How to add my email to Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free email program for Windows, macOS and Linux. It works well with Webway mailboxes and usually detects the right settings on its own.

Settings you'll need

Use your own domain in place of example.co.za. Check the password works at https://yourdomain/webmail first. Full details in Email server settings: IMAP, POP3 and SMTP.

Add the account

1. Open Thunderbird.

2. Go to the menu (three lines) → Account Settings → Account Actions → Add Mail Account. On first launch, the account setup screen appears on its own.

3. Enter your name, the full email address and the mailbox password. Leave Remember password ticked.

4. Click Continue. Thunderbird looks up the settings.

5. If it shows IMAP with mail.example.co.za for both incoming and outgoing, choose IMAP and click Done.

6. If it shows something else, or fails, click Configure manually and enter:

   Field	Incoming	Outgoing
   Protocol	IMAP	SMTP
   Hostname	mail.example.co.za	mail.example.co.za
   Port	993	465
   Connection security	SSL/TLS	SSL/TLS
   Authentication method	Normal password	Normal password
   Username	full email address	full email address

7. Click Re-test, then Done.

After adding

• Thunderbird downloads your folders. The first sync of a large mailbox takes a while.
• Send a test email to yourself and to an outside address.
• If sent mail doesn't appear in webmail's Sent folder, go to Account Settings → your account → Copies & Folders and set the copy to go to the Sent folder on the server.
• If some server folders don't show, right-click the account → Subscribe and tick them.

Problems

For other programs, see How to add my email to Outlook (Windows and Mac), How to add my email to iPhone or iPad and How to add my email to Android or the Gmail app.