Tag Archives: smtp

connection to SMTP server was lost in the middle of the transaction

Computer Aid Posted on by

This laptop seemed to have a problem sending emails via Mozilla Thunderbird.

Since the customer knew very little about computers, she had many “helping hands” try to fix her problem (and one who probably caused the problem in the first place!).

Anyway, its easy to assume that most settings are correct, since receiving emails works.

After some research, and checking the settings, I find that to access the hotmail account, I need to setup the outgoing server like so:

server: smtp.live.com

port: 587

SSL/TLS encryption

Authentication: normal password (ie don’t encrypt the password)

I try sending emails again, but I keep getting:

The connection to SMTP server smtp.live.com was lost in the middle of the transaction.

So, I’m starting to wonder whats wrong with Thunderbird, or whats wrong with live.com…

But I soon find that its actually a problem with Thunderbird remembering saved passwords.

Although I wasn’t told, it seems that the customer had changed her email password (or someone had changed it for her).

But thunderbird kept using the old password.

So how do you change thunderbirds saved passwords?

Simple, from the main thunderbird window:

tools -> options -> security -> passwords -> saved passwords -> show passwords -> yes -> highlight the smtp entry with the old password -> remove -> close and get out of the options screen -> restart thunderbird

Now, when you try to send an email, you will be prompted to enter the password… and you can once again tell thunderbird to remember it…

Setup thunderbird email to use gmail (incoming and outgoing)

Computer Aid Posted on by

As part of my process of moving from TheBat! to Thunderbird, I had some pop3 gmail accounts to setup in thunderbird.

thunderbirdAt first I just tried to copy the settings from TheBat!, but it didn’t seem to work.

After a look at googles configuration help, I see that Thunderbird needs to use SSL for incoming emails. That was quick to fix.

Next, I thought I’d setup gmail for outgoing emails as well.

So I followed googles instructions for this (the main point is to use the “TLS if available” setting). It sounds simple enough, but it didn’t work.

Thunderbirds account settings are arranged a bit different to most other email clients… particularly when it comes to configuring outgoing connections.

Yes, most people will use their ISPs SMTP settings for outgoing emails, but I figure if I can I’ll use googles outgoing  mail server if possible.

So, With Thunderbird, all outgoing SMTP connections are configured in one place (“outgoing server (SMTP)”).

Then, within each pop account settings, there is a section where you select the outgoing server from the list that you created previously… It feels backwards to me, but then not many people setup their email client with 6 different email accounts.

Anyway, after some quick experimenting, I find that I just need to make the outgoing gmail settings use SSL and port 465.