Mozilla Thunderbird - Secure POP3 / IMAP Email Setup

3DPixel.net recommends the use of Mozilla Thunderbird to securely collect POP3 or IMAP emails to your computer. This application is free.

Thunderbird Download Site (new window)

In order to download email to your computer via Thunderbird, you must first have created an email account in your Plesk Control Panel.

Upon installing and opening Thunderbird for the first time, a new account window will appear, or indeed if you already use Thunderbird please select from the menu, Tools > Account Settings > Add Account.

In this example we wish to add an Email Account.

Please enter the name you would like sent email from Thunderbird to appear "from", and enter the email address you added in Plesk earlier (e.g. you@yourdomain.com).

You have a basic choice on how you wish to collect your email. POP3 is more common and will actually download the emails from the 3DPixelNet servers to Thunderbird, storing them on your computer. IMAP will leave copies of the emails sent to you on 3DPixelNet's servers. There are benefits to both methods depending on your situation, however please remember that with IMAP, the storage allocation of your inbox is continually filling up. 3DPixelNet recommends POP3 be selected to download emails.

Your incoming server is wholly determined by the domain name you are adding an email address under. e.g. if your domain is joebloggs.co.uk, your incoming mail server would be mail.joebloggs.co.uk - likewise for janesmith.com, your incoming mailserver would be mail.janesmith.com

This information is also contained in your Domain Creation Welcome Email.

The next screen will prompt you for the username for your email address. This is always whatever you have put before the @ in your email address. e.g. if your email address you setup is joe@joebloggs.co.uk, the username is joe. You will be prompted for the password when you first attempt to download email from the 3DPixelNet servers, you can save it aswell for ease of use later.

If you have email from multiple email accounts downloading, you may wish to name particular accounts for ease of use.

SSL

3DPixel.net strongly recommends that you connect to your email via secure methods both for POP3 and IMAP. These methods are not enabled by default in Mozilla Thunderbird.

Once the above standard configuration is complete, in the account summary (Tools > Account Settings) select the "Server Settings" option.

The first image below will indicate as a template, what your existing configuration will look like.

2 things need to be changed in order to move to a secure connection.
1. Change the security settings from none to SSL
2. Change the server name from mail.yourdomain.com (template) to your specific 3dpixelnet server name (this is in your welcome email or indeed contact us if you don't know).

Save the options, shut down Thunderbird and reopen. Send/Receive may prompt you for the email password once again; this is normal. If no warnings are presented then SSL secure email collection is active and working.

SMTP (Outgoing Email)

This section is only relevant if you purchased SMTP support from 3DPixel.net during your account setup, you may add it at any time, please contact support.

SMTP relates to sending outgoing emails from Thunderbird or any other email application. Many users are provided SMTP via their Internet Service Providers (ISP).

In the account summary (Tools > Account Settings) select the "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" option.

If SMTP support was purchased from 3DPixelNet please refer to the SMTP email sent from 3DPixelNet after your account was set up for the relevant details.

Using the image below please note the important points, port must be port 25. If you are having slow connection sending on port 25 (email will take 25 - 30 seconds to send or just fail completely, please use our alternate SMTP port 2525 - in today's climate of spam, many ISPs block port 25).

Please also ensure no TLS or Secure Connection is selected. SMTP is a plain, simple protocol (hence the S in Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

Your SMTP password will be prompted for when you first try to send an email.