Mozilla Thunderbird Setup Guide
Mozilla Thunderbird is an open source, cross platform, email client. This guide demonstrates how to configure Thunderbird for a POP email account.
There are a couple of differences between Thunderbird and Outlook with respect to account settings. Thunderbird treats email accounts and outgoing servers as being separate. This allows you to apply the settings from an outgoing server, configured for a previous account, to another account without having to re-enter them. Thunderbird also uses ‘Identities’, this feature allows you to send messages from a different email address using the same account. You can also specify a display name, reply-to address, organisation and more for each individual identity.
Prerequisites
In order to configure a POP email account you need to have established the following settings, specific to your account:
- Email Address
- Account Type
- Incoming Server Address
- Outgoing Server Address
- Outgoing Server Authentication (if any)
- User Name
- Password
Walkthrough
From the menu along the top of Thunderbird, select ‘Tools’ then ‘Account Settings’
In the new window, click the ‘Account Actions’ (in the bottom left) drop down and select ‘Add Mail Account’.
Enter your name (as you would like it displayed to others), your email address and password. Ensure the ‘Remember Password’ box is checked and click the ‘Continue’ button.
Thunderbird will then attempt to discover your incoming and outgoing server addresses. Allow the process to finish.
In the bottom left of this window you should now see the ‘Manual Setup’ button. Click this button and the ‘Mail Account Setup’ window closes and an account is created using the settings entered so far.
Next, select ‘Outgoing Server (SMTP)’ from the list on the left hand side of the ‘Account Settings’ window. This needs to be configured first so that it can be applied to the account.
The next dialog shows a list of configured outgoing servers in Thunderbird. A default server may be listed. If the address shown matches your outgoing server address, click the ‘Edit’ button. If your outgoing server address is different to the one shown, click the ‘Add’ button instead.
In the ‘SMTP Server’ window enter the outgoing server address into the ‘Server Name’ fields. The ‘Definition’ field can remain blank. The default port for SMTP communication is 25.
The connection security section allows you to select a type of connection security and authentication method. These should be specified by the outgoing server provider. If you have only a user name and password, leave ‘Connection Security’ set to ‘None’ and ‘Authentication Method’ set to ‘Password, transmitted insecurely’.
Enter the user name for the outgoing server; Thunderbird will prompt for the password the first time it connects. Click the ‘OK’ button to save the settings for the outgoing server.
From the list on the left of the ‘Account Settings’ window, select ‘Server Settings’ underneath your account.
The settings for your incoming server will be shown on the right. Enter your incoming server address into the ‘Server Name’ field. The default port for POP3 communication is 110. Enter the user name for your incoming server (you will be prompted for the password later).
If you have been given additional security information for your incoming server, enter the connection type and authentication method here. If you only have a user name and password for your incoming server, leave them set to ‘None’ and ‘Password, transmitted insecurely’ respectively.
The additional server settings allow you to specify the way Thunderbird manages mail on the server. By default Thunderbird will leave messages on the server for 14 days or once they are deleted from Thunderbird, whichever is soonest.
Next, select your account name from the list on the left of the ‘Account Settings’ window. Use this form to manage the default identity for this account.
Check that your name is entered as you want other people to see it, your email address is correctly spelled.
You may also optionally specify a different reply address, an organisation name, your signature (standard text added to emails sent using this identity). Most importantly you can choose the outgoing server for this account. From the drop down list, ensure the server with the correct address is supplied and click the ‘OK’ button to finish.
