Multiple Imap Accounts In Thunderbird

[dchakrab]

Since my last thread appears to have vanished (seriously, did you guys delete my thread because I posted an email problem you couldn't figure out? My other thread was locked...) and I just found a solution for one of my problems, I thought I'd share.

If you're getting "Sender Verify Failed" errors (or similar ones) and you're using multiple email accounts in one mail program, this might solve your problem.

The problem: I'm using multiple accounts in Thunderbird, under IMAP. This means that I need to be able to send and receive email under multiple accounts. Thunderbird uses one default outgoing mail server (the one for the first account you set up) for all accounts. For some mail servers (AOL, Yahoo, HostPC, others) this won't work, because the server does a sender-verify ...you can't send email from dave@ctcnetchicago.org using mail.nirmanweb.com as the outbound server, for example.

This is a new setting, since I've only had this problem in recent weeks.

The solution:

You create multiple accounts in Thunderbird as before. Set up the outbound mail server for the first one.

After setting up the second (or third, or however many) email account, click on "outgoing server" (at the bottom of the list of options) and then "advanced". Specify one mail server for every account...just click on "add" as many as times as you need to.

I did this before, but still couldn't get it to work. That's because I was missing the important part:

In the Account settings for each account, click on "server settings" and then on "advanced". Then select the correct outbound mail server for each account. Do *not* keep them on "use default mail server" ....so for dave@ctcnetchicago.org, I told it to always use mail.ctcnetchicago.org, etc. Such a simple fix...and it's been driving me nuts for weeks. I wish I'd spent more time trying to figure it out.

You'll have to set the account settings like this individually for each account, and match each one to the right mail server you added earlier, but once that's done, everything just works. I tested this with outbound emails to multiple domains (both on and off HostPC) and it's working fine.

Since I've heard questions on this before, I'll explain why I'm using this set up:

It lets me keep a copy of my email on the server (if you get a ton of email, you should POP this down to a backup account once every month or so, in case you're using up your mail quotas).

It lets me keep copies of my email on my home computer (Thunderbird set to keep offline copies).

It lets me keep copies of my email on a work computer (same setting).

It lets me view all of my email from all of my accounts everywhere I go (Thunderbird set to *not* keep offline copies running from my USB flash drive, from computers at my various work sites, from a computer at my girlfriend's house, etc).

It's the next best thing to running my own mail server. Hope this helps somebody.

Dave.

[Joe]

Originally posted by dchakrab@Feb 17 2006, 01:15 PM
Since my last thread appears to have vanished (seriously, did you guys delete my thread because I posted an email problem you couldn't figure out? My other thread was locked...) and I just found a solution for one of my problems, I thought I'd share.


Dave.

Quoted post



I've checked with our staff, nobody here deleted ANY post - I take very strong objection to that - we've never "censored" content.

Your other thread was locked because it was non productive and should have been in helpdesk ticket, we dont monitor forums for support issues typically.

Since you were the only one experiencing the (as you admitted) RANDOM problem, and our logs showed NO errors, there was very little we could do to assist.

I'm still awaiting your cancellation ticket.

[Sean]

So after all this, it turns out not to be a mail server issue with HostPC, but a software problem with your email clients method of handling mail. Something we clearly don't support.

http://helpdesk.hostpc.com/index.php?mod=faq&act=terms


We will verify that your email works. We cannot help with issues with a particular email client program (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, etc). POP3 and SMTP mail will be checked by support staff to determine that the server is processing the mail properly. Your method of retrieving mail is up to you. We give you the server tools, you handle the client tools.


As for the censorship accusations, if we were going to censor critical posts, don't you think we would have deleted this thread and the others, and then suspended you posting privileges? We don't do that. No clue what happened to your other thread, I for one don't remember seeing it.
We actually welcome constructive criticism when we goof or slack off, but we don't feel that being berated over and over in the forums is actually constructive, or at least I don't.

The locking was my doing as I felt as a moderator, that he thread was only going to get ugly and that all that needed to be said was and it was a support issue. That was my call, not Joes and he probably didn't even know I locked it.

Now all that being said, if you still have support issues, please keep them in the helpdesk where they belong. Bringing up those issues here simply distracts us from actually working on helpdesk tickets and doesn't help you or any of our other clients.

[dchakrab]

Originally posted by HPC-Sean@Feb 17 2006, 11:23 PM
So after all this, it turns out not to be a mail server issue with HostPC, but a software problem with your email clients method of handling mail. Something we clearly don't support.

http://helpdesk.hostpc.com/index.php?mod=faq&act=terms


We will verify that your email works. We cannot help with issues with a particular email client program (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, etc). POP3 and SMTP mail will be checked by support staff to determine that the server is processing the mail properly. Your method of retrieving mail is up to you. We give you the server tools, you handle the client tools.


As for the censorship accusations, if we were going to censor critical posts, don't you think we would have deleted this thread and the others, and then suspended you posting privileges? We don't do that. No clue what happened to your other thread, I for one don't remember seeing it.
We actually welcome constructive criticism when we goof or slack off, but we don't feel that being berated over and over in the forums is actually constructive, or at least I don't.

The locking was my doing as I felt as a moderator, that he thread was only going to get ugly and that all that needed to be said was and it was a support issue. That was my call, not Joes and he probably didn't even know I locked it.

Now all that being said, if you still have support issues, please keep them in the helpdesk where they belong. Bringing up those issues here simply distracts us from actually working on helpdesk tickets and doesn't help you or any of our other clients.

Quoted post



As I explained in my Anandtech thread, this *was* a HostPC problem. The Thunderbird problem was a sender-verify error. The other problem I had was at 5:30 in the morning, and was an "unrouteable address" error for non HostPC hosted domains (several of them). It was also a problem another user shared (see the locked thread).

Best guess is (as someone else posted) a routing problem. And I see some value in posting this in the forum, because a. someone else had the same problem (which HostPC still doesn't seem to realize) and b. the possibility of it being a routing problem and the link to that issue were posted there...and not in the helpdesk ticket, where the latest word is that no one knows what the problem is. So, on this issue, I received better support in that thread than I received via helpdesk.

Either way, I was alarmed by my squirrelmail thread vanishing and my current thread being locked. I can understand your reasoning now that you explain it...if it wasn't a censorship attempt, then I apologize.

As I stated in my AT thread and on my site, I'm not trying to bail on HostPC. My supervisor will make the final call either way, and my personal site is still hosted with HostPC and will probably stay there, in the hopes that helpdesk support improves. I merely wanted to make my public endorsements of HostPC more moderate (again, I have highly ranked pages in Google for "HostPC Review", on my site(s), the Digital Divide Network, and an AT thread I started). I wanted to include some caution in these, as I would verbally include a caution if I was asked in person, because I don't want people I've recommended feeling let down later.

And I posted my Thunderbird fix because it seemed relevant...if other users are having the same problem, they might find something useful in this, as might your tech staff if they're asked about it at some point by someone else having similar problems.

Best wishes,

D.

[Sean]

Well, as regards to helpdesk staff, the types of problems you were experiencing is beyond the normal abilities or access of most of the helpdesk staff and requires an tech administrator to handle. With all that is going on of late we are being stretched. Once we are in our new office, we will be bring on additional staff for both administration (tech issues) and helpdesk (problem support).

If there is one thing that is the bane of all webhosts, it's email. Everything else is a cakewalk..but email seems to be thing that causes the most problems and what the marjority of tickets are usually about.

Why? Because the current email infrastructure is old and flawed. Simple. It was never meant to provide the kind of traffic it handles now, there are too many bottlenecks and weakpoints in the process and when one thing..even a minor thing..breaks the whole deck of cards can come crumbling down.

I'll also make note that in the future, if we close a thread, we will be sure to make a note in it as to why so that there is no confusion or misunderstandings.

As for deleting threads...even though we don't normally do that, we decided that instead of deletions, we will simple move them to a non-public forum instead. We still don't know what happened to your other thread as no one remembers deleting it...but we apologize for losing it as it is our responsiblity to maintain the forum integrity. It definitely was not something we would have done intentionally.

Webhosting support would be a breeze if it weren't for email.

[dchakrab]

Thank you for your response. It helps restore my faith.

Interesting...I didn't realize email was that much of a pain. I mean, I realize it from the point of view of someone currently feeling the pain, but I didn't realize it was a major source of support troubles. I would have guessed something like database connections or cgi if someone asked me to conjecture as to the major headache in hosting support.

Web 2.0 involves a mix of so many technologies that are driven by email. For example, there are already open source projects available that allow seamless integration of forums and email (even Drupal can do this, with some work). I post to this forum because I choose to interact with it as a forum, but everything I post goes to a mailing list who chose to interact with it as a listserv...and every time they post, it gets tagged and sorted into the appropriate forum. I never realize that you're using it as a mailing list, you never realize I'm using it as a forum.

This kind of gateway, plus the general popularity of listservs and the growing popularity of other email-to-content gateways (such as email->blog post, which Drupal and many other packages already do) will put increasing amounts of pressure on email as a system of communication. Also, increasing amounts of business transactions happening via email will make it more and more necessary for email to be robust and reliable.

Hopefully, this will result in more robust email handling systems and protocols. I wonder what work is currently taking place in this direction...it'd be a good area to research, if I ever have any free time.

D.

[alange]

I, too, experienced general email failure the morning of 15 Feb. Email bounced back as "sender verify failed". It seemed to resolve itself after 09:00 EST. These emails were to addresses that have worked in the past, and work now, but not between midnight and 9:00 Wednes day morning. The initial spate of bounces arrived at 02:11:39 -0500.
Why sender verify was failing even though I had authenticated to the SMTP server on 37, I don't know, but this did affect more than just the OP.

Alan

[Joe]

http://www.hostpc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2743

[alange]

Originally posted by Joe@Feb 19 2006, 06:44 PM
http://www.hostpc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2743

Quoted post

That's great, but the email trouble was Wednesday and that post was for Thursday.
In any event, all seems well now.
Alan