dovecot - May 2008 - FAQ: setting thunderbird to talk to dovecot

Let's say I have a postfix box, named mail.thespider.com, which is
setup to handle virtual mailbox domains. One of these domains will
handle is, thespider.com, and my email address in that domain is
boris at thespider.com. As I setup dovecot, I can telnet to the pop3 port
(110) and test it by logging in as boris at thespider.com (I would try
the imap port but I do not know how to login to imap from the telnet
prompt):

[raub at taz ~]$ telnet mail.thespider.com 110
Trying 192.168.1.12...
Connected to mail.thespider.com (192.168.1.12).
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK dovecot ready.
user boris at thespider.com
+OK
pass creepycrawly
+OK Logged in.
quit
+OK Logging out.
Connection closed by foreign host.
[raub at taz ~]$

How would I do the same under thunderbird from a machine in the same
lan (taz.thespider.com)? It seems to keep trying to login as
boris at mail.thespider.com, which will not fly.

> How would I do the same under thunderbird from a machine in the same
> lan (taz.thespider.com)? It seems to keep trying to login as
> boris at mail.thespider.com, which will not fly.
>   

Thunderbird logs in using whatever *string* you type in the username 
box.  It doesn't even have to be in the format of an email address...

Ed

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 7:54 AM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo at
gmail.com> wrote:
 >
 > Is thunderbird set to use pop3 or imap?

   It can do both. I'd rather use imap but I am that kind of guy. ;)


 > Anyway, I don't support thunderbird as I have never used it, but I can
tell
 > you how to connect to imap via telnet:
 >
 > telnet  mail.thespider.com 143
 > 1 login boris at mail.thespider.com creepycrawly
 > 1 logout
 >
 > You can see this:
 >  http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/troubleshooting/troubleshooting_imap
 >
      This is what happened:

 [raub at yakko ~]$ telnet mail.thespider.com 143

Trying 192.168.1.12...
 Connected to mail.thespider.com (192.168.1.12).
 Escape character is '^]'.
 * OK dovecot ready.

1 login boris at mail.thespider.com creepycrawly
 1 NO Authentication failed.
 1 login boris at thespider.com creepycrawly
 1 OK Logged in.
 1 logout
 * BYE Logging out
 1 OK Logout completed.

Connection closed by foreign host.
 [raub at yakko ~]$

 I wonder if it has to do with the fact the virtual mailbox domain I
 created in postfix is defined as thespider.com while the machine
 running postfix/dovecot is mail.thespider.com.

 > --

> Best regards,
 > Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
 > Nairobi,KE
 >  +254733744121/+254722743223
 > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 >
 > "Oh My God! They killed init! You Bastards!"
 >  --from a /. post