Free forwarding program lets you get mail via Netscape from 2 accounts

The idea of a "profile" for each e-mail account is fine by itself, but the way Netscape deals with each account is crazy.

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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Free forwarding program lets you get mail via Netscape from 2 accounts

Dec. 26, 1999

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©1999, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©1999, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Netscape Messenger, the e-mail program built into the Netscape Communicator suite of programs, can't handle multiple e-mail accounts properly. I found this particularly frustrating after recommending Netscape Messenger over Outlook Express as my preferred e-mail software for Windows.
   (Outlook Express allows viruses to enter your computer just by getting the mail. You don't have to open it. This is not acceptable.)
   But the problem with Netscape Messenger's mail accounts is easy to fix.
   Don't get me wrong. Netscape Messenger can get your mail from a dozen e-mail accounts if you want it to. But it can't do it all in one operation. You have to use an awkward method called "profiles." Both the Windows and Mac versions of Netscape Messenger force you to use profiles to get mail from more than one account. Setting up profiles is easy.
   The idea of a "profile" for each e-mail account is fine by itself, but the way Netscape deals with each account is crazy. When you run Netscape, you're asked which profile you want to use. If you choose the profile for, say, mail on your Dreamscape account, you can't get mail from any other account while you're running that profile. You actually have to quit Netscape (both the mail program and the browser) and run it again with another profile.
   This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time.
   Fortunately, you don't have to live with this. Windows users can install a free program called E-mail Redirecting Client that collects mail from a secondary account and forwards it to your main account.
   This program, ERC, works behind the scenes and doesn't interfere with anything else your computer is doing. Although I'm recommending it as a solution to a Netscape problem, you can use ERC to forward mail for any reason. (You might find it ideal if you have two accounts and you use another e-mail program, for example.)
   Note: My newspaper article said ERC could be used to forward "any number" of e-mail accounts. I was wrong. ERC forwards mail from one account at a time. You could run two or more copies of ERC at the same time if you hacked the Windows Registry or if did a few other tricks. But by default, ERC forwards the mail from only one e-mail account to one other one. If you need to forward mail from more than one other account and you don't want to mess with the Registry, ask a friend to run ERC to forward your other mail. (You'd have to ask five friends to do this if you have five other accounts besides the one extra account that ERC will forward mail from on your PC, for example.) And I'm not suggesting that I've found an easy way to hack the code to get ERC to handle more than one account, so don't ask me for more help than I can offer. Basically, one technique would be to install a second copy of ERC in a different location. You'd then rename ERC and use a hex editor to change the value for the name of the key this second copy of ERC places in the Registry. (This is "ERC" ordinarily. You'd want to change that to "ERC2" so it would create its own settings in the Registry. Don't even think about doing this if you are not familiar with hacking the Registry, and don't hold me responsible if you mess things up.)
   You can get ERC from www.chimera.co.nz. You must have Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows 2000. There's no Mac version of ERC.
   Don't get confused if you see another program listed at the Chimera site. The one you want is the E-mail Redirecting Client.
   You can set up ERC to check for mail every few minutes. It has a clever scheduler that will skip all mail checks during certain hours, such as when you are sleeping or at work, and it also lets you change the mail-check interval on weekends.
   ERC logs its activity in a window and can be told to save the log if you need confirmation of mail forwarding, and it can also leave copies of forwarded mail on the server. (Do this until you're sure you've entered the right forwarding address, but don't do it ordinarily unless you have a good reason. You'd be making extra work for yourself.)
   ERC can also store mail on the computer that is running ERC. In other words, you can instruct ERC to pick up the mail for Account ABC and store it in a folder on the computer.
   What's not clear from my description of ERC is that the program does not have to run on your own computer. It can run on any computer in any location. Let's say your brother-in-law has three PCs that are always connected to the Internet. You have a low-speed connection and your PC is already maxxed out; running one more program on it will bog it down. You ask your brother-in-law to run ERC on one of his PCs to forward your mail for you.
   ERC can also handle mail for any other kind of computer. It can run on a Windows PC to forward mail for a Mac, for example. Until I finished setting up Linux software to handle mail sorting and forwarding, I ran ERC on our Windows server to forward mail that was then picked up by my main Linux PC.
   If you're used to receiving forwarded mail, you might wonder if ERC creates the typical mess of attachments in which mail is piggybacked onto another message. But ERC does forwarding the right way. You'll get the original message at the new address without any external indication that the mail was forwarded. You won't have a jumble of messages attached to other ones.