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Most Secure Settings for POP on Gmail?

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  • Last reply by christ1

Ressa
Ressa
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What are the most secure settings to use for POP on a Gmail account?

I am setting up POP for my Gmail because I want a local copy that’s not affected by shenanigans on the server (and vice versa). I have Thunderbird 78.6.0

I have the Gmail side set up as detailed here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en-GB Under the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings It has POP enabled for all mail, and set to “Keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox” when accessed with POP.

I used a combination of the settings below to get everything working: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite Under Server Settings on Thunderbird I have ticked “Leave Messages on Server” and unticked “For at most X days” and “Until I delete them”

But I would like to have the most secure settings possible. I currently have the following, are there any changes I can make to make the connection more secure?

(I’m particularly unsure what to put for Connection Security for the SMTP server - is STARTTLS the most secure I can use? Also I’m unwilling to move to two factor authentication, but OAuth2 seems to work fine without setting up 2 factor for the account. (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1201406))

POP Mail Server Server Name: pop.gmail.com Port: 995 User Name: MYUSERNAME@gmail.com Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication Method: OAuth2

SMTP Server Server Name: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587 User Name: MYUSERNAME (without “@gmail.com”) Authentication Method: OAuth2 Connection Security: STARTTLS

Thanks for any help!

What are the most secure settings to use for POP on a Gmail account? I am setting up POP for my Gmail because I want a local copy that’s not affected by shenanigans on the server (and vice versa). I have Thunderbird 78.6.0 I have the Gmail side set up as detailed here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en-GB Under the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings It has POP enabled for all mail, and set to “Keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox” when accessed with POP. I used a combination of the settings below to get everything working: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite Under Server Settings on Thunderbird I have ticked “Leave Messages on Server” and unticked “For at most X days” and “Until I delete them” But I would like to have the most secure settings possible. I currently have the following, are there any changes I can make to make the connection more secure? (I’m particularly unsure what to put for Connection Security for the SMTP server - is STARTTLS the most secure I can use? Also I’m unwilling to move to two factor authentication, but OAuth2 seems to work fine without setting up 2 factor for the account. (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1201406)) POP Mail Server Server Name: pop.gmail.com Port: 995 User Name: MYUSERNAME@gmail.com Connection Security: SSL/TLS Authentication Method: OAuth2 SMTP Server Server Name: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587 User Name: MYUSERNAME (without “@gmail.com”) Authentication Method: OAuth2 Connection Security: STARTTLS Thanks for any help!

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christ1
christ1
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Your settings look good. Beyond that, 2-step authentication would add another level of security, if that is your main concern.

For the SMTP server, why you're using User Name: MYUSERNAME (without “@gmail.com”) is beyond me. Use your full Gmail email address as for the POP server.