Thunderbird is not a server nor an Anti-Virus product. It does not host websites nor create email addresses. It is an email client; a program that runs on your computer which allows you to create mail accounts for existing email addresses and using POP or IMAP protocols can access the server which is receiving your emails and download emails for you to read. It uses SMTP protocols to send emails via relevant server. Downloaded emails can be auto filtered from Inbox into various folders. Thunderbird does have a built in Junk Controls which you can enable, train and use to auto put emails into 'Junk'. You can have as many mail accounts as the number of email addresses you already have in existance. All mail accounts can be shown in a single view, so saving you from needing to logon to loads of webmail sites to access emails held on different servers. eg: I have a website hosted by Fasthosts, so I have email addresses for that website. I also have email addresses provided by my ISP and also a free gmail address. All three email addresses are set up as mail accounts in Thunderbird, so I see everything in one place. re:'' I believe it receives the mail from my isp and then forwards it to me. '' Emails are received on the server of company which offers the email address. Many people will have an email address provided by the company who also provides their internet service. Thunderbird will use either POP or IMAP protocols to access that server using the same username (email address) and password that you would use to access that email address' webmail account and download emails into a mail account in Thunderbird so you can read the emails. Nothing is forwarded. If its a POP account then Thunderbird can only get access to the server Inbox and download emails. You can choose to leave copies on server, but it is not automatic, a setting needs to set up to do it. There is no synchronising of folders. The folders are independent of the server. If it is an IMAP acccount then emails are stored on server and Thunderbird imap account folders synchronise with server folders to display whatever is on server. Full copies can be downloaded to faciliate a backup, but you cannot rely upon an Imap account as being truely separate copy as it is not independent of the server. Very useful if you need access to same account via different computers, phone etc. If your website is hosted by Wildblue and they are saying they intend to stop POP, IMAP and SMTP service so that email clients like Outlook and Thunderbird cannot access any emails, then perhaps you need to find a suitable company to host your website. What exactly did they say regarding discontinuing the email service on all their email clients? Would you be happy to post an image showing the actual contents of the email, just to ensure I am fully understanding what they are saying. If they really are stopping this service, do you currently have a mail account created in Thunderbird for that email address ? If yes, is it set up as a POP account or an IMAP account ? If no, are you saying you currently only access those emails for that email address by logging on to webmail account? If yes, and you need to get copies of those emails currently on server onto your computer, then create a mail account, if all emails are in server Inbox, then set up account as POP and get it download all emails from server Inbox to pop account Inbox.