Thunderbird automatically does most of the work for you when you configure your email account.
Using Thunderbird to retrieve your email means you can keep the email client open on your desktop. Save time by receiving email without having to go to the email account in a Web browser to check to see if you have email. Thunderbird configures POP, SMTP and IMAP accounts automatically once you have entered the email address and password. The instructions are the same without regard to the type of email account you are configuring.
Instructions
1. Open Thunderbird. Click "Tools" in the top menu and select "Account Settings" to open the "Account Settings" dialog box.
2. Click the "Account Settings" button in the lower-left corner of the "Account Settings" dialog box and select "Add Mail Account" from the pull-down menu to open the "Mail Account Setup" dialog box.
3. Enter your name, email address and email address password in the "Mail Account Setup" dialog box. Click the "Continue" button. Thunderbird will try to configure the account automatically using the email address and password you provided. If you have a green icon for "Incoming" and "Outgoing," click the "Create Account" button. Click the "OK" button to close the "Account Settings" dialog box. If you do not get two green lights, go to the next step.
4. Click the "Edit" button in the "Mail Account Setup" dialog box. Make any corrections necessary to the incoming servers, outgoing servers, password and username. Get this information from your email provider. Click the "Re-test Configuration" button. If you now have two green lights, click the "Create Account" button. If not, click the "Manual Setup" button to return to the "Account Settings" dialog box.
5. Click the square next to the account name to expand the submenu. Click the account name and select an Outgoing Server using the pull-down menu at the bottom of the screen. You can choose a server specific to this account or if you have multiple accounts, you can use a default server to send emails.
6. Click "Server Settings" under the account name to go the server settings section of the "Account Settings" dialog box. Using the information you received from your email provider, verify the server name, port and user name are correct. Click the "OK" button to save the settings. If you have verified all your settings are correct and you still get an error message, when you try to retrieve message, wait at least an hour, your email provider's server may be down. If you are still not able to retrieve email, contact your email provider for help.
Tags: Account Settings, your email, Account Settings dialog, Settings dialog, email address, email provider