If you are like me and like to download your messages on the computer, instead of logging on to google's server every time, this page is for you. This page describes how to set up MozillaThunderbird email client on your computer to download messages from your Gmail account. Mozilla Thunderbird is advanced email client which has many built-in features like informative and relevant alerts for the messages, message templates, protection against Phishing. It works on Windows, Linux and Macintosh platforms. For downloading and installing Mozilla Thunderbird on your computer, please visit Thunderbird's home page.

As you may be aware, Google uses Secured Software Layer (SSL) with its incoming and outgoing mail server. Hence you have to know the correct port numbers to set up incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP servers. In addition to this you have select lot many options during account setup and the whole process takes lot of time. Even with a single typo, here or there you could end up wasting lot of time troubleshooting. Therefore I suggest using Mozilla Thunderbird as an email client for your gmail account. It is very easy to setup. Mozilla Thunderbird has a built-in wizard for GMAIL accounts which configures your email account in just couple of minutes. The procedure to set up your gmail account with Mozilla Thunderbird is as follows;

Step1 :

Open Mozilla Thunderbird and click on Tools on the menu bar, then select and click on Account Settings... from the dropdown menu as shown in the screenshot .

Step 2:

Account Settings box will open. Click on Add Account... button in the box as shown in the next screenshot.

Step 3:

Now the Account Wizard box will open. Click on Gmail option to select it as shown in the next screenshot. Then click on Next> button.

Step 4:

The Account Wizard box will provide text boxes for entering your name and your email address at gmail.com as shown in the next screenshot. Please enter your name and username @gmail.com, in the text boxes provided. Then click on Next>

Step 5:

Now the Account Wizard will congratulate you on setting up your account. Please check the information in the box for correctness, particularly your email address. Then click Finish button to save these settings as shown in the this screenshot.

Step 6:

Again Account Settings box will open. Select your account in white box on the left. Update your email address for getting replies and your organization details in the text boxes provided on the right. Also if you have signature file, select and click on Attach this signature option box and choose your signature file by clicking on choose button. If you have yCard follow the similar procedure and click on OK button as shown in the next screenshot.

Now Thunderbird is ready to send and receive messages using your Gmail account.

To download the messages from Google's gmail server just click on Get Mail button on the menu bar. You will be asked a password. Enter the password and if you prefer choose the option to remember it. Now the messages will be downloaded to your inbox.

To write a message click on Write button on the menu bar. Write the message and send it. When you will be sending message for the first time, you will be asked for password for your outgoing server. Enter it and if you prefer, you may choose the option to remember the password to avoid the need for entering password every time you send a message.

Please note that to enable downloading of your messages, you have to enable POP3 option to download the messages from your Gmail server. To enable this feature just log on to your Gmail account by going to Google's Gmail website. Then click on options and you will get a choice to enable this feature.