automatic helpers which really suck!

[Ian Malone]

On 14 December 2012 07:35, François Patte
<francois.patte at mi.parisdescartes.fr> wrote:
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> Le 14/12/2012 01:39, Steven Stern a écrit :
>> On 12/13/2012 01:37 AM, François Patte wrote:
>>> Bonjour,
>>>
>>> I installed f-17 and wanted to set my mail with thunderbird.
>>>
>>> New account, name, mail address, smtp.... *immediately* thunderbird
>>> helper goes on the web to check my email server and don't find it! Why?
>>> I really don't know: this mail address and server has been in service
>>> for years now (and I'm using it to send this mail).... I can ping it, I
>>> can dig it...
>>>
>>> And now, I am stuck: I cannot have my mail because thunderbird try to
>>> help me, as if I was so stupid that I cannot know my own email address!
>>>
>>> I really don't understand what is the goal of this kind of help, even if
>>> I make a mistake while I give my emeil server address, doomsday won't come!
>>>
>>> The result is: I cannot configure my mail because someone has thought
>>> that this automatic check will help people. Stupid!
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>
>> As soon as it starts grinding looking for the automated setup, click
>> "Manual Config". it will give up on looking for an autodiscover record
>> and let you enter the servers, etc. manually. No big deal.
>
> Very difficult! I could see once something like this: phenomenon lasted
> for 1/10 of second and disappeared.... Most of the time, I cannot even
> see the button you're talking about!
>
> As for any menu to click (suggested by other mails) it does not exist!
> The only thing I can do is to ask for a new email address from gandi.net
> or Hover.com Which I don't want!
>
> This happens on fedora 17 xfce....
>

Testing thunderbird 17 on Windows (because I don't have a Fedora box
to hand right now). After removing old profile and starting
thunderbird:

Screen 1:
Would you like a new email address?
Selected "Skip this and use my existing email"

Screen 2:
Mail Account Setup
For testing entered in dummy info, possibly if the auto configuration
data provided by your domain is wrong or problematic then do this:
Your name: abc def
Email address x at y
Clicked Continue

Screen 3:
Checking. While this is happening a 'Manual config' button is visible
(at bottom)
otherwise checking x at y times out to manual settings.

Manual settings, think most things can be done here, however if you
click cancel you will find the account is present in account settings
and manual config can still happen. This (apart from the 'would you
like an email account', which needs you to remove your profile) looks
like the same as I found when trying this last night on Fedora 16
(think that's TB 15). If you're missing a button then report it as a
bug. For a problem with SSL certificates, then I agree with Rejy M
Cyriac and think that's a bug that should be reported to Mozilla, but
it can almost certainly be worked around by using a false domain as in
the above process. email at example.com would be the canonical one.

-- 
imalone
http://ibmalone.blogspot.co.uk