Using Western E-Mail Accounts - POP Mail

The purpose of this document is to both explain what it means to use your Western e-mail account as a POP mail account and to give instructions on how to use your account as a POP mail account.

In order to use your "westernhighschool.org" e-mail account you must first request it, so the account can be set up for you. You can drop Mr. Tomlinson a note or speak with him in person. Once the account is set up you may use it in two different ways: as a web mail account and as a standard "POP" account.

What's a web mail account?

If you have used a Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or similar account, then you are familiar with web mail. When you use your account as a web mail account, you read your mail using a browser (Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer). Your messages actually stay on the server (westernhighschool.org) until you delete them. When you log out (at school) or sign off the Internet (anywhere), you no longer can read your messages or write new ones. Of course, you can use "cut and paste" to copy message texts to and from word processing documents and save those if you like, which would allow you to access them when not on line.
A big advantage of web mail accounts is that you can access your mail from any Internet-connected computer anywhere, anytime. The disadvantage is that you cannot easily review your saved messages or write new messages while off-line.

What's a "POP" mail account?

When you use your account as a POP mail account, your e-mail software (such as the "Messenger" module built in to Netscape Communicator) actually downloads (transfers) the messages from the mail server (westernhighschool.org) to your local documents folder. This happens whenever you click "Get new messages." At this point, you can log off the Internet and still read your messages, file them into folders, write replies and new messages. Since the messages are saved within your server Documents folder, you will be able to access them from any of the networked computers.
An advantage of POP accounts is that you don't have to access the Internet every time you want to read the next message, reply to a message, or write a new message. You access the Internet only when you click "Get New Messages" or "Send Messages." You can also create folders to file your messages into, i.e., "from Parents," "Curriculum info," "School business," "Racetrack wagers," etc. Another advantage of POP accounts is that you can use a variety of software packages to handle your e-mail, such as Eudora, Microsoft Entourage, and Microsoft Outlook Express. These packages offer more sophisticated features (also known as "bells and whistles"), including advanced search functions, calendars, task lists, the ability to handle multiple e-mail accounts, and so forth. At the moment, only the Messenger module of Netscape Communicator is available from the school network.
The big disadvantage of using a POP mail account is that you will only be able to access your messages from one of the networked lab computers. Remember, when you check your mail, the software downloads your messages to your network Documents folder, so they are no longer on the "westernhighschool.org" server. However, there is a solution to this. You can set Netscape Communicator to leave your messages on the "westernhighschool.org" server, so that it will download your messages to your Documents folder, but not delete them from the "westernhighschool.org" server. Thus, if you use the "Web Mail" method to check your messages from home, you will still see them.

How do I use my e-mail as a POP account?

On a school networked computer, double-click on the Netscape Communicator icon. When it has finished loading, select "Communicator: Messenger" from the menu bar as shown below:
The Messenger module will open as shown below:
The software has already been configured for your, so at this point you can go ahead and use it. Most of the functions are self-explanatory. To get any new messages that may have been sent to you, click the "Get Msg" button. To write a new message, click the "New Msg" button. The thin pane on the left shows a list of folders into which messages are filed; new message are in the "Inbox," and a list of them appears in the top right pane of the window when you click once on the "Inbox" icon. If you need help getting started with Netscape Messenger, see Mr. Tomlinson.
There is one setting you might choose to alter. Netscape Messenger is configured to download your messages from the mail server and store them in your documents folder, deleting them from the mail server (westernhighschool.org). As explained above, you can choose to download your messages with Netscape Messenger and not delete them from the mail server. If you choose this option, you can download ("Get Msg") your messages to Netscape Messenger now, but still log into your e-mail account later via the Web Mail method and the same messages will still be there, available for you to read on-line from anywhere. Note, however, that this method leaves you with multiple copies of the same messages: the copies you downloaded to Messenger, and the copies that are still on-line on the westernhighschool.org mail server. That's not to hard to deal with, as long as you keep up with your messages. It can be handy to do things this way, keeping filed copies of messages you really want to save in Messenger so they don't clutter up your Inbox on the mail server. To choose this setting in Netscape Messenger, run Netscape Communicator and select "Edit: Preferences" from the menu bar, which takes you to the following screen:
In the left pane, under "Category," click once on "Mail Servers," then click once on "westernhighschool.org" under "Incoming Mail Servers" in the middle pane and then click the "Edit" button as shown above.
You will now see the "Mail Server Info" window shown below on the left. Click the "POP" tab to show the options illustrated in the right-hand picture below:
Here you have two choices.
- "Leave messages on server" will... umm... leave your messages on the mail server even after you download them (via "Get Msg") to Netscape Messenger. This is what we were discussing above.
- "Delete messages on server when deleted locally" means that after you download your messages to Messenger, if you delete them, they will be deleted from the server. If you do not delete them in Messenger, they will be left on the mail server and you will now have two copies: the one you downloaded into Messenger, and the one you've left on the mail server. You should consider checking this option, because it will make it simpler to manage your messages: if you later check your mail via Web Mail, your Inbox won't be full of messages that you already downloaded to Messenger and deleted. Only the ones you did not delete will be there.