Net geeks: I need you (servers, Thunderbird, SMTP, firewalls and other Hocus-Pocus)

[VulpusinaWilfsuit]

Right.

Am trying to co-ordinate multiple calendars and email accounts. Have installed Thunderbird at work and home (on laptop, and DH has installed said on main PC with wireless router already) for the purpose of above.

Am now set up with main work email account linked to Thunderbird but cannot connect to the server, despite following Work Geek settings to the letter/number. Have tried different port options offered.

Suspect it is possibly something to do with Firewall settings (F-Secure, installed by Work Geeks on laptop). Home broadband is Sky. Work stuff: IMAP mail server, SMTP outgoing (possibly - or not - I sound like I know what I'm talking, but really I don't, I am just parroting what I see onscreen). Server connection says TLS. Have tried the settings for SSL but that doesn't work either.

But beyond this point, am utterly clueless. Need instructions in Janet and John style. No idea what to check in firewall settings and/or what to change.

Can anyone help? Would really like to do this over weekend so can synch all calendars etc. Will love you forever if you can.

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Have no idea. But much admiration.

[WebDude]

Do you have any (non office) IMAP account you can use to check settings/firewall with?

If not, can I suggest a free account with FastMail.net (no fee, just need to login every 30-40 days to keep it open).

Did you choose to use Thunderbird to keep the e-mail separate from any other mail apps (eg MS Office {Express}) as you'll need to send one or more e-mail messages to have in your Fastmail account so you can see that you had correctly set up the account - so send from FastMail to yourself, as last resort.

Free account needs to be used via the web, or via IMAP to read incoming mail (they don't allow SMTP on free accounts to prevent spammers).

Anyway, once you have a couple of mail messages in your inbox, you can set up Thunderbird with FastMail server info and check connection to that server works, then test that bit with office (and if that fails, problem is at office end).

IMAP uses port 143, from memory.
Right, time for bed!