Thunderbird and Mail Foundry

Vger · 21st February 2007, 05:40 PM

I am thinking of using Thunderbird in place of Outlook. Maily this is because our version of Outlook is from 2003 and getting a bit ancient - and I don't want to pay to buy the whole Office Suite again just to upgrade Outlook.

One problem I have is that Thunderbird considers the Mail Foundry Daily Digests to be possible spam and so renders them all in plain text - which, with all the links and html code, makes them almost unreadable. I have the programme set to allow html emails, but this makes no difference.

Does anyone with experience of Thunderbird know how to stop this from happening?

Many Thanks - Rhea

MrBen · 21st February 2007, 05:45 PM

Add the email address MailFoundry mails are sent from to your Thunderbird address book. Also check the junk mail settings (Tools > Junk Mail Controls...) to ensure the do not mark a message as junk if sender is in your address book is set. There is also the option to not sanitise the HTML of junk emails too and to even turn off the adaptive filter should you desire.

Ben

mattjenn · 21st February 2007, 05:53 PM

I use Thunderbird and it doesn't mark the digests as junk. It should learn by telling it that the email is not junk ie click on the digest when in the junk folder and click the 'not junk' button. Adding to address book should be the definitive solution as suggested.

HTH M

Vger · 21st February 2007, 06:03 PM

Thanks for the comments and answers folks, much appreciated. I'm guessing that it cannot be applied retrospectively to items already in the Inbox - at leats it does not seem to work. I guess I'll have to wait until the next Daily Digest to fully check it out.

Thanks again.

Rhea

Tim · 21st February 2007, 06:24 PM

Slightly off topic but can't you get hold of an individual copy of Outlook these days instead of the full Office? I actually use (and love) Thunderbird but was considering buying a copy of Outlook 2007 for testing email newsletters as it apparently renders HTML terribly.

desquinn · 21st February 2007, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim

Slightly off topic but can't you get hold of an individual copy of Outlook these days instead of the full Office? I actually use (and love) Thunderbird but was considering buying a copy of Outlook 2007 for testing email newsletters as it apparently renders HTML terribly.

2 "cheaper" ways to get an outlook in descending cost si to buy a windows movile PDA or buy it standalone from Dabs for example

MrBen · 21st February 2007, 07:02 PM

If you go the Windows Mobile route you don't necessarily get the latest version of Outlook though. I bought an HP iPAQ in January and I'm not even sure if it was Outlook 2003 it came with... might have only been 2002 / XP. I assume Windows Mobile 6 devices due soon will be 2007 though.

The reason Outlook 2007 is bad is because it has gone back to using the Microsoft Word HTML engine rather than Internet Explorer.

Ben

Tim · 21st February 2007, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desquinn

2 "cheaper" ways to get an outlook in descending cost si to buy a windows movile PDA or buy it standalone from Dabs for example

Looks like £80 from Dabs then

Tim · 21st February 2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBen

The reason Outlook 2007 is bad is because it has gone back to using the Microsoft Word HTML engine rather than Internet Explorer.

Ben

And to confuse things I believe Outlook Express isn't using the Word engine.

peterd · 21st February 2007, 09:21 PM

Damn Vger, I saw this thread and had hoped perhaps there was going to be mention of a MailFoundry toolbar for Thunderbird. Guess I might have to write and add-on...

Like mattjenn though, I haven't had any issues with Thunderbird considering the digests as spam - this is a straight default install (on XP and Ubuntu), no modifications or configuration changes other than adding my IMAP accounts.

Vger · 21st February 2007, 11:17 PM

One other question.

I can download mail fine using Thunderbird - but I'm having problems setting up the smtp connection in it for outgoing mail. Under 'Security and Authentication' it says 'Use Name and Password'. If I don't tick that it says 'relaying denied' but if I do tick it then I get 'sending of message failed' blah blah blah. If I enter one 'User' mail address for that then it connects fine. Does this mean that I have to set up different smtp connections for each mail address?

Vger

MrBen · 22nd February 2007, 12:56 AM

Yes that's one difference with Thunderbird... the SMTP connections are separate from incoming email. It means then you only have to setup SMTP once for all your accounts (assuming they all use the same SMTP server).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vger

If I enter one 'User' mail address for that then it connects fine. Does this mean that I have to set up different smtp connections for each mail address?

No. So long as you authenticate successfully you can send email. It doesn't matter if you don't actually want to send email as that specific user... all you're doing is getting access to the SMTP service. Once you've got access you can do what you like... send email as billg@microsoft.com if you like!

Ben

Vger · 22nd February 2007, 02:22 AM

Thanks Mr Ben, but while waiting for an answer I did things the hard way and set up an SMTP service for each mail address (there aren't many of them).

As I am used to launching Outlook from the Mail link in IE I dragged the shortcut to Thunderbird into the Links bar in IE - though I'm not sure Bill Gates would approve of that!

Vger