Setting Up the Thunderbird Email Program

• Getting Thunderbird
• Opening and Closing Thunderbird
• Setting Up a New Account
• Required Account Settings
• More Account Settings

1. Go to Mozilla's Thunderbird home page: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
2. Click on the large green Download Thunderbird link. The Web page will figure out what operating system you are using and therefore what type of Thunderbird download file you need.
3. Save the downloaded file to your desktop or somewhere else easy to get to.
4. Double-click on the downloaded file.
5. To finish the install:
   • If you are using Windows (scroll down for MacOS):
     1. Close all other applications so that the Thunderbird installation can update relevant system files without requiring a reboot. The .exe file will expand.
     2. The Welcome to the Mozilla Thunderbird Setup Wizard window opens.
        
     3. Read the license agreement and click the radio button to accept its terms. Click Next >.
        
     4. Select Standard setup and click Next >.
        
     5. Leave the check to start Mozilla Thunderbird and click Finish to close the install wizard.
        
        
   • If you are using MacOS:
     1. Read the end-user license and click Accept (or Decline).
     2. When the Thunderbird window opens, click on the Thunderbird application icon and drag-and-drop it on your Applications folder.
     3. When you are finished, close the Thunderbird window and delete the Thunderbird .dmg file.

Windows

Open, either: Start Programs Mozilla ThunderbirdThunderbird

Or: Double-click the Thunderbird application icon on your desktop

Close: Click the X button on the upper left.

MacOS

Open: Click the Finder icon on your Dock Applications on the left hand sidedouble-click on the Thunderbird icon

Close: ThunderbirdQuit Thunderbird

Note that the illustrations in this page are from Mac Thunderbird. Windows Thunderbird are the same, except you click Next > rather than Continue.

1. Open Thunderbird if necessary.
2. If this is the first time you've used Thunderbird: Thunderbird it will ask you if you want to import your email account from another email program. If you are changing from another email program, you can use this function. Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
   
   
   
3. If:
   • If this is the first time you've used Thunderbird and you don't import an account, or
   • If you Add and account: Tools Account Settingsclick the Add Account... button.
   The Account Wizard will open.
   
   
4. Click in the radio button beside Email account. Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
   
   
   
5. The Identity window opens.
   
   1. Type your full name in the Your Name: box and your complete email address in the Email Address: box.
      For example, Ada Byron would use: Ada Byron Lovelace and adabyron@uic.edu.
   2. Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
      
6. The Server Information window opens. For your ACCC email account, use the following:
   
   • Click the radio button beside POP or IMAP, depending on which protocol you want to use.
   • The ACCC recommends IMAP, because it is designed to allow you to leave email on the server and to allow you to do email from multiple machines. Ada uses IMAP.
     
   • POP is the default; if you don't know what this is about, you most likely use POP.
   • If you select POP, you can also uncheck Use Global Inbox to have the account you are defining have its own Inbox. If you leave this option checked, all the POP accounts you have will bring incoming email into a single Inbox at the bottom of the All Folders tab. (But you can change this option later.)
     
     
   • In either case, POP or IMAP:
     • Incoming Mailserver: mail.uic.edu (regardless of which ACCC server your email account is on)
     • Outgoing Mailserver: mail.uic.edu (if you are on campus or if you are off campus and want to use the ACCC's authenticated SMTP server; otherwise use your ISP's SMTP server)
7. Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
   
   
8. The User Names window opens. Your netid is your Incoming User Name:. Because both the incoming and outgoing servers are mail.uic.edu, Thunderbird correctly assumes there is only one user name, and it guesses it, also correctly, from the email address. So Ada didn't have to type anything here; her netid, adabyron, was already filled in for her.
   Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
   
   
   
9. The Account Name window opens. You can name the account anything you want. The default is the email address.
   Click Continue (Mac) or Next > (Windows).
   
   
10. The Congratulations! screen opens, listing the details of the account you've entered.
    If all is right, click Done.
    • IMAP account:
      
    • POP account:
      

Note that the illustrations in this page are from Mac Thunderbird. Windows Thunderbird are the same.

1. Thunderbird will try to connect now, but fail because mail.uic.edu requires SSL connections. If you get a dialog box saying the folder is being processed, click OK to close it:
   
   
2. Click OK to the Alert that says the connection to mail.uic.edu was refused.
   
   
   
3. Before you can login, you must change a few settings on your new account.
   
   
4. Either:
   • In the All Folders tab: Click on the name of your Account click View settings for this Account.
     Note: if you set your account up to use POP and you are using a Global Inbox, the name of your account will not be listed in the All Folders tab.
   • Or: Select Tools Account Settings from the menu.
5. The Account Settings window will open.
   
   
   
6. Click on Server Settings on the left under your account. In the Security Settings area on the middle right, click the SSL radio button. The Port: in the upper right will change from the default 143 IMAP (145 POP) to 993 IMAP (995 POP).
   • Server Settings for IMAP
     • Check Check for new messages at startup
     • Do not Check for new messages any more often than every 10 minutes.
     • This is the place to select how you want to delete your messages. The choices are:
       • Move to the Trash folder (default; it won't be chosen now because it doesn't know about your folders yet; also it will create a trash folder for you when you need it if you don't have one.)
         To completely delete messages when using this option, you must empty your Trash mailbox, by right-clicking (control-click on a Mac) on the Trash folder under your account in the All Folders tab, and select Empty Trash from the right-click menu. If you have more than one account, you must empty each Trash folder separately.
         Or check Empty Trash on Exit, and Thunderbird will empty all your Trash mailboxes when you close the program.
         
       • Mark it as deleted
         If you use the Mark it as deleted option, to completely delete message, use File Compact Folders, which deletes all messages marked for deletion in all your mailboxes.
         Or check Clean up ("Expunge") Inbox on Exit, which will delete the deleted messages in your Inbox only when you close the program.
       • Remove it immediately
       If you don't want to use the default, select the one you want from the drop-down list.
       
       
       
   • Server Settings for POP:
     • Check Check for new messages at startup
     • Do not click Leave messages on server; if you want to do this, please use IMAP instead.
     • Do not Check for new messages any more often than every 10 minutes.
     • Do check Empty Trash on Exit if you want Thunderbird to empty all your Trash mailboxes when you close the program.
       
       
       
7. Click the Advanced... button.
   
   • Advanced settings for IMAP:
     In the IMAP server directory: box type: mail/
     Click OK.
     
     
     
   • Advanced settings for POP:
     The Advanced... setting allows you to choose and change the Inbox setting, whether you want to use a separate Inbox for each account or to use a Global Inbox for all POP accounts. Or, if you'd rather, the Inbox of a different account. Choose whichever you want and click OK.
     
     
     
8. If you are using mail.uic.edu for your SMTP server, you have to turn on SSL for it also. Click on Outgoing Server (SMTP) on the bottom left. Click on the name of your outgoing server and click the Edit button.
   
   
   
9. Type a description if you wish, and in the Security and Authentication area at the bottom, check Use name and password, type in your netid for the User Name: and click the radio button beside SSL. The Port: will automatically change from 25 to 465, which is what you want.
   
10. Click OK to close the SMTP server settings.
    
    
11. Click OK to leave Account Settings.
    
    
12. Now Thunderbird will log you in. Type your ACCC common password in the box provided and click OK.
    
    If you are using your own PC or Mac, you can use the Password Manager to remember the password; it's less secure but a lot easier. But if you are using a shared computer, don't. If you click Use Password Manager to remember this password., Thunderbird will explain the implications of your choice.
    
    
13. If you are using POP, Thunderbird will offer to download your email now. If you use IMAP, the subjects of the email in your Inbox will be downloaded and Thunderbird will also download the list of your IMAP mailboxes. This illustration is of an IMAP account on a Mac.
    
    
    And this is an IMAP account on Windows, to give you an idea of how similar they are.
    
    
14. The area where the Welcome to Thunderbird! message is located is the message preview area. Previewing messages is not the wisest thing to do from a security standpoint. To get rid of the preview pane, just click on the bar between the preview pane and the mailbox index and drag the bar down to the bottom of the window. You can bring back the preview pane by reversing the process.

There are a few more Account Settings you should look into.

1. Either:
   • In the All Folders tab: Click on the name of your Account click View settings for this Account.
     Note: if you set your account up to use POP and you are using a Global Inbox, the name of your account will not be listed in the All Folders tab.
   • Or: Select Tools Account Settings from the menu.
2. The Account Settings window will open.
   
   
   
   
3. Select: Copies & Folders:
   For these three options, if you use IMAP, you might want to choose the corresponding folder on the account that you are setting up. So when Ada is setting up adabyron@uic.edu, she would choose:
   • "Sent" Folder on: adabyron@uic.edu
   • "Drafts" Folder on: adabyron@uic.edu
   • "Templates" Folder on: adabyron@uic.edu
   If you are using POP, you won't be able to use these folders on the server, but you can use the same local folders.
   
4. Select: Composition and Addressing
   • For the sake of your addressees, you might want to Uncheck -- that is do not select Compose messages in HTML format.
   • You probably do want to check Automatically quote the original message when replying.
   • As for Addressing, instructions on setting up and using the UIC online telephone and email white pages with Thunderbird are at:
     • Macs: Using the UIC LDAP Server with Mozilla and Thunderbird
     • Windows: Using the UIC LDAP Server with Mozilla and Thunderbird
       
       
5. Select: Junk Settings
   Thunderbird can learn how to recognize Junk -- spam -- email by you labeling the spam that you get as Junk. But you have to turn this function on.
   • Check Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account.
   • I have Do not mark mail as junk if the sender is in: Personal Address Book checked.
   • I have Move new junk messages to: "Junk" folder on adabyron@uic.edu checked. Moving the junk to a folder on the server will not be an option if you use POP, but you can have a local Junk folder.
   • You might not want to do this if you find yourself accidentally marking email that isn't junk as junk. I do that now and then, and have to retrieve the messages from my Junk folder.
   • You can also check Automatically delete junk mail older than ?? days.