1. Auto-configuration of Thunderbird 3

The following instructions guide you through the automatic account creation process of Thunderbird 3.

  1. Install and start the program (for details, see the Mozilla Thunderbird website)
  2. Click on the Create a new account option on the start screen
    Opening screen showing the create account option
    Figure 1. opening screen showing create account option
  3. The Mail Account Setup opens
    Mail Account Setup screen
    Figure 2. Mail Account Setup screen
  4. In the Mail Account Setup box, enter:
    • Your name: Your name as you wish it to appear on your messages
    • Email address: Your Nexus email address, for example jo.bloggs@unit.ox.ac.uk
    • Password: Your Oxford Single Sign-On password
    • Remember password Leaving this un-ticked means you have to enter your password when you open the email program (safer option).
    Click on Continue
    Mail Account Setup box
    Figure 3. Mail Account Setup box
  5. The program will now try to configure itself
    Thunderbird is searching for Nexus settings
    Figure 4. Searching for the settings
  6. Click on the Stop button to stop the process (or leave it to fail - the end result is the same). Once the automatic configuration has been stopped or failed, you can edit the settings of the account
  7. Check that the settings in the top part of the Mail Account Setup window are correct. If not, click on Start over and enter the correct details:
    • Your name: Your name as you wish it to appear on your messages
    • Email address: Your Nexus email address, for example jo.bloggs@unit.ox.ac.uk
  8. Now enter the following settings manually in the lower part of the Mail Account Setup window:

    User name: Your Oxford Single Sign-On username, for example unit1234

    Incoming: imap.nexus.ox.ac.uk ; IMAP ; 993 ; SSL/TLS

    Outgoing: smtp.ox.ac.uk ; 587 ; STARTTLS

    Setting entered manually into the appropriate boxes
    Figure 5. Settings entered manually

    Press Re-test Configuration button to make Thunderbird repeat the automatic search.

  9. In some instances the automatic search still fails to find the correct settings. If this happens please follow the manual configuration instructions instead.
  10. When the program has found the settings, press Create Account button. Thunderbird will now create the new account and fetch your emails for you to read. N.B. using IMAP setting also leaves all your mail on the Nexus server.
    Setting have been found by Thunderbird
    Figure 6. Thunderbird has found the settings

Once you have completed account configuration, you may wish to tweak your settings to work with Nexus more efficiently.

Up: Contents Next: 2. Manual Configuration of Thunderbird 3