, e-mail permits fast information flow and is now present in most businesses. Even at home, people are more and more connected to the Internet and, depending on the country from which you originate, fast connections are available, such as DSL.
To open your netscape mail client, access your GNOME or KDE menu, then Networking->Mail->Netscape Messenger.
The latter figure shows a typical netscape mail client. On the left is a list of your directories while on the right, e-mail contents are shown. Since not many keyboard shortcuts exist in neither the mail client nor the web browser, you will have to use your mouse to go through the menus. However, some of the key functions do have keyboard shortcuts: Reply (Alt-R), New message (Alt-M), New browser (Alt-N), Cut (Ctrl-X), Copy (Ctrl-C) and Paste (Ctrl-V). Try these out and you will see how quickly you can go about sending e-mails without your hands leaving the keyboard.
The task bar located under the file menu, however, is pretty helpful. There you will find all the major e-mail client functions such as Get message, New message, Reply, etc.
Sending e-mails is very easy. To do so, simply click on New message. A dialog box pops up.
As you can see, we are sending an e-mail to Queen Pingusa while Peter Pingus will receive a Blind Carbon Copy, which means Queen Pingusa will not know a copy was sent to Peter Pingus. This may be helpful if you want a copy of the e-mails you send. You can add as many Carbon Copy or Blind Carbon Copy recipients as you like/need.
When writing an e-mail, use a self-explanatory title, for many Internet users now receive over 50 e-mails a day. You may also select a priority level. At the right of your new message window is a little pull-down menu where you can choose an appropriate priority level. Then, when you finish writing the message, simply press on the Send button or Ctrl-Enter.
Now, let us go through the menus a bit more.
The simplest commands are contained in this menu such as Print, Close, Quit, etc. Note that the Close option terminates your mail client while the quit option closes all netscape browsers and clients alike. Use the Subscribe option if you wish to subscribe to existing mailing lists on the server(s) you are using.
Held in this menu are the Cut & Paste options plus a few very handy sub-menus. The Preferences' one is, to our opinion, the most critical. This is where you set your mail server addresses, your identity, e-mail address, return e-mail address if different from the one you are currently using, etc. You can also select your mailing lists servers.
The Filter option is also very interesting for those who receive a lot of e-mails on a daily basis and wish to sort them out directly into sub-folders, hence liberating the "poor" inbox from loads of e-mails.
Now, this menu is "for your eyes only" :-) In fact, two options are very practical: View Attachments Inline and Wrap Long Lines.
This one permits you to surf through your mails in a precise directory or sub-directory: you can browse with your mouse or utilize the very practical Alt+Down (or Up).
You can do almost anything inside this menu: move files, forward, reply, edit messages as new (this feature is very handy if you want to reply to someone without the ugly ">" all over your e-mail).
Finally, this menu holds all the necessary web components. In it, you can open a mail client, web browser, your address book, edit your bookmarks, etc.