Thunderbird Mail Client: Questions and opinions

[besafe]

After doing some research online yesterday, I am seriosuly considering using the Thunderbird mail client as an alternative to Windows Mail in Vista. I have some questions for experienced users:

1. I have a Contacts Book in Vista Windows Mail. I also have a CD that has an old Outlook Express Address book of about 1500 contacts. Would it be easy to import both address books to Thunderbird?

2. Can you change the outgoing SMTP port in Thunderbird? I have all of my mail handled by Network Solutions. I use their Outgoing SMTP rather than my ISP. When I need to send out mass emails, I also sometimes use a 3rd party relay service. Both of these require me to use a differetn port other than port 25. Is this easy to do with Thunderbird?

3. When I am away from my home office, I like to set up my mail client to leave messages on the server so I can check email remotely. Can you program Thunderbird to do this?

4. I use several distribution lists called "Contact Groups" in Windows Mail. Some for my clients others for my neighborhood watch program. Does Thunderbird support groups? Could I import my current groups from Windows Mail without having to set them up again?

Those are my main questions. I would also appreciate any feedback you may have regarding this mail client. Thanks!

[ronjor]

Some of your questions may be answered here. http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/

[dread]

1. Not sure about the vista address book but yes to the OE address book. Look here (http://opensourcearticles.com/thunderbird_15/english/part_06).

2. Yes it is easy to change the port. Look here (http://mozilla.gunnars.net/thunderbird_mail_setup.html) under Creating additional outgoing mail servers.

3. Yes you tell it to leave messages on the server. It is under the same place as the about link.

4. Not sure on the groups question. Did a search on the forum and fount this (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=604295) and this (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=604082).

I love thunderbird. It is great in my opinion. As I mentioned before the junk protection is great either using the junk protection or using that one message filter I talked about before. It has great privacy protection, has themes and extensions. Look at the features (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/features.html) page for thunderbird. As far as checking hotmail/msn accounts I would use freepops (http://www.freepops.org/). Freepops handles more than just hotmail though. Look here (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_webmail_with_your_email_client) for more info on webmail with thunderbird. But if you pay for you hotmail/msn then you do not need them programs.

[steve161]

Agreed. It is easy to use and well laid out. As far as extensions, I use lightning, which is the Sunbird calendar extension, and Webmail, which allows me to check my Yahoo, Hotmail, and mail.com accounts.

[Secure1]

IMHO, the address book is a weak spot for Thunderbird. I love TB and will continue to use it, but I and many friends have experienced flakiness in the address book, especially when creating distribution lists. You populate the lists and then the entries aren't there... and after creating dist lists, the contacts are duplicated in the main contact list...

I have imported contacts several times and had the counts mis-match. For example I import 100 contacts and see that 120 were imported... hmmm... Many problems like this make me want to switch to another client, but TB has so many other strengths that I haven't switched so far.

[wilbertnl]

Answers in pictures...

Groups in address book:

195344

SMPT port:

195345

Leave messages on server:

195346

Import address books:

195347

Since you want to leave your messages on the server, I have an additional suggestion for you.
I use an IMAP server (AOL and Gmail offer IMAP for free accounts), and you never have to worry about that anymore. You also get web access with it.

Hope it helps.