Does Thunderbird Work With AT&T DSL?

Thunderbird requires an Internet connection in order to access email accounts. This connection works over DSL (including AT&T; DSL), dial-up, cable and other types of Internet connections. Thunderbird automatically accesses the Internet through your AT&T; DSL connection when the program is launched and connects to any email accounts configured in settings.

Thunderbird and AT&T; DSL email accounts work together using either of the two primary email protocols. When you access Web email using an email client like Thunderbird, you have the option of choosing the IMAP standard or POP3 protocol. AT&T; DSL servers support both of these protocols. Both IMAP and POP3 allow you to access your email inbox and send emails from the Thunderbird application. IMAP has additional functionality that allows you to manage folders on your server. For example, if you use Thunderbird to create a folder called "Family," the same folder will appear on the AT&T; webmail folder. This type of syncing is not possible with POP3.

You can configure your AT&T; DSL email account to allow Thunderbird to bring your email directly to your computer, which relieves the need to use a Web browser to access email. In addition, you are not required to enter a user name and password each time you check email using Thunderbird. All of the functions available via AT&T; webmail is also available to you with Thunderbird, including multiple folders for storage and an address book.

Thunderbird works on the Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems. AT&T; DSL works with these three major operating systems as well, in addition to many others. Together, AT&T; DSL and Thunderbird will function properly on any current version of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems as long as the correct version of the Thunderbird application is installed. The Mozilla website automatically senses the operating system you are browsing from and displays the appropriate download link.