Adding a new account with password

I want to add school e-mail account to Thunderbird cause I already use Thunderbird for my private e-mail. If I try to connect the school e-mail account to Thunderbird, it loads and loads and loads but never gets the IMAP and SMTP settings from the server. It tried to add the account in a new install of Thunderbird in a virtual machine and there was the password input at the start to the usual name and e-mail input, when adding a new account. There it worked and Thunderbird got the settings from the server. But I don't want to access my school e-mail account via a virtual machine. I want access through my own PC. So it looks like the server needs the password from Thunderbird to get the settings but there is no way to input it before requesting the server. '''Or is it?''' Thanks for help in advance.