A few Netscape Mail problems

I just discovered this bulletin board last night and it's already proven a godsend in helping me to fix a number of problems with my new Dell. I just thought I'd see if you could work the same magic on some issues I haven't been able to find any older threads on. I'm running Windows XP and the latest version of Netscape.

First, I really like the idea of the junk mail controls and I spent the first two months on this computer "training" it to recognize junk. When it got quite good at it, recognizing spam more often than not, I turned on the junk mail controls so it could just shunt the junk directly to the junk folder without my seeing it. However, although it is sending a lot of mail directly to the junk folder, even more junk mail makes it to the inbox than before. Is this just the nature of the beast or should I have spent more time "training" it before I turned the controls on? Does the "training" continue after the controls are in place?

My second question has to do with the auto-complete function. When I type the name of someone in my address book in the To: line of a new email, as often as not, it just makes up an address using the name I typed plus @earthlink.net, which is my service provider. Obviously, if I'm paying attention, I can override that, but I don't always pay attention and sometimes emails wind up going out to non-existent people instead of the intended addressee. Is there some way to make it stop making up earthlink addresses and just stick to what's in my address books?

Third, recently when I type text in the body of my emails, I'll be typing along while the screen hangs up for a few seconds, then the text catches up with what I've typed while it was hanging. It's not a huge problem, but it's annoying. It wasn't doing this when I first set this computer up and I don't know why it's started doing it now. Any clues?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me with these problems!

 

Rose Queen: First, welcome to the BBS!

When you're addressing new e-mails, why are you typing in the name? Assuming you already have that person's name and e-mail address in your Address Book, just open your Address Book (click on the Address button near the top of the screen), then either double-click on that name or highlight it and then click on the To button. That should put the name and correct e-mail address where it belongs for the new message. Try that and then get back to us to let us know if that problem is now a thing of the past or not.

I'll let someone else jump in with ideas for your other two issues.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Rose Queen!

Hi Rose Queen,

You will need to continue with your Junk Mail Training. It would have been best to turn on the Junk Mail Controls immediately. No harm done, and you can continue your training. It really is the best thing since popcorn!

Autocomplete acts in the manner you describe when the name you type is either not in the Address Book, or you have misspelled the name? Your ISP will always be used in the address if the name is incorrect, or not in the Address Book. I'm sure you've double checked to ensure that the Addresses are there? When you originally set up your Address Book did you create individual cards for each addressee?

What you might do, is open your Address Book in WordPad/Notepad and look for any obvious signs of corruption, such as long lines, blank spaces or binary garbage like this: õ0OZ¬¬ÃŠÃ¡®ÃŽÅ½ÃPsTG¼{êAð†`÷oOáÑZHoqâmâ€Ã¦â„¢¿

This is most likely to appear at the end of the Address Book file. If found, delete the lines, and then save the file. This is just to cover all the bases.

The hang when typing is not uncommon, and it happens to me occasionally. It is a Bug, and if you're interested you can read the details in the Bug Report: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218975

Ramona

 

Rose Queen,

Another welcome to the board. I'm not sure if any of this will help, but here are my thoughts. As far as the spam- it's like anything else out there, it will change with the times. Spammers are more then likely learning how to get around the filters. It is strange that you are recieving more now then before. Turning the controls on should not have made that kind of difference. Have you turned the controls off to see if there a change in volume? Have you been giving your email out more now then before? Personally, I use a separate email address for a lot of sites and newsgroups. That way, all the spam goes to that address.

The address thing happens to me also. I don't type in a lot of addresses though. As BOBBO mentions, I just use my address book. Not sure why it picks up the users ISP, but it does. When you open a new message, click on Edit. Down the list of options, there is "Do Not Complete Address" and "Show Matching Addresses ". Just click on the option that you want and it should stay there until you change it.

Not sure about the freeze. What do you have running at the time? Maybe there are too many programs running.

Mike

 

Thank you all for your gracious welcome to this board and also for your prompt and knowledgeable replies! BOBBO, I type the name because it's a lot faster to type "ron" than it is to dig Ron's addy out of the address book. This is especially true since when I migrated my address book to this new computer, it set up a second address book, so now I have two of them (lucky me...not), which really annoys the heck out of me.

Ramona, when you say continue training the junk mail filter, is that just clicking the little trash can icon on junk mails or is there something else I ought to be doing?

Also, when I'm addressing email messages, the name I type is always in my address book, which is why I'm mystified that it would make an address up. A little pulldown menu shows that lists all the names in my address book that match the letters I've typed so far and at the top of that list is almost always whoever@earthlink.net, which it seems to prefer! I would love to check my address book for corruption, however, since it was transferred from my prior computer and anything could have happened. Would you take pity on me and tell me how to open my address book in WordPad or NotePad? Thanks!

Mike, I opened a new email and looked for those options under Edit, because they sound like they might be a good answer to my problem, but I don't find them. I'm using Netscape 7.1 -- is yours some other version, perhaps?

 

Ramona,

Isn't that suppose to be sliced bread?!


Rose Queen,

Sorry. I was looking at my Netscape 4.76 mail program. I have Netscape 7.0 on one system and 7.1 on the others. I totally forgot that I've stuck with 4.76 for my mail. I looked at 7.1 and there may be a setting to help you. Open a new email message. Click on Edit, Preferences, and Mail & Newsgroups. Look under Address Autocompletion. Make sure the "Local Address Books" box is checked. If it is, try unchecking and closing out of Netscape. Open it back up and check the box again. May or may not help.

Mike

 

This is probably your problem. If the addresses are identical in each Address Book, then delete the Address Book which IS NOT named "Personal Address Book ".

No, that's sufficient, you can also highlight and right click the message: Select: Mark | As Junk, in the context menu. It's also a good idea to highlight a group of messages which ARE NOT junk, as mark them as NOT JUNK.

In Windows XP these files are hidden
To see hidden files:
1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options
2. Click the View tab
3. Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the Address Book, located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\xxxxxxxx.slt
(the x's represent the salted characters of the file name)

Highlight abook.mab, which is your Address Book
Right click and select "Open With" then select WordPad

Do not edit the file with Netscape and Quick Launch open. Close Netscape first, also Quick Launch (if you have it enabled).

Let us know if you have more questions.

Ramona