Is this a case where you have already configured Thunderbird with your charter.net account and now it's stopped receiving/sending mail?

Regarding support: there are organisations out there that will give you professional support for Thunderbird, and $80/h is not out of the question (in New Zealand market rates for IT support are about NZ$90/h). I would however be cautious of anyone claiming to be "official" Thunderbird support, as it's a community-driven project, not a commercial product with dedicated paid support contacts.

Cheers, Dave

Yes, it was working last Saturday, early in the AM. Then nothing worked. Phone and TB. I called Charter and was able to access my account online. Tech support at Charter gave me the IMAP/SMTP settings. I changed those on my TB and phone and was able to get mail on my droid, not TB. I get an SSL error code. Last night this 'tech support' guy told me someone had logged into my account overseas and someone from Austin logged in. I changed my password on Sat with Charter. The tech support guy also told me TB has my account locked, due to these codes TB is throwing in the error console. I'm stumped. I've googled this and haven't found a viable solution. Very frustrating.

Also, on my Tools/Options/Passwords I do not see or can find any saved passwords.?????

Would deleting my account and redoing everything help? I am fearing losing my folders and all my emails I have saved.

This all sounds rather concerning (random tech support people talking about account locking and passwords being reset). It's practically impossible to tell what's gone on here and if this was a legitimate attempt to help you or something more nefarious.

I'm afraid I can't help you much on this one (someone else might be able to step in here). If I was in your shoes I would reset all of my passwords, go over the computer with a fine-toothed comb to make sure you haven't been compromised somehow, then, back up your email data, uninstall Thunderbird, and start from scratch. You'd be doing this entirely at your own risk, so I would suggest you might want to contact Charter and see if they can give you some professional (paid) help with this (especially if you are concerned about email loss).

If for example you can get to another computer or can create a separate login account on your existing computer you can try re-running the Thunderbird account setup wizard to see if you can connect to your Charter account (use IMAP, not POP). If the setup wizard cannot detect the correct settings automatically, you can manually enter the required settings, which I assume are at: http://www.charter.net/support/internet/charternet-email-settings/#/desktop-email-settings

Cheers, Dave

Thunderbird is email client software running on YOUR computer. Ask your inept tech support person just how Thunderbird has locked your email account. Your provider obviously had problems as your state your phone and email service went out. Maybe they would like to blame the phone outage on your software too. If you know for sure your server settings are correct, check your firewall and make sure it is not blocking Thunderbird. Then ask for a real tech at your provider, not the idiot with a headset that just answers the phone and says not my problem.