Well. I noticed that I wasn't using the best security settings for Thunderbird, so I updated them and tested them out to make sure the email still worked.
Then I tried setting up Thunderbird to access my Yahoo email account via IMAP, and it worked! I don't know why I thought that it would only work with the paid version of Yahoo Mail. Apparently it's the POP3 access for which you're supposed to need Yahoo Mail Plus.
That means that I can set up Thunderbird on Forestfen's computer for her email, and maybe that will avoid some of the browser issues she's been having.
---
2011/08/13 Edited to add:
After setting up my Yahoo mail account in Thunderbird, receiving emails worked ok. But sending emails didn't - there were no error messages, but the emails did not arrive at their destination.
In the Outgoing Server (SMTP) settings, I had the User Name set to my Yahoo ID, without the "@yahoo.com" part. Then I changed it to include the @yahoo.com part, and sending emails started to work.
Possible security issue:
The Thunderbird Error Console (Tools - Error Console) shows these messages:
"smtp.mail.yahoo.com: server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555"
"imap.mail.yahoo.com: server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555"
I wasn't able to find much info on those errors. Apparently it is due to something on Yahoo's side not being set up correctly.
Considering this, it might be better security-wise to access one's Yahoo email via their website rather than via Thunderbird.
---
These are the Thunderbird settings that worked for me, to be able to access my free Yahoo email account via IMAP:
Account Settings:
Server Type: IMAP Mail Server
Server Name: imap.mail.yahoo.com
Port: 993 (default)
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal Password
User Name: yahoo_user_id (with or without @yahoo.com - it seems to work both ways)
Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings:
Server name: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Port: 465
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal Password
User Name: yahoo_user_id@yahoo.com (@yahoo.com seems to be required here, otherwise emails don't get sent right)
Then I tried setting up Thunderbird to access my Yahoo email account via IMAP, and it worked! I don't know why I thought that it would only work with the paid version of Yahoo Mail. Apparently it's the POP3 access for which you're supposed to need Yahoo Mail Plus.
That means that I can set up Thunderbird on Forestfen's computer for her email, and maybe that will avoid some of the browser issues she's been having.
---
2011/08/13 Edited to add:
After setting up my Yahoo mail account in Thunderbird, receiving emails worked ok. But sending emails didn't - there were no error messages, but the emails did not arrive at their destination.
In the Outgoing Server (SMTP) settings, I had the User Name set to my Yahoo ID, without the "@yahoo.com" part. Then I changed it to include the @yahoo.com part, and sending emails started to work.
Possible security issue:
The Thunderbird Error Console (Tools - Error Console) shows these messages:
"smtp.mail.yahoo.com: server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555"
"imap.mail.yahoo.com: server does not support RFC 5746, see CVE-2009-3555"
I wasn't able to find much info on those errors. Apparently it is due to something on Yahoo's side not being set up correctly.
Considering this, it might be better security-wise to access one's Yahoo email via their website rather than via Thunderbird.
---
These are the Thunderbird settings that worked for me, to be able to access my free Yahoo email account via IMAP:
Account Settings:
Server Type: IMAP Mail Server
Server Name: imap.mail.yahoo.com
Port: 993 (default)
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal Password
User Name: yahoo_user_id (with or without @yahoo.com - it seems to work both ways)
Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings:
Server name: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Port: 465
Connection Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication Method: Normal Password
User Name: yahoo_user_id@yahoo.com (@yahoo.com seems to be required here, otherwise emails don't get sent right)