Does Thunderbird use a Mozilla server?

[pgraham9999]

Yesterday, I started having problems receiving and sending email via Thunderbird on Mediacom. I am using a version just before current, have been using it for months, and program had been running continuously for several days. I went to send an email in the afternoon, and sending failed with a timeout error. I then looked at my inbox, and the last received message was several hours ago. I checked my account thru webmail and there were many messages there, with timestamps starting shortly after the last one received by Thunderbird. I called Mediacom support, and after two calls their conclusion was that I must be going to them via a Mozilla server, and that had failed!

Is there any chance that Mozilla is involved in any way? Any suggestions on resolving this problem? A tracert to their mail server goes about 11 hops and fails. Mediacom says this is normal - intermediate servers don't respond to tracert

Their stance is that since I can see the messages via webmail, they are not responsible! Must I leave Thunderbird after more than 25 years?

Phil

[DanRaisch]

and after two calls their conclusion was that I must be going to them via a Mozilla server, and that had failed!

Clearly those support desk people don't know what they are talking about. Mozilla does have any servers that are involved in the movement of email into or out of Thunderbird. That's why the server settings values all relate to the servers of the email provider, in this case Mediacom.

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[pgraham9999]

CLEARLY!!!
Setting is POP Mail Server.

[makaiguy]

Total BS from the help desk. Accessing via the web does not use the same POP, IMAP, or SMTP servers that must be used by mail clients like TBird, so the fact that webmail works tells you nothing about the problem.

Sadly, the ISP help desk that actually understands anything about email is pretty rare. In addition, often the tech pukes in the back room update their server settings and fail to let the help desk know what settings are now required. We see it all the time.

[tanstaafl]

Thunderbird uses some Mozilla servers, but not for mail. It uses web servers to get release notes, add-ons etc. The new account wizard also uses a gateway if you want to buy a new account (rather than add an existing one). But Mozilla is not a email provider.

ISPs are poor email providers as they view email as just a cost center. I suggest you add a free Gmail IMAP account and move your downloaded mail to it. They have a mailbox over 12GB, excellent spam detection, and due to their popularity the Thunderbird developers go out of their way to make certain Gmail accounts work well. To help in the transition to a new email address, you could configure Gmail webmail to periodically, automatically fetch mail from the mediacom POP server and merge it into the Gmail inbox. That just requires the mediacom email address and password, not details of how to configure a mediacom POP server.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Gmail

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/ ... ktop&hl=en
https://docs.nexcess.net/article/how-to ... tcher.html

[pgraham9999]

Just to complete the cycle (sort of), email started working again, and lo and behold tracert to their mail server now works! Called back to tech support, and there were no notations on my trouble ticket that they had found or done anything!

Thanks for the responses