Setting Up Netscape

If you have problems following the instructions below, please email helpdesk@astro.swin.edu.au. Be sure to describe your problem in detail along with your machine type, Operating system and version and name of the software that is causing the problem.

The Netscape newsreader is called Mail & Newsgroups and is built into the Netscape Browser. We recommend using the latest version of Netscape. This can freely be downloaded from Netscape here.

Newsreader Setup
Attaching Images

Newsreader setup

  1. Open Netscape, once it has loaded, open up the Mail & News window. This in the Window menu, choose Mail & Newsgroups, or by pressing CTRL+2
  2. If you are using Netscape for the first time, a wizard will automatically start to guide you through the following steps, if not, you can start it manually by selecting Local Folders in the left panel, and then clicking on Create a new account in the right panel.
  3. When the wizard starts it will ask you to setup a Mail or News account. Select Newsgroup Account and click Next
  4. Enter your name and preferred email address in the appropriate boxes. Click Next
  5. Enter blackboard.swinburne.edu.au for the news server. Click Next
  6. Enter a descriptive name for the newserver, the default is to use the name of the newsserver. Click Next
  7. Click Finish to confirm your selections
  8. The news server should now appear in the left hand panel. Select this news server, and then in the right hand panel, select View settings for this account
  9. Select Server Settings underneath the blackboard.swinburne.edu.au server. Make sure that the "Ask me before downloading more than [500] Messages" box is NOT checked
  10. Select Offline & Disk Space underneath the blackboard.swinburne.edu.au server. Make sure that the "Keep all messages" box is checked. Click OK to save these settings and close the window.
  11. Now click on the Subscribe to newsgroups.
  12. You will be prompter to enter a username, then a password to access the newserver. Use your 7 digit student ID and your password here. Each time, be sure to check the Use Password Manager to remember this password. This will save you from entering this password each time you connect.
  13. Once you have entered this information, the Subscribe window should appear. This will contain a list of all the newsgroups you can subscribe to. Select the checkbox next to every newsgroups you want to subscribe to and then click on OK
  14. Now we need to setup the offline settings. Before you browse any of the newsgroups, clickon the Offline Settings link in the right hand panel.
  15. Click on the Select button in the Offline section in the right hand panel.
  16. Select each newsgroup in the blackboard.swinburne.edu.au server and then click on OK. Then click on OK again to return to the main window.
  17. Now we can fully synchronise the account. From the File menu, choose Offline, then Download/Sync Now....
  18. A window will open to ask you which sorts of messages you want to download/sync. Make sure that Newsgroup messages are selected.
  19. You may be asked to enter your username and password. Do this and also check the "Remember" box. You only need enter your password the very first time you access the newsgroups.
  20. You are now ready to start. Every time you want to get new messages, you should use the File menu, choose Offline, then Download/Sync Now... method to get all the new messages to all your newsgroups.

Attaching Images

There is an incompatibility between Blackboard and the Newsreaders which affects postings that include images (either in-line or attached). This means that any message (with an image) posted from a Newsreader will not appear correctly on Blackboard (Browser Mode). In fact, the image will appear as a long and ugly sequence of alphanumeric characters. If you want to post a message that includes images, you must post it using the browser mode from within blackboard.