I felt like checking out thunderbird today due to the fact that i know have four email accounts... i downloaded it... looks nice but.... i can't do anything with it... it doesn't seem to support gmail nor hotmail.....

So my question is... what excatly do you use this for? I have one non-gmail/hotmail account but don't most people use these anyways?

Or is there some way to make them work and i'm just too n00bish?

no. most people have POP3 mail, which is the protocoll used for mail storage and retrival.

Thunderbird is great for these types of accounts. One from and ISP, University, MSgplus.net etc.

But Hotmail and Gmail don't support Pop3/ they are web based, and Thunderbird can't access webbased email.

But you CAN get rograms, like Pop Goes the Gmail and Hotmail Popper and YahooPops, that sit in your system tray and act as a proxy between you and your webmail, which allows you to use programs like THunderbird and OE.

Indeed... don't make the fault in turning it around....

POP3 email isn't based upon webbased email...
And webbased email isn't the "original" mailsystem...

POP3 email is used more by far more people, just because it is real email with a real protocol (like IRC a protocol is, like HTTP a protocol is, etc...).

Webbased email is created because then you could access your email within your browser (and thus everywhere). The big downside is, everything is done via the browser and thus it doesn't have a real protocol of its own and you always have to start up a browser*. Also, it is very limited in use in comparisson with POP3 email... that's also why you can get webbased email for free on so many places. POP3 email is useual not free and comes usely with your ISP provider.


*Some programs (like Outlook (express)) can also handle webbased email. But in fact, they still need a "HTTP"-connection to catch the email, although you don't notice this of course (; you don't see a browserwindow popping up).


edit: raceprouk, yep

I see... oh well.... i thought it would help me put my gmail and hotmail together....

I don't think there is a way to do that. IMO skip hotmail.

(So you finally got Gmail Mind sending me a invite when you get one )

quote:

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Originally posted by Ningc_Maniac
I see... oh well.... i thought it would help me put my gmail and hotmail together....

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if you have outlook or mabye express im not sure you can sycronise to hotmail and mabye gmail. this isnt the same as an @aol ,for example, because it doesnt download the messages just displays them in outlook

I think you may be able to with Outlook (Express), but remember:
Outlook = MS
Hotmail = MS
GMail <> MS

quote:

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Originally posted by mad_onion
because it doesnt download the messages just displays them in outlook

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