Why hath my bird no thunder?

June 12, 2007 10:50 AM

Forces are conspiring to keep me from switching from Entourage to Thunderbird at the office.

I'm getting an error that I'm unable to log in to the POP server when I try to check my inbox in Thunderbird. And yet, I filled out all the config options using information that I found in my Entourage configuration. What might I be doing wrong?

I'm on a mac, so it's not a Norton issue...

My administrator (who is an offsite vendor) is an Entourage advocate, and is being less than helpful. But I need better searching and tagging options than Entourage provides. Is there something obvious I could be missing?

I'm glad to provide more info as needed.

posted by bingo to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Have you tried the different options for connecting with and without SSL, and for the various flavors of encrypting passwords? There are two or three ways to send a POP3 password, and you have to match the server's method.

Ok, I just looked: under tools/accounts/server settings for the account in question, try all the various combinations of "Never/TLS if available/TLS/SSL" both with the Use Secure Authentication checkbox. Should be 8 combinations to try. I'd try Never first, both with and without Use Secure, and then go from there.
posted by Malor at 10:57 AM on June 12, 2007

Also, could your provider be using a non standard port?
posted by COD at 11:07 AM on June 12, 2007

We're going to need the error message to solve this one, above and beyond wild guesses.

It's probably going to be a SSH and/or port issue. Is the server on-site or accessed across the Net?
posted by humblepigeon at 11:15 AM on June 12, 2007

Do this. If you can do USER and PASS and LIST then there's something wrong with thunderbird, not the server/network.
posted by damn dirty ape at 11:40 AM on June 12, 2007

Response by poster: The error message is: "Could not connect to server ourserver.com, the connection was refused."

I'm pretty sure the server is offsite.

I have tried all 8 security settings.

I don't know for sure which port is being used. Is there a way for me to check this through an Entourage or Outlook configuration on someone else's computer?

When I telnet to the mail server, I'm getting a "Bad login" error.
posted by bingo at 12:56 PM on June 12, 2007

pop3 is port 110. Thus "telnet severname.com 110"

If that doesnt work then it might be on a different port or POP3 is disabled and you guys are using IMAP which is 143 thus "telnet servername.com 143"

If that doesnt work I'd try IMAP with ssl encryption or POP with encryption. Doublecheck your entourage settings. It should specify.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:07 PM on June 12, 2007

Also your login name may be your entire email address, it may be the part before the @, or it may be none of those. Again, check your entourage settings.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:08 PM on June 12, 2007

"connection refused" means that you're not connecting on the right port or to the right IP address. It means that nobody is answering when you knock.

Something is different between the two systems: check again that you have the server and port correct.

The password stuff won't work if the connection is refused; you have to establish a connection to the server first, and THEN start telling it who you are. :)
posted by Malor at 1:30 PM on June 12, 2007

Same advice as always.

Install Wireshark, look at what happens on a successful Entourage connection, find the differences between that and the unsuccessful Thunderbird connection, deduce the right Thunderbird settings to tweak, and tweak them.

There is no substitute for seeing what's going on instead of having to guess about it.
posted by flabdablet at 4:04 PM on June 12, 2007

I recall needing to change POP ports before Thunderbird would work. If you are using POP over SSL, the port is likely to be 995 (this is the configuration for pop.gmail.com, for example).

If that doesn't work, and you can't deduce the correct settings from Entourage's user interface, flabdablet's advice is the way to go.
posted by harmfulray at 11:30 PM on June 13, 2007