ERI strongly recommends Mozilla Thunderbird email as a virus-resistant alternative to Outlook or Outlook Express. Thunderbird has a point-and-click interface, easy-to-use menus and a much more advanced spam-filtering system than Outlook. It is a free download from Mozilla.
Setup
- To begin, you'll need to download the Thunderbird client. Go to http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ and click on the [Free Download] button to begin the process. A pop-up box should ask whether you want to run or save the file. Save it to your "My Documents" folder. On a cable connection, this should take about eight minutes. Dialup will be considerably longer.
Once the file has downloaded, close all windows to return to your desktop.
- Next, run the install program. Click on [Start] -> Run..., then click the [Browse] button. If you aren't already looking at your "My Documents" folder, find it. Click on the Thunderbird download file (usually called "Thunderbird Setup 9.9.9.9.exe" where the 9's are replaced with the current version), then click [Open], then click [OK] in the browse box.
Depending on your Windows version and level of security, you may get a security warning at this point, reminding you that you're about to run a file you downloaded from the Internet. If so, click [Run] to go ahead.
- Setup will extract the files, then begin popping up the installation windows. If you've ever installed software before, this process is familiar. First click [Next] to begin the setup.
- Choose the option to accept the terms of the license agreement, then click [Next].
- Standard installation is fine, so click [Next]. Thunderbird components will begin to install. On a typical PC, this process will take a minute or so.
- The "Install Complete" window appears, with the option to run Thunderbird now. Click [Finish] to do so.
- Now, setup your email. First, Thunderbird will ask if it should import your email addresses from Outlook's address book. Select that option if you'd like to have them transferred, then click [Next].
The "New Account Wizard" shows up, asking you to setup your email account. This step-by-step guide only needs to be done once. Click [Next] to begin.
- Enter your full name and your email address on our server. For example, if your website was www.effierover.com and your email address has been setup as sally, your email address is sally@effierover.com ... type it just like that. Click [Next].
- The type of server you are using is a POP server. The name of your incoming server is the same as your website, substituting 'mail' for 'www' ... in our example above, the mail server is mail.effierover.com. Remember to omit the 'www' part! Your outgoing server is provided by your Internet Access Provider. Here are a few of the local server names. If yours is not on here, you'll need to call them. (Call us if you're having problems and we'll sort it out for you.)
Road Runner (Rochester): smtp-server.rochester.rr.com
Paetec: relay-mail.paetec.netEnter the name and click [Next].
- Your incoming username is your email address, substituting a pound sign (#) for the ampersand (@). In the example above, the incoming username is sally#effierover.com. Your outgoing username should be empty – all providers above do not require a username for outbound email. Make sure this line is blank, then click [Next] to continue. (We're almost done!)
- If you have several different email addresses you'd like to use with Thunderbird, then enter a nickname for this email (for example 'Work Mail'). If not, don't worry about it. Click [Next].
- Thunderbird will allow you to review your choices before saving them. Make sure you have no typos (click [Back] if you find any and correct them), then click [Finish].
Thunderbird will typically ask you if it should be used as the default mail application. The answer to that is 'Yes.'
And, you're in. There are some excellent tutorials at http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/ to get you started. You're on your way to a safer email experience!