Elena,
there is no mystery nor problem, which existed two years ago.
1. There is no working @netscape.net. AOL does not require a person to pay for AOL mail, and aol.com, as well as aim.com addresses will do the job that the old netscape mail did.
2. Accounts can be set up at the aol.com and/or aim.com websites. Then, mail can be accessed at these sites without any special set up.
3. One of these accounts can be set up to with the same username/password as that of netscape.net mail. I did that converting from @netscape.net to @aim.com.
4. Since aol.com mail is free, one can set up the account in Outlook Express/Windows Live mail, or Opera, or Thunderbird, and more. The set up is as IMAP accounts (e.g: the server for incoming aol mail is: imap.aol.com, port 143
To send such mail, from a mail program, there are two ways. The first, and simplest is if your ISP allows "foreign" mail to be sent (i.e. mail which is not from their accounts). My ISP does allow, so it is no problem. Otherwise, one has to set up the outgoing mail to use the aol/aim server, i.e. smtp.aol.com, port 587. The port 587 is used with the username of the sender, to eliminate, as they say. You can sen mail only with the username which is registered.
To summarize there are at least two ways to send and receive aol or aim mail, i.e. through the website, like Yahoo mail, or with a mail program. Unlike Yahoo which can use a mail program only if you pay for the service, or use a program like freePOP, aol and aim use IMAP servers which are available through all mail programs.
I have one aol.com (and so does my wife), and two aim.com accounts, which I rarely, if ever access on their websites.
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