a poor man's IMAP by instructing Thunderbird to leave your POP messages on the server even after you download them. Follow these directions: 1. The Thunderbird Account Settings window appears. 2. Under the name of your POP account in the left bar, click Server Settings. 3. Select the Leave Messages on Server check box. The reason I call this a "poor man's IMAP" is because e-mail service providers don't offer POP accounts nearly as much space on their servers as they do IMAP accounts - after all, POP accounts aren't intended to be used in this way. To help alleviate this problem, use the For At Most ___ Days setting to instruct Thunderbird to remove messages from the server a certain number of days after it downloads them, and/or select the Until I Delete Or Move Them From Inbox option to have Thunderbird remove them from the server when you delete them on your computer. 4. Click OK to save your changes.     If you choose to download your messages now, Thunderbird prompts you for your e-mail account password as soon as you click Finish. Otherwise, it waits until the first time you try to receive new e-mail by clicking Get Mail on the toolbar. If you don't want to be prompted for the password every time you send or receive e-mail, select the Use Password Manager to Remember This Password check box, and Thunderbird remembers it for you. After your password is accepted, Thunderbird downloads your messages from your e-mail server. If you have a POP account, there might be messages to download only if you have new mail, so don't worry if Thunderbird doesn't find any. If you have an IMAP account, Thunderbird needs to download every last message - and there might be thousands, depending on how frequently you delete mail. It might take a bit of time.           Receiving, Reading, and Searching E-Mail Now that your e-mail account is set up, you're ready to begin receiving e-mail. You can manually check for new e-mail at any time by clicking the Get Mail button on the toolbar, and Thunderbird also checks automatically every 10 minutes. This interval is customizable. To change how frequently Thunderbird checks for new e-mail or to disable automatic checking altogether, follow these steps: 1. 2. Under the name of your account in the left bar, click Server Settings. 3. Do either of the following: In the text box that follows the check box beginning "Check For New Messages Every," enter the number of minutes representing how frequently Thunderbird checks for new e-mail. To disable automatic checking, deselect the check box. 4. Click OK to save your changes. If you have new e-mail when Thunderbird checks automatically, it plays a sound. If you are using Windows, it also shows an animated notification by your computer clock. Reading e-mail Take a minute and examine the main Thunderbird window. The window, shown in Figure 10-3, is divided into three panes. The Folders pane on the left contains