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    1. Brief Summary
    2. Adding a New IMAP Account
      1. Start the Account Wizard
      2. Step One: Mail Account
      3. Step Two: Identity
      4. Step Three: Server Information
      5. Step Four: User Names
      6. Step Five: Account Name
      7. Step Six: Finish
    3. Configuring your IMAP Account
      1. Open Account Settings
      2. Securing Incoming Mail
      3. Outgoing Server (SMTP)
      4. Verifying Riseup's Certificates

    Brief Summary

    You will find a detailed tutorial below. If you are impatient, here is a brief summary of the Thunderbird settings which are either required or recommended for use with riseup.net. We will use the example of joe_hill@riseup.net for the email address: obviously, you would change these values to whatever is appropriate for your account.

    Account Settings
    In this section, you will configure the general settings about your account.
    • Account Name: joe_hill@riseup.net
    • Your Name: Joe Hill
    • Email Address: joe_hill@riseup.net
    Server Settings
    In this section, you will configure how you connect to the riseup.net mail server.
    • Server Type: IMAP Mail Server
    • Server Name: mail.riseup.net
    • User Name: joe_hill
    • Port: 993 for SSL, or 143 for TLS.
    • Use secure connection: either TLS or SSL.
    • Use secure authentication: no! it will not work with this option checked.
    • When I delete a message: Remove it immediately. This option will make deleting mail much faster than the other options. But don't worry, even though you tell Thunderbird to delete the message immediately, it will still end up in your server-side Trash folder.
    • Empty Trash on Exit: If you don't want your deleted messages lingering around, then check this option. Otherwise, messages in the Trash are deleted after three weeks.
    Copies and Folders
    In this section, you have the option of using the Sent and Drafts folders which are stored on the server or the ones which are stored locally. It is up to you which one you decide to use. Choosing a local Sent folder usually makes it faster to send mail, but then you don't have access to your sent mail when using the web mail interface.

    Composition & Addressing
    This section contains a few options for how you compose new mail.
    • Compose message in HTML format: we suggest NO, but it is up to you.
    Offline & Diskspace
    This section will let you configure Thunderbird to keep a local copy of certain server-side folders. By doing this, you make it much faster to access and search the content of those messages. Thunderbird will then sync your data with the server when you make changes.
    • Make the messages in my Inbox available when I am working online: check this item.
    Outgoing server (SMTP)
    At the bottom of the list of accounts, you will see a section to add and configure SMTP servers.
    • Server Name: mail.riseup.net
    • Port: 25 (for TLS) or 465 (for SSL)
    • Use name and password: YES!
    • User Name: joe_hill
    • Use secure connection: SSL! You must select either TLS or SSL. We recommend SSL because many internet providers will block TLS (this is because TLS uses port 25, which is also often used by spammers).

    Adding a New IMAP Account

    Start the Account Wizard

    The first time you run Thunderbird, the account wizard will walk you through setting up an account. If the wizard does not open, you can do this:

    1. Choose the menu item Edit > Account Settings... (if you have an older version of thunderbird, account settings might be under the Tools menu).
    2. Click the Add Account... button.

    Step One: Mail Account

    Once the new account wizard is open, you will see this:

    1. Select Email account
    2. Click the Next button.

    Step Two: Identity

    1. For Your Name, put whatever you want.
    2. For Email Address, put your full email address, e.g. 'mylogin@riseup.net'.
    3. Click the Next button.

    Step Three: Server Information

    1. Select 'IMAP' for type of incoming server.
    2. For incoming server, put 'mail.riseup.net'.
    3. For outgoing server, things get a little complicated. If there is already an outgoing server configured, then the settings for this account will use that configuration. If you haven't yet configured an outgoing server, enter 'mail.riseup.net' for now. It will not work, but will get us to the next question. For configuring the outgoing server, see below.
    4. Click the Next button.

    Step Four: User Names

    1. For User Name, put your riseup.net mail login. For example, if you email address was mylogin@riseup.net, your user name would be 'mylogin'.
    2. Click the Next button.

    Step Five: Account Name

    1. For Account Name, put whatever you want. This will be the label attached to this account in the list of accounts which appears on the left side of the Thunderbird window.
    2. Click the Next button.

    Step Six: Finish

    1. Hit Finish. This new account will not be fully functional until you make some additional configurations. See the next step, below.

    Configuring your IMAP Account

    Open Account Settings

    If the window Account Settings is not open, choose the menu item Tools > Account Settings... (if you have an older version of thunderbird, account settings might be under the Tools menu).

    Securing Incoming Mail

    1. Click on "Server Settings"
    2. Make sure you are using TLS and port 143
    If you have trouble, try using SSL and port 993.

    Outgoing Server (SMTP)

    1. Click Outgoing Server (SMTP)
    2. Make sure Use name and password is checked.
    3. Make sure you fill in the User Name field.
    4. Under Use secure connection make sure to choose TLS.
    5. Click the OK button.
    NOTE: If these settings are not exactly like this, you will not be able to send mail! If you use SSL, the port should be 465. For TLS, the port should be 25.

    Verifying Riseup's Certificates

    The first time you connect to Riseup, you will receive a security warning stating that Riseup's certificate could not be verified. This is because Riseup does not use a corporate certificate authority. So you have to manually verify the authenticity of riseup's certificate. To do this, click on "Examine Certificate." Double check that the fingerprint of your certificate is the same as the one depicted in the image above.

    If everything checks out, click on "accept this certificate permanently."

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