How to Configure Mozilla Thunderbird

Introduction

You can use Mozilla Thunderbird to read email and newsgroups. This document explains how to configure Thunderbird for your university email.

If you use Thunderbird, your email address will remain the same whether you use another email program, but how you read and send email may change. Thunderbird utilizes IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), which is used at UNC-Chapel Hill. One of the advantages of using IMAP is that it allows you to store messages on the server. You can then access your mailbox from multiple locations. Thunderbird is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Getting Started

Obtain an Email Account

Before you can access your university email with Thunderbird, you need to have an email account. See the document Creating an Onyen for information on obtaining an Onyen, which includes a free email account. Onyen is the name for UNC's campus-wide identifier that you can use to gain access to various electronic resources on campus. It's an acronym for the "Only name you'll ever need" and is the first step in creating a campus-wide login name. If you plan to use Thunderbird from home, you may want get an account with an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Refer to Internet Service Providers and Getting Web and Email from Home.

Downloading Thunderbird

Beginning in Summer 2006, Thunderbird will come installed on all new CCI laptops by default. You can download it from the Shareware page. After downloading Thunderbird, double-click on the file to begin installing Thunderbird. A wizard will guide you through the set up. It's best to accept the defaults and choose the Recommended set up.

Configuring Thunderbird

The first time you run Thunderbird it will prompt you to create a new email or newsgroup account. Please refer the following table for information on the UNC email servers:

If you want modify settings and preferences after the wizard is finished, you can do so by clicking on Tools > Account Settings.


To edit Incoming Mail Server Settings, click on Server Settings.


To edit the Outgoing Mail Server Settings, click on Outgoing Server (SMTP).



Note on POP Email Clients

If you use an email program configured to use POP, the computer you use to read email with may remove all of your messages from your inbox on the server. This means that you will only be able to use that particular computer to read old messages, because they will be stored in local files on that computer and not on the email server. Although Thunderbird allows you to configure it to read email using POP, it is not recommended that you do so.

Getting Help For Thunderbird

For more information on how to use Thunderbird, you can click on and then You can also go there directly by going to http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/. Clicking on the FAQ link will take you to a list of common questions about using and customizing the program.


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