The instructions below describe how to set up the Thunderbird email client for use with your Computer Science email account. When prompted you should enter the details for your CS account - don't confuse this with your college IS account.

1. Start up thunderbird by using either the Utilities pop-up menu item or typing the command thunderbird& in an xterm window.

2. When thunderbird is run for the first time it will display the New Account Wizard:

The wizard can also be accessed using by selecting the Edit/Account Settings menu item and clicking the Add Account button at the lower left.

3. Make sure that Email Account is selected and click Next.

4. The Identity dialog is displayed:

Enter your name in the first input field — please use your normal name rather than a nickname so there is no confusion when emailing staff.

Enter your CS email address in the Email Address field. This address will be of the form A.Person@cs.ucl.ac.uk, as given when you registered for an account.

Click Next.

5. The Server Information dialog is displayed:

Select the IMAP option and enter imap.cs.ucl.ac.uk as the incoming server address. If the dialog also displays a box for the outgoing server enter: smtp.cs.ucl.ac.uk

Click Next.

6. The User Names dialog is displayed:

In both fields enter your CS computer account user name (i.e., the user name you use when logging into a CS computer).

Click Next.

7. The Account Name dialog is displayed:

Enter whatever name you want to give to your CS email account.

Click Next.

8. Check the details in the final dialog and click Finish if OK. If not OK then use the Back button to revisit previous stages.

9. Set the outgoing email server by selecting the Edit/Account Settings menu item to display the account settings dialog:

Click the Outgoing Server (SMTP) item at the bottom of the list on the left.

10. The Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings dialog is displayed:

If the entry for smtp.cs.ucl.ac.uk is not present in the list then use the Add... button to add it. Do not change the port number.

Click OK.

11. Now try sending an email to yourself. Your email should appear in the inbox list within 10-20 seconds.

If there are errors go back to the Account Settings dialog and check the entries. In particular, check you have entered your correct user name (i.e., your CS computer account user name).

You can use the same server settings to configure an email client on non-CS machines, such as your own. If you are accessing email from outside the CS department you will need to enable SSL to create a secure connection.