.mac IMAP settings

[yarngrrl]

I'm trying to move my email over from Thunderbird on my PC to my new iMac (love it, btw) and tried using Apple's suggestion of creating a .mac IMAP account in Thunderbird, then moving my messages there. Except, it's not working. It just hangs and doesn't connect (don't even get prompted for a password) Are there specific server settings I need to use in order to make this work? Will it work?

I'm currently using http://www.mac.com as the server...

 

[bodisaffa]

the server settings on my .mac account are smtp.mac.com not http://www.mac.com hope this helps

 

[yarngrrl]

Everything is off of my old PC, except for my email archives, which are still in Thunderbird. I tried migrating it the old fashioned way with import, but it turns out there is a known issue with Mozilla mailboxes and importing to other applications - they sometimes merge all your messages into one giant message. Not so good.

Soooooo, I'm open to other options, including the IMAP option. Except, my ISP doesn't do IMAP. I thought I would try using my .mac account, as Apple suggests, but I can't connect to the account using Thunderbird. I've changed my incoming mail server to smtp.mac.com, but to no avail.

Can I use anything other than Mail to connect to a .mac account? Does anyone have any suggestions?
I'm eager to get my mail off and get rid of the PC once and for all.

Thanks.

 

[Kelmon]

Hi,

I setup Thunderbird on my PC a few weeks ago and used my .mac account as a test for the application and didn't encounter any problems. The following information comes straight from the .mac mail help guide but contains all the information that you need, including the alternative port to use in the event that your ISP blocks access on port 25, like Belgacom does for me.

Using the .Mac Mail SMTP server
If your email application supports authenticated SMTP, you can use smtp.mac.com as your SMTP server. This allows you to send mail from locations where you cannot use your ISP's SMTP server.

Mac OS X Mail, Outlook Express 5.02, Eudora 5, and Netscape Communicator 4.7 support authenticated SMTP.

Mail is set up to use smtp.mac.com for .Mac Mail accounts by default.

In Outlook Express version 5.02 (which comes with Mac OS 9.1), choose Accounts from the Tools menu, double-click your .Mac Mail account, type smtp.mac.com in the "SMTP server" field, click "Click here for advanced sending options," and select both "SMTP server requires authentication" and "Use same settings as incoming mail server."

If you set up Netscape Communicator to use smtp.mac.com, Messenger prompts you for your password when you send email.

Note: Some ISPs restrict access to the TCP port (25) used by SMTP. If your ISP is blocking port 25, you can use your email application to change the port to 587 and try again. If you continue to have trouble sending mail using smtp.mac.com, switch back to your ISP's SMTP server.

That should be enough for you to get things working but I don't recall having any problems establishing a connection with .mac.