Using Firefox but Netscape opens on mailto: link

[Larryhat]

Hello all:

I used Netscape 4.7 for years, on this same obsolete
Windows-95 platform, another 'heritage' relic.

I upgraded to Forefox 0.8 2 months ago, I really
like it despite the beta-version shortcomings.

ONE of those has me miffed however. When I'm reading
a web page, and want to respond to somebody's regular
(mailto:...) type email link, NETSCAPE launches,
not once but twice. I don't want to pitch
Netscape yet, I use it to test my web pages.

I _thought_ made fire-fox-bird (whatever) my
default email, you know, the supposed 'companion'
to the firefox browser.

They are both side by side on my system.
How do I get them to talk to one another?

Any help much appreciated. -LH

[ergophobe]

Can't be so - there is *no* mail client for Firebird. you will have to continue using NS for mail or get some other mail client. If you want an integrated browser/mail client you might check out Opera or Mozilla.

If you want a new stand-alone mail client, Pegasus Mail is free and I believe there are free (ad sponsored) versions of Eudora.

You probably also have Outlook Express somewhere on your computer. Find it, start it up, and set it as your default email client.

[Larryhat]

Hello ergophobe:

I have Mozilla Thunderbird and use that for all my email. I just want Firefox to invoke their own Thunderbird when I click on an email mailto: type link in a webpage I'm visiting. I have both up and running automatically at bootup time, and I sure don't want to invoke Netscape Communicator!

I hope that's more clear, sorry for any confusion.
I thought I had made Thunderbird my default email
reader .. in a way it is, and in a way it apparently
is not. Best - Larry

[sonjay]

Firefox and Mozilla are both sort of weird that way; they won't honor what you have set as your default e-mail program, unless you add a line into their config settings. So here's what you do:

In Firefox, type about:config into the address bar and hit enter

Right-click in that window and select new -> boolean

Type (or paste) the following into the text field:
network.protocol-handler.external.mailto
and hit enter.

Then put "true" into the next field that comes up.

And you're done. That tells Firefox to use whatever e-mail program you have set as your "default" mail program - hence, if you've set Thunderbird to be your default, Firefox will now call Thunderbird when you click mailto links.

I believe you'll have to quit and re-launch Firefox for that to take effect.