A relative has a dreaded "Spectrum" (FKA "Charter") account including an
email account. I, however, do not. I'm just trying to help the relative.

A couple of months ago, Spectrum did something which hosed my relative's
email account so that they're unable to send email. We monkeyed around
with the account's settings in Thunderbird and tried the ones listed here:

https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/mobile-email-setup

The page is confusing. Eg. which server gets which port?

I also found this Mozilla page:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account

I'm not sure why you would need to create a totally new account rather
than being able to simply go into an existing account and change it from
POP3 to IMAP, but oh well.

Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?

TIA for any help you can provide.

--
John C.

John C. wrote:
> A relative has a dreaded "Spectrum" (FKA "Charter") account including an
> email account. I, however, do not. I'm just trying to help the relative.
>
> A couple of months ago, Spectrum did something which hosed my relative's
> email account so that they're unable to send email. We monkeyed around
> with the account's settings in Thunderbird and tried the ones listed here:
>
> https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/mobile-email-setup
>
> The page is confusing. Eg. which server gets which port?
>
> I also found this Mozilla page:
>
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account
>
> I'm not sure why you would need to create a totally new account rather
> than being able to simply go into an existing account and change it from
> POP3 to IMAP, but oh well.
>
> Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
> TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
> a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?
>
> TIA for any help you can provide.

The answer to my question is at this website:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_benefits-of-imap

"The IMAP protocol supports both online and offline activity. Therefore,
messages can be stored both on the local machine and on the server..."

--
John C. BS206. No ad, CD, cripple, demo, nag, pay, pirated, share, spy,
time-limited, trial or web wares for me please.

So that I don't see them, I filter out:
-crossposts (sent to multiple newsgroups) at a time
-posts sent via Google Groups*
-trolls (eg. the foul-mouthed "Bucky Breeder" and his many sock puppets)

If you do the same, will the group will be easier to read.

*Eternal-September (eternal-september.org) no longer shows posts from
Google Groups to this newsgroup due to large amounts of spam still being
sent through it.

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

> A relative has a dreaded "Spectrum" (FKA "Charter") account including an
> email account. I, however, do not. I'm just trying to help the relative.
>
> A couple of months ago, Spectrum did something which hosed my relative's
> email account so that they're unable to send email. We monkeyed around
> with the account's settings in Thunderbird and tried the ones listed here:
>
> https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/mobile-email-setup
>
> The page is confusing. Eg. which server gets which port?
>
> I also found this Mozilla page:
>
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-pop-imap-account
>
> I'm not sure why you would need to create a totally new account rather
> than being able to simply go into an existing account and change it from
> POP3 to IMAP, but oh well.

https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml?&page=11
port 587 (tcp): message submission (SMTP)
port 993 (tcp): IMAP over TLS

Those are the common usage of those ports as defined by IANA (Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority). 587 is the TLS connect by the MUA (Mail
User Agent) to the MTA (Mail Transfer agent) for SMTP (send)). 993 is
the TLS connect by the MUA to the MTA for IMAP (receive).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority

> Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
> TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
> a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?

You found the Mozilla article to explain.

On 2023-12-10 15:32, John C. wrote:
> John C. wrote:

....

>> Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
>> TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
>> a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?
>>
>> TIA for any help you can provide.
>
> The answer to my question is at this website:
>
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_benefits-of-imap
>
> "The IMAP protocol supports both online and offline activity. Therefore,
> messages can be stored both on the local machine and on the server..."

Notice that the offline cache is not reliable. I had times when I tried
this, that some posts were not readable offline, they had not been
downloaded.

On the other hand, if there a problem at the server, and TB is
connected, your mail will be deleted in both sides (they are kept in sync).

The purpose of that cache is to speed operation.

If you want a copy of mail, do a copy.

You can simply create a filter (which runs automatically) that copies
any new email ("match all email") to a folder of your saying.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 11.12.23 00:34, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-12-10 15:32, John C. wrote:
>> John C. wrote:
>
> ...
>
>>> Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
>>> TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
>>> a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?
>>>
>>> TIA for any help you can provide.
>>
>> The answer to my question is at this website:
>>
>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_benefits-of-imap
>>
>> "The IMAP protocol supports both online and offline activity. Therefore,
>> messages can be stored both on the local machine and on the server..."
>
> Notice that the offline cache is not reliable. I had times when I tried
> this, that some posts were not readable offline, they had not been
> downloaded.

I never had an issue. Neither with NNTP-servers nor IMAP4.

> On the other hand, if there a problem at the server, and TB is
> connected, your mail will be deleted in both sides (they are kept in sync).
>
> The purpose of that cache is to speed operation.
>
> If you want a copy of mail, do a copy.
>
> You can simply create a filter (which runs automatically) that copies
> any new email ("match all email") to a folder of your saying.

To build a filter that filters incoming mails into a local folder is by
far the most robust solution.

--
Sent with Betterbird by a Penguin.
Simply better. www.betterbird.eu

On 2023-12-11 08:58, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
> On 11.12.23 00:34, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> On 2023-12-10 15:32, John C. wrote:
>>> John C. wrote:
>>
>> ...
>>
>>>> Regardless what I need to know is, if I set up an IMAP account using the
>>>> TB wizard, is it possible to set it up to download the incoming email to
>>>> a local folder so that is can be accessed when the computer is offline?
>>>>
>>>> TIA for any help you can provide.
>>>
>>> The answer to my question is at this website:
>>>
>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_benefits-of-imap
>>>
>>> "The IMAP protocol supports both online and offline activity. Therefore,
>>> messages can be stored both on the local machine and on the server..."
>>
>> Notice that the offline cache is not reliable. I had times when I tried
>> this, that some posts were not readable offline, they had not been
>> downloaded.
>
> I never had an issue. Neither with NNTP-servers nor IMAP4.

Using TB offline is becoming rare.

Situation: going out for some time to a remote location with no
internet. So, at a place with internet, click on the icon bottom-left to
disconnect from network, and when asked tell to sync everything.

Then, when in the remote location TB could display most of the emails,
except for a few which were not available, not cached. I don't know the
reason.

This was years ago, currently I do have internet in that remote
location, via mobile phone tethering.

>> On the other hand, if there a problem at the server, and TB is
>> connected, your mail will be deleted in both sides (they are kept in sync).
>>
>> The purpose of that cache is to speed operation.
>>
>> If you want a copy of mail, do a copy.
>>
>> You can simply create a filter (which runs automatically) that copies
>> any new email ("match all email") to a folder of your saying.
>
> To build a filter that filters incoming mails into a local folder is by
> far the most robust solution.

Yep.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.