Thunderbird:Help Documentation:Creating an Account

This page will detail the process involved with creating a new Email, Movemail, RSS News and Blogs, or Newsgroup account in Thunderbird.

Creating an Email Account

Creating an Email account is probably the most common task that a given user will want to do. Fortunately, it's also a very simple task.

To set up an email account, first go to Tools → Account Settings, then click Add Account. A new dialog window should appear on your screen. Select the Email Account option, then click Next to proceed.

After filling in your name and email address, click Next to proceed.

Here you will be asked information about your Internet Provider's mail server: whether it is a POP or IMAP server, and the mail server's Internet domain name. Contact your ISP's technical support for this information. Click Next to proceed.

On the next few screens you will be asked to fill in your username, the name of the account, and also to set up an SMTP server. At the end, click Finish and you will be returned to the Account Settings dialog. You may correct any mistakes you mave have made in setting up your account here.

Creating a Movemail Account

Movemail is a service on UNIX-like systems to copy mail from the system mail spool into an email client. It is a part of GNU Emacs. Depending upon your operating system, you may need to have GNU Emacs installed to have it. To set up an email account, first go to Tools → Account Settings, then click Add Account. A new dialog window should appear on your screen. Select the Movemail option, then click Next to proceed.

On the next screen you will be asked to provide your name and your email address. Click Next to proceed. If you have not already set up an SMTP server in Thunderbird, you will be asked to set one up in the next screen. Otherwise, click Next. On the next screen you can verify your information. When you are satisfied, click Finish to complete the setup of your account.

Creating an RSS News and Blogs Account

The RSS News and Blogs feature of Thunderbird allows you to subscribe to RSS, RSS2, or Atom feeds and have the contents of each displayed as mail would be in Thunderbird.

Setting up an account for RSS News and Blogs is very simple. First, go to Tools → Account Settings, then click Add Account. A new dialog window should appear on your screen. Select the RSS News and Blogs Account option and click Next. After choosing an account name, click Next then Finish to verify it.

To add RSS, RSS2, or Atom feeds to your RSS News and Blogs account, go to Tools → Account Settings, then select your RSS News and Blogs account. Choose Manage Subscriptions in the right pane of the window. There you will be presented with an interface to set up new feeds.

Creating a Newsgroup Account

A newsgroup is an area on a computer network, especially the Internet, devoted to the discussion of a specified topic.

To set up a newsgroup account, first go to Tools →Account Settings, then click Add Account. A new dialog window should appear on your screen. After filling in your name and email address, click Next to proceed. On the next screen, you will be asked for the news server's Internet domain name. Fill in the field, then click Next to proceed. Give your newsgroup account a name, then click Finish to complete the setup of your account.