Mozilla help

[wncbmw]

Any Mozilla gurus out there?

After much procrasination, I decided this week to mount my own little insurgency against Microsoft and downloaded the Mozilla Firefox browser to try to replace Internet Explorer. Easy download, imported my favorites - no problems and I like it!

So I then decided to continue my feeble resistence to the collective by downloading Mozilla Thunderbird for my email. Easy download, imported all my address book and all my emails still on Outlook, including all my trashed ones. No sweat. Except . . it will not get new emails! Says no new emails on the server. I have created the account as required, given it the correct address and password but no luck. I have uninstalled and reloaded twice, with the same results.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I am still using Outlook of emails and it works, so I know it is not my provider.

[Boxer]

Are you sure you have the correct mail server address in the settings?

[DSKYZD]

Here's a help page with screenshots for the account config part. The first part is the download and install you've already done, scroll down near the bottom.

http://opensourcearticles.com/introduct ... hunderbird

To me it sounds like your setting for Incoming Server may not be quite right. Frequently you can get by with something like:

mail.myisp.com
or
incoming.myisp.com

You may find the correct settings in your Outlook client or on your ISP's homepage.


Next on your list of things to get should be the Openoffice.org suite:

http://www.openoffice.org


If Thunderbird doesn't suit you, Eudora is also quite excellent:

http://www.eudora.com


DSKYZD

[popgazer]

If you are running outlook and thunderbird simultaneously, outlook may be automatically fetching email and removing it from the server, which is why TB (as in thunderbird, not to be confused with throttle body ) is not able to find any new mail. Outlook also runs in the background and fetches email without making the front window visible.
Make sure Outlook is completely stopped, then open TB and use it to send yourself an email.
Wait a few seconds, then click on "Get Mail". You shoud then get your new message in the Inbox.

[wncbmw]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will give them a try later tonight. I think all the setting are correct as far as the address. At least it is the same as the Outlook settings. I like the program, if I can get it to work.

The tabbed browsing on Firefox is great. My home page is a news site, with a couple of frequently visited blogs tabbed and of course 1150r.org tabbed for quick access! I will not miss IE!

[rdsmith3]

We have three computers in our house -- two desktops and my laptop that I do not let the kids touch.

I feel like a darn LAN administrator sometimes because of the lousy Microsoft software. For three computers, I have to make sure that the firewall is set up correctly; the anti-virus is current; the anti-spyware is current; Windows security updates are installed; and so on. The four kids play on-line games, IM, and all sorts of dangerous stuff, so I have to always be current with this. Plus, the two desktops have Windows 98 so they are always freezing up. But I don't want to buy new PCs because I intentionally do not want them to spend too much time on the computer.

I am not a fan of Microsoft. Imagine if you could ruin your TV just by accidentally looking at the wrong commercial. Oops! TV won't work now. Call up Sony to apply a patch. Oh, you have an older TV. Sorry, we no longer support that model. But, hey, look at this new and improved model that you should really have anyway.

[Shaman]

But I don't want to buy new PCs because I intentionally do not want them to spend too much time on the computer.

I know how you feel.
But XP Pro is worth the upgrades.
Get cheap $499 desktops w/no peripherals since you have them and pick the XP Pro option. They wont crash anymore and they'll all network wonderfully. They'll be too weak to game on, but the networking part will be cake and probably no no crashes.

Stopping them from D/Ling adware and spam is tough one though.
The firefox pop-up blocker is helpful though.

Check your system start-up (start>run>msconfig) every so often and research and check off anything that does not belong there.

[rdsmith3]

But I don't want to buy new PCs because I intentionally do not want them to spend too much time on the computer.

Check your system start-up (start>run>msconfig) every so often and research and check off anything that does not belong there.

I do that. It really irritates me that some programs continually insert themselves in the startup process. QuickTime is one of them. I don't mind having their software on my PC, but I don't need it to be in the start up file, esp with my old PCs that have barely enough memory. I finally had to uninstall QT completely because somehow, some way, it kept appearing in the startup program.

I was thinking of getting Net Nanny to keep the kids away from unsavory sites, but then I thought that any 16 or 12 year old could figure out ways around it. It did not take me too long to find instructions on the internet for disabling Net Nanny.

[wncbmw]

We had 3 computers in the house with a wireless network. The boys had old computers from Grandpa the computer geek. They just surf mountain bike sites and IM all the friends. My oldest now has a laptop for college and uses it around the house. I think our next home computer will be a laptop! It nice to be able to travel with it.

I used all the Norton's firewall, anti-virus etc and still got zapped last year by a bug that Nortons found on a scan and said they had supposedly updated my protection!

I use AVG free anti-virus now and MS firewall. No problems for a while.

It is amazing to me when the darn thing suddenly adds a program, or losed a program or does something weird for no reason!

BTW, I think I got the email running. It appears all I had to do was close out Outlook!

[popgazer]

A few tips I use to save money and band-width:

- Most wirless routers/firewalls have "Parental Control" function, use it instead of a local software. You save on the cost of the local software, and doesn't slow down the CPU of your computer.
- Set up a password on the router, if it's complicated enough, kids won't be able to crack it.
- Put some of the domain name of known ad agencies' servers in the parental control. e.g. doubleclick.net, pointroll.com etc. The router will block downloading many of those anoying flash ads that cost band-width and slow down computers.
- If your router/firewall doesn't have parental control, check the web site of the manufacturer, there may be a newer version in the download area. A newer version may have implemented a parental control functionality.

Finally, if you don't need any particular software that runs on Windows ONLY, think of installing Linux. Get a book read about Linux and try to install it. You will save yourself alot of headache in the long run
I use Linux full time both at home and at work, and I help others with their MS systems. There is a lot less problems with Linux than with windows.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I had the same problem. I called my ISP (Bellsouth) and there were different settings for T'Bird vs OE. I would've never known otherwise.
Sounds like a call to tech support.

John

[Shaman]

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[touchton]

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[Shaman]

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Well worth it and I would hate for him to stop updating.