Thunderbird and webmail

Module 2: Setting up your mailbox · Reading time: 10 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson, you can set up Thunderbird manually, use webmail as a check and as an emergency access point, and work through a fixed approach to find out why a mail program isn't working.

Key concepts: Thunderbird, manual configuration, connection security, authentication method (normal password, encrypted password, OAuth2), saved passwords, webmail (e.g. Roundcube), session, logging out on a public computer, step-by-step troubleshooting plan

Thunderbird: open and direct

Thunderbird is a free mail program for Windows, Mac and Linux, from the Mozilla foundation (known for Firefox), and also available for Android. It's open source and connects directly to your mail server: your password and your mail don't go anywhere else. That makes it a good choice if you don't want to use the new Outlook (lesson 2.2). Thunderbird also shows exactly what it's setting up, which makes it a great program for learning how email works.

Adding an account

1. Open Thunderbird. The first time, it starts straight away with Set Up Your Existing Email Address. Otherwise: menu (three lines), Add Account, Email.
2. Fill in your name (which recipients will see), your email address and the mailbox password. Click Continue.
3. Thunderbird looks up the settings (autoconfig, Mozilla's database, or it guesses names like mail.example.com; lesson 2.1). Check what it found: protocol IMAP and your provider's server name.
4. If it's not right, click Configure manually and fill everything in as shown below.

5. Click Re-test. If it works, click Done.

The authentication method

Thunderbird asks how you log in. The options:

• Normal password: the password travels over the encrypted connection to the server. That's safe as long as the connection is encrypted (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS), and it's what most hosting servers expect.
• Encrypted password (CRAM-MD5 and similar): an old method from before all connections were encrypted. Many servers don't offer it; if you choose it anyway, logging in will fail.
• OAuth2: logging in via a web page from the provider. Used for Gmail, Microsoft and a few other large providers. An ordinary hosting mailbox usually doesn't use this.

So almost always choose Normal password, combined with encryption. Normal password without encryption (port 143 or 110 without STARTTLS) is unsafe: your password then travels over the network in plain text.

Changing your password in Thunderbird

If you've changed the mailbox password, Thunderbird usually asks for the new one automatically. If it doesn't, Thunderbird has the old one saved. Remove it under Settings, Privacy & Security, Saved Passwords. Note: there are two entries per account, one for imap:// and one for smtp://.

Webmail: your mail in the browser

Almost every provider has webmail: a website where you log in with your email address and password to read and send your mail. Many hosting companies use Roundcube for this, an open-source webmail program. Webmail works directly on the same IMAP mailbox as your mail program: what you move or delete in webmail shows up in Thunderbird too, and the other way round.

Webmail has three important uses:

1. Using your mail while travelling or on someone else's computer without setting anything up. Do log out afterwards, and don't let the browser remember the password.
2. Checking that your username and password are correct. If logging in to webmail works, your mailbox is fine and the problem is in the mail program. If it doesn't work, the password is wrong, or your IP address is blocked.
3. Settings on the server: many webmail programs let you set up server filters, an out-of-office message, forwarding and your signature. Those filters also work when your computer is switched off, unlike rules in a mail program.

A fixed approach to problems

If your mail isn't working in a program, go through these steps in this order. That way you don't have to guess.

1. Webmail. Log in with your full email address and password. If that doesn't work: set a new password for the mailbox. If webmail doesn't load at all, while it does load over your phone's mobile connection: your IP address is probably blocked due to too many failed attempts.
2. Username. Full email address, for both incoming and outgoing.
3. Server name. Your provider's name, not a guessed imap. or smtp.. Does it point to the right server, and is it listed in the certificate (lesson 2.1)?
4. Port and security. 993 SSL/TLS; 587 STARTTLS or 465 SSL/TLS.
5. Outgoing authentication. On, with the same details.
6. Certificate warning? Check who issued the certificate. A virus scanner? Turn off scanning of encrypted mail.
7. All devices. If you have a new password, set it everywhere, including on that old tablet in the drawer.

Keep this in mind with this step-by-step plan: a message from your program is a consequence, not a cause. "Server not found" is usually a typo in the name; "connection lost" is often the wrong port or security setting; "password rejected" is the username or the password.

In practice: WebOké's webmail

At WebOké, webmail runs on Roundcube, at webmail.weboke.nl. You log in with your full email address and the mailbox password; leave the Server field empty if your domain is hosted with WebOké. You view headers via More, Show Source (lesson 1.5). With other providers it works in a similar way: webmail has its own address, which is listed in the welcome email or the customer panel.

Summary

• Thunderbird works directly with your mail server and shows exactly what it's setting up.
• Choose "Normal password" with encryption; "Encrypted password" is an old method many servers don't support.
• Webmail works on the same mailbox and is the best way to check that your password and mailbox are fine.
• If there are problems, follow a fixed order: webmail, username, server name, port and security, outgoing authentication, certificate, all devices.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise O2.5: Fixing a broken setting. The exercise includes the settings of an incorrectly configured mail program (file instellingen-fout.txt), with three errors in it. Name the three errors, say what message you'd expect for each error, and write down in which order you'd find them using the step-by-step plan from this lesson. If you have a mail program of your own that isn't working properly, go through the step-by-step plan for your own situation and write down at which step you found the cause.

Further reading

The steps in these articles apply to WebOké's panels; with other providers it works in a similar way.

• DirectAdmin guide 8.6: Thunderbird
• DirectAdmin guide 7.11: Opening webmail
• DirectAdmin guide 8.8: Sending or receiving doesn't work: how to fix it
• Adding an email address to Thunderbird
• Going to webmail and what to do if logging in doesn't work