For using Thunderbird with news servers open the 'Account Settings' window by selecting
the menu 'Tools' > 'Account Settings' with Windows and OS X or 'Edit' > 'Account Settings' with Linux.
Add a new account by clicking on 'Account Actions'.
From the menu select the 'Add Other Account ...' item.
With 'Newsgroup account' selected click 'Next'.
Type 'Anon' for your name and 'anon@anon.invalid' for your email address in the appropriate fields and click 'Next'.
In the 'Newsgroup Server' field type 'localhost' for the address of your OmniMix system, click 'Next'.
For 'Account Name' enter 'news.mixmin.net.omnimix' (or whatever you like to remember its purpose), click 'Next'.
Click 'Finish' to complete your Newsgroup account creation.
Now in the Account list on the left select and expand the 'news.mixmin.net.omnimix' entry.
Click at 'Server Settings'.
The 'Server Name' has to be 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' with 'Port' number '119'.
In case you go for 'Connection security' 'SSL/TLS' ensure that the port number isn't altered!
Activate 'Always request authentication when connecting to this server'.
Click 'Ok' to exit the 'Account Settings' window.
Now in the left panel in Thunderbird's main window the account named 'news.mixmin.net.omnimix' should appear.
To subscribe to newsgroups right click on that account name and select 'Subscribe ...' or
select it with the left mouse button and click the 'Manage newsgroup subscriptions' link on the right.
The 'Subscribe' window opens and the news server will ask for your user name and password.
For User Name enter 'omnimix;ht=news.mixmin.net;pt=119;tl=e;to=4a', which also transfers the targeted server's parameters.
Fill in 'omnimix' for Password.
Activate 'Use Password Manager to remember this password.'.
Click 'Ok'.
After the OmniMix proxy server receives these login data, it contacts the external news server. The download of available
newsgroups begins.
As usual select the groups you're interested in (including e.g. 'alt.test.group' for your experiments) and click 'Ok' to close the
window.
Select one of the newsgroups you now are subscribed to and you'll notice that Thunderbird uses OmniMix to retrieve the group's
message headers. Click on one of these headers and the respective message body is downloaded.
If all that works you're ready to create and send your first (test) posting.
Simply proceed as normal. In the usual manner select the 'alt.test.group' group and click 'Write' (Message) or, for a reply, select
'Reply to List' from a posting's context menu. The now opening 'Write' window's 'To' field points to the test group and the 'From'
value represents your 'Anon' name. Enter your Text.
As long as within OmniMix 'Anon' > 'Always use Mixmaster for News' is activated you don't have to do anything special before
pushing the 'Send' button. All news messages are anonymized using the parameters specified within OmniMix.
Be aware that it takes some time for OmniMix to forward your message to the anonymous remailer system, and that the 'Sending Message'
window isn't closed before that task is done.
When problems arise with the connection, they may have their origin in incorrect parameters.
Within Thunderbird go to 'Tools' > 'Options' > 'Security' > 'Passwords' and click 'Saved Passwords ...', then 'Show Passwords'.
Check whether the parameters are set as shown in the picture above. If they are wrong you have to remove that line and reenter
correct data when Thunderbird tries to reconnect with OmniMix.
