Sending from Non-Default Thunderbird Account

[Guerri Stevens]

I have Thunderbird 2.0.0.12, possibly not the latest.

I wanted to send a message using an account other than my default. The account is a Gmail account, and my default is tapcis.com which is now also hosted by Gmail. I am sending to a Yahoo group. I don't know whether I have tried this since tapcis.com was moved.

What happens is that I get a message back from the Yahoo group saying that it is unable to deliver the message from my TAPCIS account to the group because the tapcis.com address is not registered in the Yahoo group (actually the tapcis.com address *is* listed in the group). The error message attaches a copy of my outgoing message and in the From field it has my tapcis.com Email address. But, in the Sent folder, the From address has my Gmail address!

It appears that somewhere along the line Thunderbird, Elvis, sunspots, or an unknown gremlin decides that when I used my Gmail address to compose the message, I wasn't really serious about it. I have done a little tinkering with the settings, but nothing I did seems to make any difference. It is also possible that something in the setup of the Yahoo groups has changed, but that would not explain the substitution of my tapcis.com address for my Gmail address as the message was sent.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

[davidh]

I have Thunderbird 2.0.0.12, possibly not the latest.

I wanted to send a message using an account other than my default. The account is a Gmail account, and my default is tapcis.com which is now also hosted by Gmail. I am sending to a Yahoo group. I don't know whether I have tried this since tapcis.com was moved.

What happens is that I get a message back from the Yahoo group saying that it is unable to deliver the message from my TAPCIS account to the group because the tapcis.com address is not registered in the Yahoo group (actually the tapcis.com address *is* listed in the group). The error message attaches a copy of my outgoing message and in the From field it has my tapcis.com Email address. But, in the Sent folder, the From address has my Gmail address!

It appears that somewhere along the line Thunderbird, Elvis, sunspots, or an unknown gremlin decides that when I used my Gmail address to compose the message, I wasn't really serious about it. I have done a little tinkering with the settings, but nothing I did seems to make any difference. It is also possible that something in the setup of the Yahoo groups has changed, but that would not explain the substitution of my tapcis.com address for my Gmail address as the message was sent.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

I have 2.0.0.17 for T-Bird. I'm pretty sure all the updates contained security fixes so you may want to update. Probably should check to make sure that checking for updates in t-bird is turned on.

I think in the account settings of t-bird it will let you choose the outgoing (smtp) server to use individually within each email account set up in your t-bird. Normally when I use email programs (t-bird or whatever) I don't set up "reply to" explicitly separately, but FWIW that is something that one may fiddle with too.

Currently I am using the "webmail" extension for t-bird:
http://webmail.mozdev.org/

I am using it for yahoo webmail. It's a little more detailed to set up than regular pop3 in t-bird because you have to specify which webmail service you (yahoo, hotmail,...) are using and which version of that webmail service (e.g. old yahoo webmail gui/webpage versus new yahoo webmail gui/webpage). Even tho' my ISP is verizon and my main mail account is gmail, I could still tell t-bird to send mail from my yahoo webmail account in t-bird with yahoo as the outgoing server (usually smtp but NOT for webmail). Basically in t-bird almost any account set up in t-bird can be forced easily by going into the account settings to go thru any outgoing server set up somewhere or other in your t-bird.

So finally the punch line:

If you are actually signed up with a yahoo ID in the yahoo group in question, I would much expect that you could use the t-bird webmail extension to send email to the group with your yahoo ID instead and hopefully no problem since "it's all in the family" :)

I have had some problems with timeouts on long messages using the tbird webmail ext. But so far it's worked well for me. Avoids looking at ads that usually appear in web view of webmail in a browser :)

So if your problem turns out to be too hard to diagnose, you may want to consider bothering with t-bird "webmail" ext. as a "workaround" OR NOT.

DH

[Guerri Stevens]

I have 2.0.0.17 for T-Bird.I will try getting and installing the updated version and see what happens. I rarely turn on automatic updates because when I am through with whatever I am doing online, I turn off the connection.
I think in the account settings of t-bird it will let you choose the outgoing (smtp) server to use individually within each email account set up in your t-bird. Normally when I use email programs (t-bird or whatever) I don't set up "reply to" explicitly separately, but FWIW that is something that one may fiddle with too.I will look at the outgoing server setting, although I don't think either it or the (probably) missing "reply to" is the problem. I strongly suspect that the problem is with Tbird actually changing the from address, but I have no way to tell. Hmm, another experiment would be to try sending from a non-default account to one of my other Email accounts and see what happens.

Currently I am using the "webmail" extension for t-bird:
http://webmail.mozdev.org/I don't really understand the concept of the webmail extension. I gather that it allows you to send and maybe receive Email to/from Yahoo and other Email services that do not support POP3 (at least not for free). The particular group I am trying to send to is one I don't use often, so it seems to me it would be easier to just log into the group directly, post my message, and log out. That is what I intend to do tonight, in fact. Then my message will be posted and I can spend time trying to figure out what's wrong.

[davidh]

I will try getting and installing the updated version and see what happens. I rarely turn on automatic updates because when I am through with whatever I am doing online, I turn off the connection. I doubt the updates have anything to do with the problem, but I figure better safe than sorry, at least wrt security.

I will look at the outgoing server setting, although I don't think either it or the (probably) missing "reply to" is the problem. I strongly suspect that the problem is with Tbird actually changing the from address, but I have no way to tell. Hmm, another experiment would be to try sending from a non-default account to one of my other Email accounts and see what happens. I have screwed up using tbird sometimes by NOT being in the correct INBOX when I begin to compose a msg. IOW tbird does what I implicitly told it to, not what I actually had in mind (as computers almost always do :) ). IOW I then be in the wrong FROM account of me.
I talk to myself with email all the time, just to test if things work as I'm expecting or not :)

I don't really understand the concept of the webmail extension. I gather that it allows you to send and maybe receive Email to/from Yahoo and other Email services that do not support POP3 (at least not for free). The particular group I am trying to send to is one I don't use often, so it seems to me it would be easier to just log into the group directly, post my message, and log out. That is what I intend to do tonight, in fact. Then my message will be posted and I can spend time trying to figure out what's wrong.AFAIK the webmail extension merely "carries on a conversation" with the webmail webpages just as if I were typing. I assume this technique only works with webmail webpages that can be navigated by keystrokes, however I may be wrong, perhaps the interface between tbird & yahoo also involves some kind of "virtual mouse clicks"? DH

[Mike]

As David suggested, do you have a different SMTP server defined for the two different email addresses?

[Guerri Stevens]

As David suggested, do you have a different SMTP server defined for the two different email addresses?I believe the problem is solved. For the account, I had selected the default server, not realizing that there was a User Name in the server settings! Apparently Tbird changes the From name on the outgoing message to the name in the server settings. Or at least what you see as the receiver of the message is the name from the outgoing server definition.

I created a new server for the account and put in the correct User Name and password and it is now working.

Thanks, Dave and Mike!

[Mike]

I believe the problem is solved. For the account, I had selected the default server, not realizing that there was a User Name in the server settings! Apparently Tbird changes the From name on the outgoing message to the name in the server settings.
Actually, Gmail does that! Regardless of the name (and address) configured into T-bird for the outbound email, Gmail transmits the email using the address used to log into the SMTP server.

And you're welcome.

[sidney]

Gmail transmits the email using the address used to log into the SMTP server

You can go into your Gmail settings, under Accounts, and specify alternate From addresses that Gmail will accept. Gmail will require you to prove that you do have control of the email address by having you respond to a verification message it sends to the address. Once it is verified, you can send mail through the Gmail server logging in with your Gmail id and with that address in the From header. Gmail won't change the From, but it will add a Sender header with your Gmail account address. I don't know if Yahoo! groups will accept the From address if there is a different Sender address, so that might not help.

The safest way of dealing with it is to configure each Identity in Thunderbird to specify the correct outgoing mail server for each email address identity.

-- sidney

[Mike]

You can go into your Gmail settings, under Accounts, and specify alternate From addresses that Gmail will accept.
Good points, Sidney. I did that so long ago that I hadn't thought about it.

However, the safest thing still is to configure a separate SMTP server for each Gmail account.