Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, third party email client that offers easy setup and customization with a user-friendly interface. This article will explain the general setup of Mozilla Thunderbird.
Mozilla Thunderbird is available for download at the following link:
Prerequisites
Before setting up Mozilla Thunderbird, please be sure the following items have been done.
- Your domain name has been propagated
- The email account has been created in the hosting control panel
How to Set Up Thunderbird
- Open the Thunderbird application.
- Go to Tools and click on Accounts Settings.
- Click on the Account Actions button.
- Select Add Mail Account.
- Click Continue.
- Enter your name and email address in the input boxes. This does NOT have to be your username@yourdomain.com. Email addresses such as name@yourdomain.com, webmaster@yourdomain.com, etc. are acceptable as long as they are set up in the hosting control panel.
- Click Continue.
Thunderbird will try to determine your account settings based on the domain portion of your email address (that is, the portion after the "@" symbol). You can either allow the default lookup or click the Stop button to proceed with the Manual Configuration.
Using the Auto-Configuration Option
When using the auto-configuration for account set up, choose whether you would like to use IMAP or POP connections. Click Done when completed.
Thunderbird will take care of the rest!
Using the Manual Configuration Options
- Click the Stop button to stop the auto-configuration feature.
- Edit the Server names and Port to the exact settings desired.
- Select either POP or IMAP - both are supported on our servers. If you plan on setting up your mail on many computers use IMAP.
- POP: Downloads emails to your local computer and removes the copy from the server.
- Good for preventing your inbox from becoming slow or full
- Allows you to view emails offline.
- Since the emails are downloaded and removed from the server, you cannot receive emails on other computers you may have.
- IMAP: Accesses emails only when you are viewing them, always keeping a copy on the server.
- Good for accessing emails from many computers (from the office to your home)
- Requires that you have an internet connection when viewing emails
- POP: Downloads emails to your local computer and removes the copy from the server.
- Click the Manual Configuration button.
- In the left pane, select Outgoing Server (SMTP) from the bottom of the list.
- Click Add or Edit to make edits to the existing entry, if any.
- Now fill in the following information in the designated fields:
- Description: Enter your email address
- Server Name: Type in your mail server (mail.yourdomain.com)
- Port: You can put 25 or 26. If your isp is blocking port 25, which many do to prevent spam, then choose 26.
- Make sure the checkbox is checked for "User name and password"
- User Name: Type in your full email address. Again, make sure you have created this account in cpanel.
- Make sure that TLS, if available, is selected
- Click OK to finish.
Final Settings Check
To make edits to any other entries to your account once created, select the email account and do the following:
- Select Outgoing Server (SMTP) from the bottom of the list.
- Select SMTP from the drop downlist.
Everything listed can be altered and extended as nessacery.
- Also be sure to click on Server Settings listed under the new account.
The entries list must match to your hosting provider.
Once everything is exact and saved, users will be able to send and receive emails via Thunderbird.
