Netscape 6.2 mail questions

[Oregonian]

Hi. I'm a longtime Netscape user (since 2.x) who's used 4.61 for ages. I'm now contemplating 6.2 and just installed 6.2.1 from CD. I have two questions regarding mail:

(1)Is mail stable enough to rely on? I use Netscape 4.61 as my mail client and am pretty happy. But I hate the idea of using NS 4 for mail and NS 6 for browsing. In scanning the forum archive, I came across an April '02 post from "Cherokee" that said:

"I have used both 6.2.2 and Mozilla0.9.9. I find both programs to be very fast, and excellent for browsing. The Mail & Newsgroups are still problematic, and I would recommend not using either as your default Mail program."

Would someone care to elaborate on what's "problematic" and provide thoughts about sticking with NS 4?

(2)I've found the location of the NS 6 mail folders (under ...Profiles/Application Data/...) and wonder if (and how) I can change that location. It puts it in a rather small partition on my disk that is space-challenged. (And no, I don't want to reorganize my disks.)

I found a field "Local Folders" under "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings" accessible from the Edit menu of the mail app. The field looks editable, but I can't imagine relocating all your mail folders is as simple as editing this field.

Thanks for any help that you bright folks can provide. The Netscape site sure seems useless for help beyond the most elementary.

- David

[Antony]

(1)Is mail stable enough to rely on?

Short answer: NO.
Netscape 7.0 PR1's Mail is much better, however still not up to the standard yet. You might want to read my small report on Netscape 7.0 PR1.

Would someone care to elaborate on what's "problematic" and provide thoughts about sticking with NS 4?

Maybe someone else can "elaborate" in detail.
My quick reply: not so stable, not does work with WebMail well, poor notification, no security support (encryption and signature), ....

(2)I've found the location of the NS 6 mail folders (under ...Profiles/Application Data/...) and wonder if (and how) I can change that location. It puts it in a rather small partition on my disk that is space-challenged. (And no, I don't want to reorganize my disks.)

I found a field "Local Folders" under "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings" accessible from the Edit menu of the mail app. The field looks editable, but I can't imagine relocating all your mail folders is as simple as editing this field.

I guess you answered yourself. Firstly, backup your profiles.
Then, copy your Mail folder to some preferred location.
Then, change that from the Edit menu.

Well, generally, Netscape 7.0 PR1 has been reported "pretty stable" (at least better than Netscape 6.2.x . However because it is still in "beta" version, and I would personally suggest you wait for another short while until final shipping version of Netscape 7.0 releases OR try Mozilla 1.0 (or 1.1 beta)

You might find some other useful information about backing up your profiles and/or transferring your profiles from http://sillydog.org/netscape/kb/

[Fulvio]

Hi. I'm a longtime Netscape user (since 2.x) who's used 4.61 for ages. I'm now contemplating 6.2 and just installed 6.2.1 from CD. I have two questions regarding mail:

(1)Is mail stable enough to rely on? I use Netscape 4.61 as my mail client and am pretty happy. But I hate the idea of using NS 4 for mail and NS 6 for browsing. In scanning the forum archive, I came across an April '02 post from "Cherokee" that said:

The Mail & Newsgroups are still problematic, and I would recommend not using either as your default Mail program."

I still use 4.79 as my default mail, but I cannot complain as much as others have about 6/7 performance.

(2)I've found the location of the NS 6 mail folders (under ...Profiles/Application Data/...) and wonder if (and how) I can change that location. It puts it in a rather small partition on my disk that is space-challenged. (And no, I don't want to reorganize my disks.)

I found a field "Local Folders" under "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings" accessible from the Edit menu of the mail app. The field looks editable, but I can't imagine relocating all your mail folders is as simple as editing this field.

Local Folders are used ,primarility, for the newsgroups. I do not have HD space problems, so I can have the luxury of carrying at least one each of the Netscape group programs(4.79,6.2.3,7.0pr.1,Moz1.0,Moz1.1b and the related Beonex),which allows me to compare them.

Thanks for any help that you bright folks can provide. The Netscape site sure seems useless for help beyond the most elementary.

- David

I had to cut down on your quote, but I will have to comment on Antony's reply,as well. All post-4.79 Netscapes can have more than one POP3 mail account, and they can carry Netscape Webmail as a propriatory IMAP account. I have had as many as five POP3 and 2 IMAP accounts.
Problems with Mail(not mine) have been in "loss" of mail. There may be a header,but no message is visible, or there is a message count, and nothing shows up. This is the most scary, and there have been other such glitches. One has to know thew way to the Profiles, and delete the .msf files(i.e.Inbox.msf, not Inbox with no extention). The same problem used to occur in 4.x, where the .snm files had to be deleted. I have stuck to 4.79 as my default browser and mail, because in most cases I do not want to hang around the browser, and there is only one possible mail account. I may have change long ago, otherwise.
The problems with Mail have been fewer in 7.0pr1,, which is the best thing around. I had an awful time with Webmail in 6.x, but none in 7.0pr1. Not only that, but I saw that the pref_js was different in 7.0, so I copied the two lines into the Profile for 6.2.3, and , suddenly, 6.2.3 works fine. You will have to decide what you want, and try yourself.