Mozilla FAQ - Mail & News

  1. Install Can I install just the mail program, not the rest?
  2. System How do I make Mozilla my default mail program?
  3. System Can I use a different mail program with Mozilla?
  4. Account How do I set up multiple SMTP (outgoing) mail servers?
  5. Account I cannot find any place to enter my passwords for my accounts. Where do I enter my passwords?
  6. Security Is Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups susceptible to e-mail viruses?
  7. Security How do I use S/MIME, PGP or GnuPG to send and receive signed or encrypted messages?
  8. Data Migration How do I import e-mail messages from another mail program?
  9. Data Migration How do I export e-mail messages to another mail program or computer?
  10. Data Migration Why didn't Mozilla migrate my Netscape 4.x address book?
  11. Data Migration How do I import or export address books from or to another program?
  12. UI Can I access my Netscape WebMail or Hotmail accounts through Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups?
  13. UI Does Mozilla come with a spellchecker?
  14. UI Is there a mail notifier in Mozilla?
  15. UI Does Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups include a calendar function?
  16. UI How do I make newsgroup names appear expanded, not abbreviated?
  17. News How do I read or post ROT13 in the newsreader?
  18. News How do I re-arrange newsgroup subscription?
Can I install just the mail program, not the rest?

Only the browser can be installed stand-alone. Mail & Newsgroups, Composer and ChatZilla cannot be installed without the browser. You may try, however, our new standalone mail client in development, Mozilla Thunderbird.

How do I make Mozilla my default mail program?

The first time you run Mail & Newsgroup, it should ask you if you want to make Mozilla your default mail client. If you answered no and later decide you would like it to act as your default mail client:

Can I use a different mail program with Mozilla?

Windows, Mac OS X: To make Mozilla use another mail program, type about:config in the browser's Location Bar. Right click (Ctrl-click on Mac OS) and choose New | Boolean. Type network.protocol-handler.external.mailto for the name and true for the value.

This will open the system default mail program when you click on an e-mail link in Mozilla.

GNOME, KDE: This is not yet possible in GNOME or KDE, but work is in progress to make Mozilla for Unix compliant with the X Desktop Group Standard as it is finalized.

How do I set up multiple SMTP (outgoing) mail servers?

Open the Edit menu and choose Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings. Choose "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" in the left pane. Click Advanced. Click Add to add a new SMTP server.

To set the outgoing server for an account, in the Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings dialog, choose Server Settings under the account. Click Advanced, choose a server, then click OK.

I cannot find any place to enter my passwords for my accounts. Where do I enter my passwords?

When you receive or send mail for the first time, you will be prompted for passwords. You can then enter the passwords and have Mozilla remember them.

Is Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup susceptible to e-mail viruses?

Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup will not allow machine code to execute automatically. You can see what attachments have been sent to you without a virus being able to execute, and you would have to save a file to your system and deliberately run it before it could cause any harm.

JavaScript is switched off by default for mail and news, so an e-mail cannot run script code just by being opened.

As with any mail program, take proper caution before running any file that you receive in e-mail. Appropriate anti-virus software should also help keep you safer.

See the supplementary tutorial on Junk Mail Control for more details.

How do I use S/MIME, PGP or GnuPG to send and receive signed or encrypted messages?

To use S/MIME, open Mail & Newsgroups and go to Edit | Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings | account name | Security. You can set which certificates to use with each account for digital signing and/or encryption.

Support for PGP and GnuPG are available via Enigmail (extension).

How do I import e-mail messages from another mail program?

Open Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup and go to Tools | Import, which will bring up a dialog to guide you through the process.

For detailed instructions, see our Getting Started with Mozilla tutorial.

How do I export e-mail messages to another mail program or computer?

Mozilla's mail files are in the standard plain-text mbox format, which almost all mail programs can use or import. Many proprietary mail programs have a function to import from Eudora, which also uses the mbox format; this function should read your Mozilla mail files properly.

Your mail files are inside your profile, in the Mail and (if you use IMAP) ImapMail folders. Each mail folder (Inbox, Sent, etc.) is stored as two files–one with no extension (e.g. INBOX), which is the mail file itself (in mbox format), and one with an .msf extension (e.g. INBOX.msf), which is the index (Mail Summary File) to the mail file. To import mail, use the file with no extension.

If you want to transfer a mail file to another Mozilla profile or another installation of Mozilla, simply put the mail file into the other installation's Mail folder.

Why didn't Mozilla migrate my Netscape 4.x address book?

Mozilla cannot migrate Netscape 4.x address book because the code to read the 4.x format is not open source. The workaround is to export the address book to LDIF format in Netscape 4, and then import the file into Mozilla.

Note Netscape 7 can migrate your Netscape 4.x address book (when you migrate your Netscape 4 profile) or directly import Netscape 4 address books.

How do I import or export address books from or to another program?

Open the Address Book. Open the Tools menu and choose Import or Export, each of which will bring up a dialog to guide you through the process. Mozilla saves address books in LDIF format.

Can I access my Netscape WebMail or Hotmail accounts through Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups?

No. Netscape WebMail and Hotmail use proprietary protocols. To access WebMail directly through an e-mail client requires you to use Netscape 7 with AIM. To do so with Hotmail would requires either Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. There is also proprietary shareware available that will let you do the same thing.

You can access your WebMail account on the Web at http://webmail.netscape.com/, or Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com/. If you use Microsoft Messenger, clicking on the appropriate link will open your default browser and take you to your inbox.

Does Mozilla come with a spellchecker?

Mozilla has a spellchecker. You can download spellchecker dictionaries in various languages at MozillaCafe.

Is there a mail notifier in Mozilla?

The Windows version of Mozilla includes mail notification. It starts running in the background when you first open Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup, and it continues checking for mail periodically after you have closed the Mail & Newsgroup window but with Mozilla still running. Mail notification displays a new mail icon in the system tray when new mail has arrived. You cannot run mail notifier without Mozilla running.

For settings on automatic new mail check, in Mail & Newsgroups, open the Edit menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings. Then, go to the account's Server Settings.

For settings on mail notification (e.g. sound alert), open the Edit menu and choose Preferences, go to Mail & Newsgroups, then Notifications.

Does Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup include a calendar function?

A calendar is in development by the Calendar project. This is an early beta, and the design has yet to be finalised. Testing builds are currently available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

How do I make newsgroup names appear expanded, not abbreviated?

Enter about:config in the browser’s Location Bar and then change mail.server.default.abbreviate to false.

How do I read or post ROT13 in the newsreader?

Support for ROT13, Base64, UUEncode/UUDecode, and many other encoding methods is available via Mnenhy (extension).

How do I re-arrange newsgroup subscription?

Your newsgroups are displayed in the order of subscription, and you cannot change this order within Mozilla. If you want to change the sort order, say, to alphabetical order, or to put related groups together, you can manually edit the subscription data file.

First, completely exit Mozilla. Then, in the News sub-directory in your profile directory, locate the file [news server].rc (e.g. news.mozilla.org.rc for the mozilla.org newsgroups).

Open the file in a text editor. You will read something like this (you will get a better result if you turn off line wraping):

   netscape.public.mozilla.announce: 1-257,260,262,263,270,271,274-281
   netscape.public.mozilla.general: 1-59459,59461-60946,60948,60950-62865
   netscape.public.mozilla.layout: 1-10818,10820,10821,10823-10859,10863
   netscape.public.mozilla.wishlist: 2-7,12,15,17,20,35,39,41
   netscape.public.mozilla.ui: 1-17781,17783-17785,17789,17791-17793
   netscape.public.mozilla.accessibility: 3,5,7,8,10,14,16,27,29-37,41-55

Note you may see more numbers in your file. Each entry (newsgroup name and associated numbers) may show up in multiple lines even though wraping has been turned off, but each should nevertheless be treated as one line.

The order of the newsgroup entries in the file will be the order of newsgroups in Mail & Newsgroups. To change the order, simply rearrange the lines of newsgroup names with associated numbers. For example, in alphabetical order:

   netscape.public.mozilla.accessibility: 3,5,7,8,10,14,16,27,29-37,41-55
   netscape.public.mozilla.announce: 1-257,260,262,263,270,271,274-281
   netscape.public.mozilla.general: 1-59459,59461-60946,60948,60950-62865
   netscape.public.mozilla.layout: 1-10818,10820,10821,10823-10859,10863
   netscape.public.mozilla.ui: 1-17781,17783-17785,17789,17791-17793
   netscape.public.mozilla.wishlist: 2-7,12,15,17,20,35,39,41

Restart Mozilla and you should find newsgroups rearranged.