Thunderbird Mail Client.

Most computer users use Windows , and most users use Outlook or Outlook Express for their email.

But it's not the only one you can use, there is an alternative and a pretty good one at that!

It's called Thunderbird, it's got a very nice interface, easy to use and it's free.

Why bother ? Well there are those that would say it's safer to use than Outlook or Outlook Express, I would not argue with them!

And it's just better, it's a nice neat application,and it's not made by Microsoft!

While I don't have anything against Microsoft per se, there is a world of software out there not made by Microsoft that is as good or better, so why not give it a try.

The world of computing does not start and end at the door of Mircosoft ( although you could be forgiven for thinking so, and Microsoft would love you to believe this is so!).

Go grab a copy of Thunderbird ,it's free !

Installation is quite easy , setting it up can be a little tricky!

Not because it's any more complex, just you need the settings for your ISP.

However if you open your current email client probably Outlook Express and just note the settings there and copy them over to Thunderbird.

The settings in Outlook Express can be found by opening OE , click on "Tools" , select "Accounts" , in the window select the "Mail" tab, then select "Properties".

There you will find your settings, except your password, you have that written down somewhere don't you ? ( many do not! So to this end I will put up a separate article showing an easy way to get it.

When done Thunderbird will at some point ask the question "Do you want to make Thunderbird your default e-mail client" , answer = " hell yeah" :-)

OK, so you got Thunderbird working, you can send and get mail, there are a couple of things you should do to make it pretty much bomb proof !

First , you should remove the message pane, do this by hitting the F8 key.

Second , click on "View" in the toolbar, select "Message Body As", from the selection pick "Plain Text".

Lastly, again from "View" select ( to uncheck) "Display Attachments Inline"

These features we don't want as they leave open the possibility of your system being compromised (hacked) by an exploit.

We now have removed pretty much all the attack vectors that could in the future compromise your computer via email.

Safe computing would say, do not open any junk mail , never open attachments you did not expect, do not click on links sent to you in an email.

Even if you know the sender of the email, sure if it's a "proper" link, but if you get a email with a line like "Hey check out this really neat site, some fun stuff ", forget it , straight to the bin!

I'll put money on it that it's a dodgy site that's spyware ridden or worse.....

Welcome to the world of open source software :-)