Setting up POP3 Email in Mozilla Thunderbird

Often we create email accounts for hosting clients and similarly just as often they need some hints on how to use this email account. Not everyone is privy to the ways of POP3 and SMPT protocols. So below is a step by step guide on how to setup your new email account.

1. Download Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla may sound familiar to you. They are the creators of FireFox, the best internet browser on the market. FireFox is just one of their many products: FireFox = Browser - Thunderbird = Email - FileZilla = FTP

Download Mozilla Thunderbird Here

2. Install Thunderbird

This process will be no different from any other program installation on your machine. Accept the default settings and complete the installation.

3. Open Thunderbird

On Windows computers you should see the program on your Desktop or in your Programs Menu. On a Mac you will find the program in your Applications folder. Once open (in either operating system) you can choose to dock the icon on your toolbar if you wish.

4. Enter Basic Email Information

Thunderbird will prompt you to setup your first email right away. This is fine and encouraged.

• Type in your Name
• Type in your Email you've had created
• Type in the Password provided for the Email (passwords are case sensitive)
• Click Continue

5. Manual Configuration

Thunderbird will lookup what it believes to be the "best" settings for you to use on your account. In some cases this may be correct, but in most it is not. Thunderbird defaults to IMAP protocol, which on small private servers (like ours) this can cause you to use up all your hosting space incredibly fast by storing email on the server. We want to setup POP3 and send the emails to your machines and devices.

Simply clicking POP3 isn't enough here, we need to do some detailed setup.

• Click "Manual Config" in the lower left hand corner of the window

6. Adjust Incoming & Outgoing Mail Protocol

As mentioned before, Thunderbird will default your "Incoming" settings to IMAP. We want to change this to POP3.

• Select POP3 from the Incoming Drop Down
• Make sure the Incoming hostname reflects mail.yourwebsite.com
• Make sure the Incoming port reflects 110 (this should change automatically)
• Select POP3 from the Outgoing Drop Down
• Make sure the Outgoing hostname reflects mail.yourwebsite.com
• Make sure the Outgoing port reflects 25 (this should already be set)

7. Change Username & Retest

Staying on the same screen for managing the Protocols, you will change the Username to reflect how our server likes it to be formatted. Then you will submit the settings to see if they connect.

• Change Username to your full email address (i.e. email@yourwebsite.com)
• Click Re-text

8. Create Account

Thunderbird will run a test and when finished, will offer you the "Create Account" button.

• Click "Create Account"

9. Accept Server Connection

Thunderbird will show you your default program screen now. The account is setup at this point, but there is one connection we still have to accept to solidify the communication between your computer and the mail server.

Your website www.yourwebsite.com is part of a shared server with other websites. These site all share a "root" server address. When trying to get mail for the first time, Thunderbird will ask if it is ok that your "mail.yourwebsite.com" server address doesn't match the root address of the hosting server. You can accept this. There is no security issue, you are simply acknowledging the two servers have different addresses and work together.

• Click "Get Mail"
• Click "Confirm Security Exception"