Mailbox access with Thunderbird

MAILBOX 40-015

What you need to know

This howto only applies to HFU employees and not to students.

The HFU email account can only be used with two-factor authentication. The current version of the email program Mozilla Thunderbird does not offer this. To connect Thunderbird to the HFU mailbox anyway, an add-on is required. The following describes how to install the add-on and what you need to bear in mind when setting it up.

What you have to do

  1. Install the “Owl for Exchange” add-on in Mozilla Thunderbird under Settings >> Add-ons and Themes >> Extensions.

    • The “Owl for Exchange” add-on is installed and listed as activated in the add-on management.

    • The add-on is free for one month, after which a paid license is used (these are automatically assigned for mailboxes of the domain hs-furtwangen.de ). Further information can be found at: www.beonex.com/owl

    • 1.1
      Enlarge image
      Add the “Owl for Exchange” add-on

      Search for “owl” in the add-on library and click on the “Add to Thunderbird” button after the “Owl for Exchange” entry

  2. Switch to the Extensions view in Thunderbird and click on the icon with the wrench next to the “Owl for Exchange” add-on to open the settings.

    • The extended view is opened with the “Settings” tab activated.

    • 2.1
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      Add-on overview

      The “Owl for Exchange” add-on is now listed.

  3. Click on the “Add new account manually...” button in the settings.

    • The “Set up a new Exchange account” input screen opens.

  4. Enter your details and click on “Create account” at the end of the input mask.

    • Data example students:
      - E-mail address: vorname.nachname@stud.hs-furtwangen.de
      - Your user name: abc12345@stud.hs-furtwangen.de

      Data example HFU employees:
      - E-mail address: vorname.nachname@hs-furtwangen.de
      - Your user name: abc1234@hs-furtwangen.de

    • Enter the password for your HFU account in the “Your password” input field.

    • A browser window opens with the Outlook Web Access login screen.

    • 4.1
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      Setting up an Exchange account (students)

      Example of student account registration

    • 4.2
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      Set up exchange account (HFU employees)

      Example employee account registration

  5. Log in with your HFU account.

    • Security note: In Thunderbird it is possible to display saved passwords in plain text.

    • Thunderbird is now connected to your HFU mailbox and you can use it to send and receive emails.

    • 5.1
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      Registration (students)

      After setting up exchange account, HFU account login takes place

    • 5.2
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      Registration (HFU employees)

      After setting up exchange account, HFU account login takes place

  6. Important note:
    After each restart of Thunderbird, you must log in with your HFU account (look for the respective “Outlook” tab). In addition, your HFU login will expire after a certain time for security reasons, so you will have to log in again.

Problems or questions?