| SET UP AN EMAIL ACCOUNT |
In this second section, which continues from the previous section, I am going to show you how to set up an existing email account using the Thunderbird email client. Therefore, it is assumed you already have Mozilla Thunderbird installed. If not, read the previous section (Install Thunderbird Email Client).
Thunderbird is an E-Mail Client (program) that allows you to automatically login to an existing email account in order to then send and receive email, amongst other things. The beauty of this is that you do not need to login to your Web Mail email account (i.e. TalkTalk website email account) in order to send and receive email. Thunderbird is roughly the same as Windows Mail (see the Windows Mail sections) and therefore ideal if you do not have Windows Mail installed and/or if you have seen Thunderbird in action and liked what you saw.
In this first example I will show you how to launch the Account Wizard using thunderbird directly and then continue the example from the previous section.
Meaning. The previous section launches the Account Wizard after the Import Wizard. Therefore I will now show those who already have thunderbird installed,
but do not know how to set up an existing email account for whatever reason(s), how to launch the Account Wizard. Once the account wizard launches those
from the previous section can join in this email account set up example.
To launch the Account Wizard you first need to launch Thunderbird by clicking on its Desktop icon or Quick Launch Toolbar icon, depending on what is
installed. When thunderbird has launched (Fig 1.1 below) click on its TOOLS menu and select the ACCOUNT SETTINGS menu-item. This will bring up the
Account Settings window (Fig 1.2) whereby you then need to click on its ADD ACCOUNT button to continue.
After clicking on the ADD ACCOUNT button (Fig 1.3 above) the Account Wizard is launched (Fig 1.4 above). It is this Account Wizard window that also
launces in the previous section (after clicking on the NEXT button). Therefore, regardless of you coming from the previous section or you using an
already installed version of thunderbird, you will now be able to continue in the set up of an existing email account.
In this example I am going use my TalkTalk email account, which I set up from the TalkTalk website
(my Broadband provider's website). TalkTalk members please note - DO NOT USE YOUR BROADBAND USER NAME & PASSWORD - Use the email account that TalkTalk
offer you during set up of your modem/router or that you manually set up prior to receiving your modem/router. If you go to MY ACCOUNT on the TalkTalk
website you will see an area called Web Mail. It is that email account I am using here. The TalkTalk POP and SMTP settings, which you will need later,
are Here. They apply to Windows Mail and Thunderbird account settings.
The first step in the account wizard (Fig 1.3 above) asks which account type you would like to set up. Just leave it on EMAIL ACCOUNT and then click on
the NEXT button to continue.
The second step (above) requires your Display Name (the name people will know you by when they receive an email from you) and your Email Address. In this
example I have chosen the display name as John White but this could easily of been John Computers, Free Computer Lessons and so on if I were using the
email account for this website. You normally use your real name though, of course, which I have done here. The email address I am using, as said above, is
my TalkTalk email address. When you have entered your details click on the NEXT button to continue.
The next step (below) requires your ISP (Internet Service Provider) POP (Incoming/Receiving) and SMTP (Outgoing/Sending) Mail Server details. Or put
another way. The email account settings from your broadband provider that allow your email account to send and receive email, using their mail servers
(send and receive email computers). These details should be available on their website and/or should have been sent to you, in the post and/or in an
email. So when you have those details (hopefully now!) enter them into their respective edit boxes.
In this example my POP (also known as POP3) setting is mail.talktalk.net and my SMTP setting is smtp.talktalk.net. Other companies may use pop. pop3 or
mail for example as their POP setting and smtp or mail for example as their SMTP setting. Also. Some companies might use different service (domain) names
depending on the broadband/internet package you have. For example. Orange use wanadoo.co.uk, fsmail.net and orangehome.co.uk whereas BT use btinternet.com
and btclick.com amongst others. With many companies merging these days it is important that you are using the correct POP and SMTP details that go with
your particular broadband/internet package.
If you want this email account to have its own INBOX, as opposed to sharing the standard/default INBOX with other email accounts you create, untick the
GLOBAL option. This will treat this email account as a separate entity. When you have entered your POP and SMTP details, and decided upon Global or Standard
INBOX, click on the NEXT button to continue.
After clicking on the NEXT button (Fig 1.5 above) you are then asked for your incoming and outgoing User Names (above). Thunderbird, by default, fills in
the User Name edit boxes for you, but unfortunately removes the domain name (i.e. talktalk.net). I say unfortunately because years ago a user name would
of been your user name only (i.e. yoingco) without the domain name attached to it, but times have changed and the user name for a lot of people is now
user name + domain name (i.e. yoingco@talktalk.net). So to play safe try user name + domain name first and if you get an error when trying to send/receive
email just edit the user name edit boxes, from within the thunderbird account settings, to user name only. When you have entered your User Name details
(above) click on the NEXT button to continue.
The next step (below) will ask you to supply an Account Name. This is the name you want to give this email account (i.e. My Broadband Email or John
TalkTalk), which has nothing to do with the display name above. This account name is used to identify this email account only, so that when you have
multiple email accounts in thunderbird you can identify between them. Click on the NEXT button when you have entered an account name.
After clicking on the NEXT button (Fig 1.7 above) you have then technically finished the set up of your existing email account and therefore only need to click on the FINISH button (above) in order for thunderbird to then check your email account for new email messages. I say technically because the just said will work perfectly if all is well with your email account settings. However. If one or more email account settings are incorrect you will get an error message of course. So to play safe you might consider unticking the DOWNLOAD MESSAGES NOW option. This is because there may be more settings to set up before you can truly use your email account with thunderbird (see Extra Settings below).
Saying the above, I will now continue this example as though all is well with your settings. Everything is fine with my TalkTalk settings above, so I will continue by entering my email account Password (following on from Fig 1.8 above).
Before you click on the OK button (above) you might want to put a tick next to the USE PASSWORD MANAGER TO REMEMBER THIS PASSWORD option, if you trust
people on your computer and more importantly its security (read the window below), otherwise leave that option unticked. With it ticked thunderbird will
save your email account password so that you do not have to type it in again. In this example I ticked that option simply because it can become annoying
to have to type in the password each time I want to check my email and also because I trust my security and anyone who uses my computer (nobody but me!).
After entering the password and clicking on the OK button you are then presented with the following message requester. Read it carefully before clicking
on its OK button.
In this example I have already sent a Test email message to my TalkTalk email account, using my contactjohn@yoingco.com email account from the internet, which thunderbird has now received. Therefore, my TalkTalk email account is working.....on the receiving side. To test if it is working on the sending side I would need to compose/write an email message to someone using thunderbird - I did this already and it worked (not shown here). And this is what you need to do - Test the sending and receiving of email using thunderbird so that you can iron out any problems early on.
As said above, you may need to set up extra settings in order to get your email account fully working in Thunderbird. These extra settings are normally to do with Authentication, Server Ports and so on. Security settings basically.
| SET UP EXTRA SECURITY SETTINGS |
If your ISP (Internet Service Provider) requires your email account to have more security applied to it they will usually ask for Server Ports (connection
channels) to be changed and Authentication to be applied, so that they can verify even more that it is you using the email account to send/receive email.
To change the POP Mail Server PORT NUMBER for example go to thunderbird's TOOLS menu and click on the ACCOUNT SETTINGS menu-item (Fig 1.1 above). When
the Account Settings window appears click on the SERVER SETTINGS heading, underneath your email account name, and then click inside the POP MAIL SERVER
edit box to change the PORT NUMBER. When you have done so, click on the OK button to apply the new setting (port number). In this example I have not
changed any settings - I am just showing you where to go to change them. The POP Mail Server's PORT NUMBER is normally set to 110, but you may be asked
to change it by your ISP as said above. Also. If your ISP wants you to Use Secure Authentication you should put a tick next to the USE SECURE AUTHENTICATION
option, underneath the SECURITY SETTINGS heading, otherwise leave it unticked.
To change the SMTP Mail Server PORT NUMBER you need to click on the OUTGOING SERVER (SMTP) heading and then click on the EDIT button. Doing so will bring up the SMTP Server window (Fig 2.2) where you can then change the PORT NUMBER, and give these settings a name, if need be. Again. I have not changed any settings here because I am just showing where to find them.
Normally you use the same server to send and receive your e-mail, because your contract is with the same company (i.e. TalkTalk). However. In some cases you might of discontinued your contract with another ISP but are still allowed to access your e-mail on their server for the next three months, for example, until the contract comes to a complete end. In which case you might want/need to set up the POP Mail Server settings to use the pop mail server settings of that discontinued ISP (so you can still receive your e-mail from their server) and set up the SMTP Mail Server settings for use with your existing ISP.
In other words. If you have just discontinued from BT but still want to receive your e-mail from them (off their mail server) you would set
up the POP Mail Server to use mail.btinternet.com for example. If you then wanted to send e-mail as john.smith@btinternet.com you would set up the SMTP
Mail Server to use talktalk.net for example. This means that your new ISP (TalkTalk) would be the one to send your e-mail as john.smith@btinternet.com.
This kind of thing is where Authentication would come into play, but you would need to ask your current ISP (i.e. TalkTalk) if this is possible in your
particular case.
So the above is how you set up thunderbird to send and receive email - Email that you would normally send and receive using your ISP's website (their
Web Mail service to be precise). For much more detailed Email lessons I highly recommend you read the Windows Mail sections, even if you do not have
Windows Mail installed, because they contain valuable information.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
