how do you setup thunderbird?

[iceni60]

i just installed thunderbird. i haven't used it for a couple of years and i'm not sure if there's anything i should do to make it secure and improve functionality, like installing some extensions.

all i've done so far is click the bit about view message body as plain text. what else should i do? and are there any good extensions i can get?

last time i used thunderbird each account had its own folder in the left column, now all the accounts are together as 'local folders' how do i make them all separate? thanks.

[WSFuser]

theres lots of changes i make in settings, i dont know if any improve security tho.

the only extension i use thats unique for thunderbird is KnujOn. i created an account and after receiving xxx number of junk emails, i press the KnujOn toolbar button to send the spam. hopefully ill get less and less spam.

iirc, when u setup an account thunderbird lets u specify if u want it to have its own folder or just to use the local folders. maybe u can change it afterwards, but im not sure.

[Devinco]

Here are the main settings I use when configuring Thunderbird:

-{ Quote: "View/Message Body As/Plain Text is the important one.
View/Headers/All lets you see details of the emails you receive especially the IP address.
Tools/Options.../Display/Fonts Tab/Fonts... lets you customize font size and style.
Tools/Options.../Composition/General Tab/Forward messages Inline
Tools/Options.../Composition/General Tab/Send Options.../Convert the message to plain text
Spelling tab/Check spelling before sending if you want it.

Tools/Options.../Privacy/General Tab/
Check Block loading of remote images in mail messages
Uncheck Allow remote images if the sender is in my:
Check Block JavaScript in mail messages

Tools/Options.../Privacy/Email Scams Tab/
Check mail messages for email scams

Tools/Options.../Privacy/Anti-Virus Tab
Check Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages

Tools/Options.../Privacy/Password Tab
I uncheck Use a master password to encrypt stored passwords because I don't want to type a separate password for each email session.
It would be more secure though if you use a master password.

Tools/Options.../Attachments/Ask me where to save every file

Tools/Options.../Advanced/Update/
Check Automatically check for updates to: Thunderbird and Installed Extensions and Themes

This is optional and more related to privacy than security.
If you want to alter or remove the user agent that will be displayed in the email header of the emails that you send:
Tools/Options.../Advanced/General Tab/Config Editor...
Right-Click anywhere in the about:config window
From the Pop up menu choose New/String
In the New String value window type: general.useragent.override
In the Enter String Value window type: whatever you want the user agent to show. If you don't want anything to show, just leave it blank." }-
Extensions that are useful:

Maximize Message Pane
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/1392/
Very handy for long emails.
After you add the extension and restart TB, right click the tool bar/customize... and drag the icon: Maximize onto the tool bar.

Allow HTML temporary
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/1556/
Useful for viewing the rare email from a trusted source that can only be viewed HTML. It will be HTML for that one viewing of the email only.
Add to tool bar the same way as the previous extension.

Sender Verification Extension
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/345/
This one was fun to play with but I don't use it much anymore.

Remember Mismatched Domains
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2131/
This one is extremely useful if any of your secure email accounts use self signed certificates.
It also allows some fancy secure email connections through PuTTY(SSH) without extra popups all the time about mismatched domains.

-{ Quote: "last time i used thunderbird each account had its own folder in the left column, now all the accounts are together as 'local folders' how do i make them all separate?" }-
Tools/Account Settings.../
In the left pane expand the settings under your email account by clicking the small +
Click Server Settings
Advanced... button
Inbox for this server's account

[dog [away]]

Enigmail (https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/71/) requires GNUpg (http://www.gnupg.org/)

[HAN]

I do 3 things...

1. I set up separate accounts (with their own Inbox, etc.) for each email address.

2. I go under Tools|Options|Privacy|Antivirus and check the Allow antivirus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages.

3. I install the Xpunge extension. I place the MultiXpunge icon on my Mail Toolbar where it allows very quick compacting of all folders (if you set it up that way.) It can also empty Trash folders too (which I do not use.)

[iceni60]

thanks for all the help 8) i'm going to go through this thread tomorrow and get thunderbird setup then. i wanted to use thunderbird partly so i can use the Enigmail extension, it came preinstalled with SUSEś version 8)

[iceni60]

i just went through everything 8) i'm glad i asked for help because i went through everything posted ;D

my SUSE Thunderbird came with the Enigmail and Mail Redirect extensions preinstalled 8) and i got the cutemenus, update notifier and Empty Trash extensions too as well as the others in this thread. i've already got AllTray (for gnome libs) which lets me minimize thunderbird to the tray

i want to setup Enigmail now. i'm abit unsure how to do it, i've done it once before but that was in a terminal. i made some keys and uploaded my public key to the keyservers. i'll see if i can find a tutorial.

i want to be able to send encrypted email and post to mailing lists and have a PGP sig so the mail can be verified, so you can tell it hasn't been tampered with. is that all easy to setup? it must be with the GUI preferences Enigmail has.

[iceni60]

i just found this extension for mailing lists - "reply to list"
here's the readme - http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/thunderbird/README

it looks like you need to patch thunderbird for the extension to work, or wait until Thunderbird 3.0 ??? , but if you use suse you can just follow the instructions. i'm not sure which mailing lists this applies too though ???
http://dev-loki.blogspot.com/2006/08/thunderbird-with-reply-to-list.html

[WSFuser]

-{ Quote: "i'm not sure which mailing lists this applies too though ???" }-
i myself dont know too much about mailing lists but the website says this:
-{ Quote: "It only works for mailing lists which provide a "List-Post:" header." }-

[iceni60]

-{ Quote: "i myself dont know too much about mailing lists but the website says this:" }-
thanks, i just found the correct link -
http://open.nit.ca/wiki/index.php?page=ReplyToListThunderbirdExtension&7

i don't bother much with mailing lists, but they are really great so i'm going to force myself to start using them. i've always thought of them as outdated, but they're not at all. here's a good one to subscribe to - securityfocus Focus-MS
-{ Quote: "The Focus-MS mailing list begins where Bugtraq leaves off. This list discusses the how-to's and why's of the various security mechanisms available to help assess, secure, and patch Microsoft technologies. This list is meant as an aid to network and systems administrators and security professionals who are responsible for implementing, reviewing and ensuring the security of their Microsoft hosts and applications." }-
you can then receive all the lastest known exploits and find out what to do about it.
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/88/description
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/88/description#0.3
here are their other lists
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive

here are the ubuntu lists
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/
this is how one looks like in a browser -
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-uk/2006-October/thread.html
if you subscribe you can use your email client like a forum :D

here's the mailing list on the ubuntuforums -
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6

look at a thread and you can see they posted using email
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89289

i don't think Debian (the distro ubuntu, knoppix and many others are based on) even has a forum, everything is done on their mailing lists