ThunderBridge 4.02

ThunderBridge is a Thunderbird extension that allows you to send your e-mail to a recipient providing that:

 1. the recipient also uses Mozilla Thunderbird, has ThunderBridge installed and running, and
 2.

* both you and your recipient are located at the same private network, or
* at least you and/or your recipient is/are located at the public IP address.

So why would I need ThunderBridge?
Traditionally when you send your e-mail via SMTP/POP3 channels (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail#Operation_overview for an excellent explanation) it goes like this:

 1. from your Thunderbird to your external outgoing mail server (SMTP)
 2. from your external outgoing mail server to recipient’s incoming mail server (SMTP)
 3. from recipient’s incoming mail server to recipient’s Thunderbird, on recipient’s request (POP3 or IMAP).

This method has in fact certain disadvantages, the most important of which is probably its inability to deliver e-mails with large attachments exceeding e.g. 20MB, not to mention the privacy of e-mail being transmitted, which is vulnerable to be intercepted and copied not only during transmission but also by any external server it bypass.

ThunderBridge resolves this issue, since your e-mail is delivered directly (P2P) to the recipient. In case you and your recipient operate on the same local network the e-mail will not leave the network, which may even be totally isolated from the Internet (providing that you know your recipient's IP address)!

How does it work?
It’s simple: Your recipient’s ThunderBridge awaits connection and when you click “Send" (via ThunderBridge) button your ThunderBridge establishes connection with the IP address of your recipient’s ThunderBridge and delivers your e-mail (a push method). Since this is a local P2P connection the size of your e-mail practically doesn't matter.

Wait - what if I don’t know what is my recipient’s IP address?
In such a case when you click “Send" (via ThunderBridge) button your ThunderBridge sends to the recipient a small “invitation message” via traditional SMTP/POP3 method described above and awaits for the recipient’s connection.

The invitation message contains only your IP address, your e-mail address and the recipient’s e-mail address.

When your recipient’s ThunderBridge receives the invitation message and approves its content, it will connect with your awaiting ThunderBridge and your e-mail will be delivered (a pull method).

And what if neither "push" not "pull" method works?
Well, in such a case you can always send your e-mail traditionally (if it is not large) or perhaps call and ask your recipient to download and install ThunderBridge and run Thunderbird.

How to Install in Thunderbird:

1. Right-click the link below and choose "Save Link As..." to download and save the file to your hard disk.
2. In Mozilla Thunderbird, open Add-ons from the Tools menu.
3. Click the Install button, and locate/select the file you downloaded and click "OK".


Product's homepage

Requirements:

· Mozilla Thunderbird

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Fixed first run default folder initialization