Thunderbird and its Outgoing Server

Hi All,

This is a situation that recently came up when I tried to have more than one e-mail account. I'm using Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 and have Verizon.net as my server. For two accounts I might have something like ABCD and KLMN as user names. If I send a message with ABCD as the user and then try to send another with the KLMN user, the message will fail. Looking at the server settings for the second account, I see that the Out Going Server (SMPT) block contains: ABCD - outgoing.verizon.net (Default). When I Edit the user names and assign the proper user name, KLMN for the second message the mail will be sent. Apparently the outgoing server block will always contain the most recently designated user name.

I rarely use the Verizon web mail and it does not have a similar problem because one must log in with a user name and password. I'm not sure if this is a Verizon or a Thunderbird condition. In any case I would prefer to stay with the TB mail system. Am I missing something in setting up the TB mail accounts?

 

It is not a Thunderbird problem. You would have the same issue using a Microsoft or other mail program.
Basically, Verizon is preoccupied that their subscribers send out spam, and they figure that if they allow only to send out mail with one username that the problem be alleviated. Other ISP do the same, and all they do is irritate the user. Real spam is rarely, if ever send with a legit address. Or there may be "drive-by" spamming.
My ISP allows me to send mail from six different accounts, using one server, plus mail from other servers. They have ways to control spamming, beside the primitive way of allowing one address to send only its mail.

 

For most ISPs you can configure your outgoing SMTP server in your eMail client to validate, provide it with the correct userid and password, and send without problems.

 

Westside and AKAJohnDoe,

Thank you for your replies. Apparently each of you is suggesting that Verizon is at fault for the awkward situation of having to Edit the Outgoing server block each time a different account and user name is being used in the Thunderbird mail. And you could be right, I don't know. What still bothers me is that once you have an e-mail account established, TB offers the opportunity to add a new account from: Tools>Account Settings to the Add Account button on the lower-left panel of the Account Settings screen.

For the time being I've given up building more than a single account.

 

Not at all. You misunderstand us.

You can have many different eMail accounts in ThunderBird. Even ones from different ISPs. You can even set them up to get eMail all together or independently. You can even have separate inboxes for each or a global inbox. You can even have IMAP and HTTP eMail in most eMail clients if you have those type of accounts. While, fi I recall correctly, ThunderBird does have a default account under which outgoing eMail is sent, you can override this .. sort of ... by setting the Reply-To.

The only "gotcha" is that with Verizon, as with most ISPs, the SMTP (Outgoing) server for each eMail account either has to be the one on the ISPs domain (outgoing.verizon.net for you) or one in a domain that is trusted by the ISPs domain (in practical use, there are virtually none of these trust relationships set up in the real world outside of corporations). This is because the ISP wants to prevent spammers from abusing their services. The POP (Incoming) server can be whatever ISP the eMail account is on. There is no requirement that the Incoming and Outgoing servers be on the same domain; in fact, as you have discovered, it is often neccessary to have them on different domains.

A secondary "gotcha ", that many folks never encounter unless they are using a laptop computer, is that if you go somewhere else and connect into a different network, the ISP has then changed and the outgoing server probably would need to be temporarily modified to allow eMail to be sent via the SMTP server on that domain.

 

AKAJohnDoe,

Thank you again for your latest detailed summation of the e-mail situation. As I said in my post above I'm going to stay with a single active account. In the meantime I'll periodically work on building multiple accounts.

By the way, that is a pretty classy web site you have

 

You are welcome. And thank you, but it really is just a hobby site.

 

Interesting. My ISP is also Cox, and it does not require anything more than having the account. I have four accounts of my own, plus my wife, yahoo, three aol and myway mail. I can send with the same generic SMTP (i.e. no account in particular). I limit the use of the the non-Cox accounts, but, at any given time I may use any of our accounts, with the same SMTP . Account unspecified, port 25.

 

Good to know. I use the webmail when I travel, and so does my wife. Effectively, using webmail one needs authorization. I never, even, considered to use a mail program, which would require an account set up, away from home.
Unless I misunderstand what you mean.

 

That is what I did under Thunderbird: Set the ReplyTo, but send from whatever SMTP server was allowed at the time.