Mozilla Mail is the mail and newsreader that comes with Mozilla — the open source successor to Netscape Communicator. Mozilla, available on every Linux distribution, is a Web browser that also includes a mail and newsreader.

To use Mozilla Mail, start by running the Mozilla Web browser. You can typically click an icon on the panel. Otherwise, look for the Web browser in the Main Menu under the Internet category. Some distributions provide a menu choice for directly accessing Mozilla Mail (instead of having to start it from the Mozilla Web browser window).

Some distributions do not install Mozilla's mail and news component by default. You can, however, install these components easily. For example, in Debian, type su - and enter the root password in a terminal window and then type apt-get install mozilla-mailnews to install the mail and news component of Mozilla. After you install this component, you can access Mozilla Mail from the Mozilla Web browser.

To access the Mozilla Mail e-mail and newsreader from the Mozilla Web browser, choose Window --> Mail and Newsgroups. Mozilla Mail runs, starts the Account Wizard and prompts you for information about your e-mail account.

Select the Email Account radio button and click Next. The Account Wizard then takes you through the following steps:

1. Enter your identity information.

Type your name and your full e-mail address, such as jdoe@someplace.com — and then click Next.

2. Provide information about your ISP's mail server.

Include the protocol type (POP or IMAP) as well as the incoming and outgoing server names — and click Next.

The incoming server is the POP or IMAP server, whereas the outgoing server is the one through which you send mail out. (It's the SMTP server.)

3. Enter the username that your ISP has given you; click Next.

4. Enter a name that you want to use to identify this account and click Next.

This name is just for Mozilla Mail, so you can pick anything you want, such as "My home account."

The Account Wizard then displays a summary of the information you entered.

5. Verify the information; if it's correct, click Finish. Otherwise, click Back and fix the errors.

After you set up the e-mail account, Mozilla Mail's main window appears and shows you the contents of your Inbox. Soon a dialog box pops up and asks you for your e-mail password. Mozilla Mail needs your password to download your e-mail messages from your ISP. Enter your password and click OK.

Mozilla Mail downloads your messages and displays them in a familiar format. To read a message, click that message, and the full text appears in the lower window.

Mozilla Mail is intuitive to use. Most of the time, you can click the toolbar buttons to do most anything you want to do with the e-mail messages. Here's what each toolbar button does:

• Get Msgs: Downloads messages from your e-mail accounts. (You can set up as many as you want.)

• Compose: Opens a window where you can compose and send a message.

• Reply: Opens a window where you can send back a reply to the person who sent you the message you are reading now.

• Reply All: Opens a window for sending a reply to everyone who was on the addressee list of the message you are reading now.

• Forward: Brings up the current message in a window so that you can forward it to someone else.

• Next: Shows the next unread message.

• Junk: Marks the selected messages as junk. (You can mark selected messages as junk and select Tools --> Junk Mail Controls to block similar messages.)

• Delete: Deletes the selected message.

If you use any GUI mail reader — from Microsoft Outlook Express to Novell GroupWise — you find a similar set of toolbar buttons.