User Guide - Thunderbird e-mail client

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, multi-platform e-mail client available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Besides the basic e-mail client, there are also many add-on extensions for Thunderbird that greatly extend its capabilities.

Overview

While eApps Support will make every effort to assist you with setting up your e-mail client, you are ultimately responsible for resolving any issues with the installation, configuration and usage of your e-mail client software. For advanced configuration or usage questions, you may need to contact vendor support for your e-mail client or consult some of the many resources online for more information.

This User Guide assumes that you have already installed Thunderbird on your personal computer, and are ready to set up your e-mail account. Instructions for downloading and installing Thunderbird are beyond the scope of this User Guide, but links to the official Thunderbird download site and installation instructions are in the Links to other Information section at the end of this guide. 

Getting Started

Make sure to substitute example.com or mail.example.com with your actual domain name and mail server name. Also, please substitute your actual e-mail address for user@example.com.

Before you begin, you need to know the following information:

• Your e-mail address - this will be in the format of user@example.com
• Your username - this will often be the same as your e-mail address, but it may simply be the user part of the address, depending on how your e-mail address was set up
• Your e-mail password - this will be case-sensitive and will contain numbers, letters and special characters such as ‘!@#$%’
• Your mail server - this will be either example.com or mail.example.com
• Other information - is this a POP or IMAP account, and if your e-mail account was set up as user@example.com or user@(multiple_domains). This will determine your Incoming User Name, which will be used during the account set up.

Unless you are the owner of the account or a registered contact for the account, eApps Support cannot provide you with this information due to security and privacy reasons. You will need to contact the authorized person for your account to get this information.

Account Setup

Thunderbird can be used for more than just e-mail, but this User Guide will only cover the basic e-mail client setup.

To set up a new e-mail account in Thunderbird, go to Tools, Account Settings, Add Account to add a new account.

New Account Setup

• Select the Email account radio button
• Click Next

Identity

• Enter your name in the Your Name field. This shows as the “From” name in your e-mail messages
• Enter your e-mail address in the Email Address field exactly as it was given to you
• Click Next

Server Information

• Choose either POP or IMAP depending on the e-mail account information that you were given. The general setup is basically the same for either type of account.
• Enter the name of the Incoming Server - this is in the format of example.com or mail.example.com
• Uncheck Use Global Inbox - this will create a separate inbox for this account
• Enter the name of the Outgoing Server - this will usually be the same as the Incoming Server
• Click Next

User Names

• Your Incoming User Name will depend on how your e-mail account was set up.If it was set up as user@example.com enter your entire e-mail address here. If your e-mail account was set up as user@(multiple_domains) enter just the user part of the e-mail address here.
• If you are not sure of the above information, contact the person who set up your e-mail account.
• Click Next

Account Name

• This is the name to call the account. You can choose any name here that is relevant to you. However, each account has to have a different name.
• Enter the name you wish to call the account in the Account Name field
• Click Next

Congratulations!

This screen shows all the account information entered. If anything needs to be changed, click Back to get to the necessary screen.

If everything is correct , click Finish. This takes you to the Account Settings screen, where you can configure other settings for the account. Please take a minute to review the various options here, and consult the official Thunderbird documentation for more information if necessary. 

If the Outgoing Server Name (SMTP), is incorrect, click Finish, and then see the next section about how to change the Outgoing Server Name (SMTP). This is usually the case when you Add Account to an existing Thunderbird installation.

There is quite a bit more that can be done at this point. You can configure the interval to have Thunderbird check your e-mail, or whether it leaves messages on the server, or even create a signature file to attach to each e-mail. All of those are outside the scope of this User Guide, but the information can be found in the official Thunderbird documentation, links to which can be found in the Links to other information section of this guide.

Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings – Add or Change

• To access the Account Settings menu click on Tools, Account Settings from the main Thunderbird screen.
• At the bottom of the left pane, click on Outgoing Server (SMTP). If you have several e-mail accounts, you might have to scroll to the bottom of the list.
• This brings up the screen where you can Add an Outgoing Server or use Edit or Remove one that is already in use. The Set Default option means that for every new e-mail account created, that Outgoing Server will automatically be used.

Outgoing SMTP Server screen


Add SMTP Server screen

• Click Add
• Enter a relevant name in the Description field
• The Server Name is the name of your Outgoing Server, exactly as it was given to you, usually in the format of example.com or mail.example.com
• Unless instructed, use the default Port of 25. If you need to change the port for the Outgoing Server, this is where to change it.
• By default, your e-mail account uses what is called POP before SMTP authentication. This means you have to check your e-mail before you can send e-mail. So unless otherwise instructed, make sure that the settings for Security and Authentication are unchecked.
• Click OK

Now the new Outgoing Server (SMTP) is available for use.

To set it as the Outgoing Server for an account, select the account from the list. Click on the actual name of the account.

At the bottom right of the screen will now be a drop down menu for Outgoing Server (SMTP). Select the correct Outgoing Server from the list, and click OK. The account will now use the selected server as the Outgoing Server.

These same steps can be followed to add or change the SMTP Server for any account.

Links to other information