Thunderbird Install
If your email provider only allows POP3, transferring your existing emails for storage is
work compared to IMAP or a simple IP address on their server. My project involves POP3 as
the only option, so let’s delve in!
Oh yeah, Thunderbird. I didn’t know what this was until this project, so I want to offer
a brief explanation. Thunderbird is an Open Source email client. What does THAT mean right?
To start off, GMAIL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook and the like are all what are called
’email providers’ who off you an account, an address, a server and a webpage to view and
send emails.
Most ISP’s offer email as part of the ISP service, slightly different than email providers
who provide email for ‘free’ so long as you put up with advertising. The ISP model is paid
for by the user, therefore the advertising is reduced. But these are still just email providers.
An ’email client’ on the other hand are capable of communicating with one or more
email servers and retrieve those messages. So for example, say I had a Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook
and Hotmail email. I would (without an email client like Thunderbird) have to go onto 4 different
sites to view four separate accounts. With an email client like Thunderbird though, I am
able to view ALL four account emails in one application on my computer or phone. It’s a
consolidator in essence. Thunderbird is created my Mozilla, is Open-Source, has no adverts
and once you figure it out, it’s magnificent! You can copy from one message in one email account
and paste it into another email in another email account. You can drag and drop messages
between accounts and manage/file your email correspondence centrally. Enough of that now.
Let’s install: But before we do that, Thunderbird comes in MAC OS, Windows and Linux flavours.
SO go to www.thunderbird.net/en-US/Download/ and download the version applicable to your
computer OS. It’s FREE. I usually just put these things in my Download folder. You are downloading
an executable so you should have to allow something to alter your computer. Click YES
For adding another account, select File, New, Existing Mail Account.
If you don’t see File in the Menu bar (assuming Windows 10) then select the ALT key and you will see the Menu Bar displayed in the top left.