Setting up Thunderbird

Gravale

I've been using Outlook Express for years now. Unfortunately with Windows 7 Outlook Express cannot be used so I've changed to Thunderbird. I added my UPC email account details and it works fine. However, when I add my Eircom account details (using the UPC SMTP settings) I get a message saying that my settings don't work. Below are my settings, so if anyone could tell me where I'm going wrong I'd appreciate it:

Mail Account Setup

Your name: *** *******
Email address: **********@eircom.net
Password: ********


Incoming POP3 - mail2.eircom.net Port - 110 SSL & Authentication: Auto

Outgoing SMTP -smtp.upcmail.ie Port - 587 (as above)

Username - the first part of my eircom email address


My POP Mail Server settings for my UPC email address which work perfectly are:

Server name: pop3.upcmail.ie Port - 110

Username - **********@upcmail.ie

Connection security - none
Authentication method - Password, transmitted securely


So, has anyone any idea what's wrong with the settings for my Eircom POP Mail? Thank you.

johnmcdnl

shouldn't you be using eircom's SMTP settings rather than UPC's settings when setting up an Eircom email address???
I don't use Eircom email so I have no idea what way Eircom's settings are so...

Big Lar

I think that you can only use Eircom webmail with other providers, did you have it working on outlook express on your old system with UPC ?

RootX

POP3 (for incoming mail) is ISP-free, meaning you can receive eircom's, upc's, etc, email even if you're with vodafone, for example.

SMTP (for outgoing) is ISP specific since they don't allow IPs outside of their subnet to reach their SMTP servers. OP has it configured properly assuming his ISP is UPC.

OP, can you clarify whether your issue is related to receiving email, sending or both?

PogMoThoin

Incoming and outgoing should be considered separately. Don't worry about outgoing until you get incoming sorted, try with and without SSL until you get it.

Port 25 is the standard port for smtp, UPC will only allow traffic on port 25 to their own smtp. They all block port 25 to other smtp servers. It's a providers way of combating spam zombies on their own network, making every email go through their own smtp gives them a means of preventing their IP's getting blacklisted.

Gravale

Thanks, everyone.

Root, my SMTP is working fine since I can receive (and send) mail from my UPC email address. I use the same settings for SMTP in setting up my Eircom account. Therefore it seems that my POP3 settings are the problem.

My POP3 server hostname is mail2.eircom.net. The port is 110 which automatically changes the SSL and Authentication to Autodetect. (If I change the SSL to None - or anything else - I get a failed result also). My username is the first part of my email address.

I had everything working perfectly with several Eircom accounts in Thunderbird on my former Win 7 laptop. Unfortunately I cleaned everything off the drive before passing it on to my wife. If I did a restore to a date when I used Thunderbird on that machine would Thunderbird reappear in order for me to get the settings? Just a thought.

PogMoThoin

Gravale wrote: »

Thanks, everyone.

Root, my SMTP is working fine since I can receive (and send) mail from my UPC email address. I use the same settings for SMTP in setting up my Eircom account. Therefore it seems that my POP3 settings are the problem.

My POP3 server hostname is mail2.eircom.net. The port is 110 which automatically changes the SSL and Authentication to Autodetect. (If I change the SSL to None - or anything else - I get a failed result also). My username is the first part of my email address.

I had everything working perfectly with several Eircom accounts in Thunderbird on my former Win 7 laptop. Unfortunately I cleaned everything off the drive before passing it on to my wife. If I did a restore to a date when I used Thunderbird on that machine would Thunderbird reappear in order for me to get the settings? Just a thought.

Try the username as: username@eircom.net

Gravale

Thanks, Póg. I tried that but with no success.

By the way, the UPC SMTP port is 587 and works successfully in sending mail from my UPC account (****@upcmail.ie).

RootX

I'm an eircom customer so I just created a new email account and set it up on Thunderbird.

Server name: pop.eircom.net
Port: 110
No security

Username: my username without the @eircom.net suffix.

Gravale

So, Root, would you fill in your POP3 settings below then copy & paste them into a reply to this message. I'm a UPC customer, but that doesn't affect the POP settings required. The SMTP settings just need to be from UPC.

Incoming: POP Server hostname:

Port: SSL: Authentication:


Thanks.

RootX

Sure, see attached.

Gravale

Thanks for that, Root.

Which version of Thunderbird are you using? Mine (13.01) looks different from yours. See attached.

Thunderbird.jpg

By the way, when I tried these settings I saw 'Connected to mail1.eircom.net' but then got a message 'An error occurred with the POP3 mail server'. When I set it up firstly I tested it and got a message saying that my username or password are invalid. Inserted the definitely correct username and password again produced the same result.

RootX

I'm using ubuntu here, that's why it looks different.
I'm going to try it on a windows 7 virtual machine and let you know asap.

Ok, just installed and configured ver. 13.0.1 on a windows machine and it worked fine.

You're leaving the '@eircom.net' part out of the username, right?

Gravale

RootX wrote: »

You're leaving the '@eircom.net' part out of the username, right?

Yes, that's correct. I've tried it with and without (the norm) with no results.

Interesting situation here. I went onto my desktop and installed an older version (12.0) of Thunderbird. I put in the settings for about five different Eircom accounts and they all worked instantly. The setup procedure in 12.0 version was simplicity itself and less fussy than version 13.1

I'll do exactly the same on my Win 7 laptop and hopefully that'll be the end of the matter. I won't get to do it until later tonight and will report back then.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Gravale

Would you believe it! I installed the 12.0 version of Thunderbird mentioned above on my laptop and it had the same interface as the latest 13.01 version with its less user-friendly account setup. My desktop is Win XP and my laptop is Win 7.

Back to square 1.

Gravale

Ok. After continuing failures in getting Thunderbird set up, this is what I finally did. I installed Eudora OSE 1.0. It's Thunderbird with a Eudora face.

I put the same configuration details into it and it worked successfully the first time I used it. As with all new things it required a small learning curve, but I'm quite happy with it on Windows 7. My preference would always be Outlook Express but, alas, it's not compatible with Win 7.

Cheers.