mail leopard won't display messages or download

New imac, transferred everything of the old one. Ufortunately mail has not imported any messages (solvable) and also does nothig when I start it. I used to see an inbox. Now i see the desktop wallpaper. I can press shortcuts to see my in box but mail has gone on strike. If I control click my name i can see it has the server details and also there are messages on the server for me but it won't download them. I can't find a preference for it to actually send and receive mail si I'm completely stumped.
If anybody knows how to make mail download messages it can see on a server and send messages I would appreciate it.
Thanks
Frank
(very annoyed)

Did you ever get a solution to this?