Mailbox in Thunderbird

When you create a ULYSSIS account, you get an email address: username@ulyssis.org. Usually, this address gets forwarded to your KU Leuven email address. However, you can choose to create your very own ULYSSIS mailbox.

It is possible to check this mailbox via https://webmail.ulyssis.org. However, it is far more convenient and efficient to use a standalone email client. This article will explain the process of adding a mailbox to the Thunderbird client.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free and open source email client made by Mozilla. It is available for download at https://thunderbird.net. You can then install the downloaded file like you would install any other application. Once installed, launch Thunderbird and configure a mailbox using the steps below.

Adding a ULYSSIS mailbox to Thunderbird

If this is the first mailbox being added to Thunderbird, the following pop-up should come up:

If the pop-up did not come up, or this is not your first mailbox; it is possible to click the email button (highlighted in blue in the screenshot below) under the "Set Up Another Account" section:

Once the pop-up is present, it is possible to fill in the login details for a mailbox. The first step is to fill in your name, email address and password (this email adress should be the username@ulyssis.org adress linked to a mailbox):

notice

the ULYSSIS username is the username which was picked when the ULYSSIS account was created. For more information please see: https://docs.ulyssis.org/Registering_a_new_account

Next, the button "Configure manually..." on the bottom left will have become clickable (as seen on the screenshot above). When this button is clicked, the pop-up should look like this:

Now, fill in the information as follows:

Manual settings

	style="padding-right: 10px;"
	INCOMING	OUTGOING
Protocol:	IMAP	SMTP
Server:	mail.ulyssis.org	smtps.kuleuven.be
Port:	993	443
SSL:	SSL/TLS	SSL/TLS
Authentication:	Autodetect	Autodetect
Username:	ULYSSIS username	r/m/s/u number

notice

The ports used to configure a ULYSSIS mailbox, are not automatically recognized by Thunderbird. This means they should be entered manually instead of using the drop-down.

The "Re-test" button on the bottom right of the following screenshot is used to validate the settings. When pressed, the pop-up should look like this:

If this test succeeds, the pop-up will close when the "Done" button has been clicked. After the pop-up closes, a mailbox should be added to the left sidebar of the main Thunderbird window. By clicking on the inbox tab, the emails should load in (as seen in the last screenshot). After this first setup, the mailbox should synchronize automatically.

When sending the first email after configuration, Thunderbird might show a pop-up: "Enter your password for r0000000 on smtps.kuleuven.be:". It is really important to enter your KU Leuven password (the password used for central login), otherwise your email will not be sent.