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24th
July
2007
 You’re not alone… The error message says (fill in your own X): Gee that’s helpful, isn’t it? To make matters worse, users are finding out one at a time, because Comcast is slowly rolling out these changes user by user in individual markets around the country. This month, it’s apparently Portland Oregon’s turn, where I live. To cut to the chase, here’s the solution: To do this in Outlook -
Still broken?
In Outlook express -
The reason Comcast claims to be doing this is in an effort to prevent spam being sent by zombie/spyware/virus laden computers using their bandwidth and their Internet connection. I suspect they are really doing it to limit liability for any future potential lawsuits, and not really to save bandwidth, but I have no problem with that. The problem with Comcast doing this is that they do not seem to be telling all of their support people, and do not be notifying their customers. This has been going on around the country for MONTHS. Instead, it takes the end user hours of frustrating time on the phone spent with lower-level tech-support who have no idea that this change has even taken place. One can only guess how many individual users are still frustrated at this very moment because they are being forced to do their business e-mail from home using their @comcast.net accounts, after uninformed Comcast agents are able to help them? As a web host, we were forced to spend hours dealing with Comcast before we got an actual answer, and we still lost a couple of hosting customers over it, who were convinced that it must be our fault, since Comcast told them it was. Great customer service. If there was any competing product in my market I would switch in a heartbeat. I tried once before in 2005 after nearly an entire summer of poor Comcast connectivity. Thanks Comcast, for valuing our time so very little, in your quest to make mega millions. |
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Copyright 2007; Search Commander; SEO Consultant Scott Hendison; All Rights Reserved.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
[...] 7/2007 - Comcast is now blocking port 25, in selective markets around the country. If you find yourself unable to send mail with Comcast [...]
July 29th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I’m am completly upset, outraged, teed off, enraged, and plain P_ S S ‘D (any other adjectives i missed place here) about comcast taking over. I’m in the Houston TX Market and aparently comcast has come and taken over Road Runner and with it all sense of stability in terms of email usage… port 587 doesn’t work for us and neither does port 25… i love my bb speed, but u know if i cant use it for what i want i might as well go to dial up.
August 9th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Yes, I am in Seattle and I have been getting the run around from COMCAST as well. Port 26 worked for an hour and Port 587 not at all. I wonder if anyone in the Seattle area is reading this and has good luck with an ISP not closing the outgoing line to their business. For today the address is lisa.crunick@gmail.com
August 9th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Lisa,
you should check with your web host to see if THEY are allowing port 587.
I’ve found that many web hosts do by default, but it’s possible they have never had the need to do so.
If they do not, ask if they have another port they recommend.
Also, you might try setting your outgoing mail server to smtp.comcast.net, which seems t obe working again here in Portland (for now)
Finally, it may be possible to “upgrade” to a business service through Comcast, where they will not block your outgoing mail port.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Well I just ran into the same thing yesterday here in Boston, and talked to one completely-in-the-dark tech support person after another. My problem is I have multiple email addresses for different projects/clients/partners, and port 587 doesn’t work for any of them. I can’t go and ask each of them to open that port up, so I am trying to get comcast to open port 25 back up for me. I am about 24 hours into it with no resolution. I have 3 pcs on a secure wireless network here, each with up to date security software.
One tech support rep said “more than 100″ emails had emanated from my connection, and I asked them for the IP address of the offending machine, but I don’t think he had a clue what I was talking about.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I wish I had seen this blog before I called Geeks on call. I am in the DC/MD area. I tried working with two Comcast techs on Live Chat. One tech had me switch to port 587 but gave me no reason why. In doing this it triggered some other settings that needed to be clicked which were not clicked when it was Port 25. Of course, the tech kept saying it was a firewall issue with Norton security software. I ended calling Geeks on Call and we went through every scenario on the settings until finally we picked the right combination and I could send e-mail. Why couldn’t Comcast send out a broadcast e-mail to everyone telling them to change their port to 587 or whatever?
Now the issue is why is everyone’s internet slowing down to a crawl or not even loading pages every night from 7 pm until 11 pm (peak internet traffic times). This has been happening since late July for me.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:44 am
To not tell customers, or even all of their own technicians is totally ridiculous. sounds like it had nothing to do with your Norton. The “slow in the evenings” part is something I wasn’t (thankfully) faced with…
September 10th, 2007 at 5:51 am
I am looking for a real fix. Switching away from Comcast may work for a while but this issue is a Virus.
I switched to 587 after Comcast Support told me to do so, and it worked for about 6 months ok. Now nothing works to send mail. Their support staff MUST know what it up, especially after Tech’s like me tell them what is up… SPAMMERS have somehow grabbed MY computer I think with a zombie virus, but Norton and Avast antivirus programs cannot fix or find the hidden file where its located. Its crazy.
There has GOT to be a way to clean and then protect my computer from hackers bots and viruses. Meanwhile switching ISP providers will not really help if its MY computer that is infected. If I change email addresses the virus picks up on that and continues on its merry way it would appear, problem is that I cannot be sure and cannot find answers.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaak… even the Tech’s are frustrated!
September 10th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Don - I can’t believe that they have blocked port 587! UN-BE-leivable… What’s wrong with them?
You might try asking Comcast if upgrading to a “business account” will solve your problem.
Alternatively, you might consider custom A - MX records to host your mail directly with Comcast. I’m sure they would prefer you host your entire website with them, but that’s probably the last thing you want to do.
However, I’ve already decided that if they mess with me anymore, and disable port 587 on my account, I’m going to have no choice but to let them host my mail.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Does anyone have a port number for the Washington D.C. area?
The online Chat SUCKS! If I could have reached throught the computer I would have choked the online tech!!!!!
September 12th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Ask your web host what alternative port you can use, then just try it…
September 18th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Has anyone experienced this problem with Verizon?
September 18th, 2007 at 6:58 am
If you are suddenly unable to send mail with Verizon wireless broadband, this moght help…
Early this month, Verizon started rolling out a change to their outgoing mail server, and I got a phone call from them telling me that I would be unable to send mail after September 6th, unless I change my outgoing mail server to authenticate using the same information to match vzw website login at http://www.verizonwireless.com/myaccount
If you are talking about a Verizon DSL landline though, then obviously that can’t help you, I’m sorry.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Yep it is Verizon DSL landline. And the online chat people keep telling me I just have my account setup wrong! For the short term I had the verizon account just bounce to a temp acct I set up through comcast.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Try this it works for me in Seattle
When you click the enable SSL it will change back to 25 so be sure its set to 465 after you check.
Change smtp port to 465, enable SSL
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
A Comcast tech writes:
Much of tech support is outsourced. It is up to the individual agents to ask floor support for assistance.
If the agent does not get the answer there, then it is up to them to Google the question.
However, the problem is that techs are officially not responsible for troubleshooting non-comcast email issues. And so they don’t. It helps keep their average handle time down.
Me, I don’t care. I’m here because I’m seeking more info on using port 26
Also, Comcast techs do not support other programs beside outlook express and mac mail. And most won’t touch mac mail even though they have access to walkthroughs.
Buying other service is not necessary. BTW, port blocking is by modem config.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I am a former RoadRunner user in Houston who got sold to Comcast. I thought there might be a problem with the chanheover so I set up a yahoo email account. We (the vast customer base) were promised an email with instructions on setting up our email. Mine never came. After much frustation and several calls to customer “service” I finally got my comcast box set up. I don’t use it. I prefer my yahoo mail. Today I started having trouble with forwarding emails. I suspected comcast so I googled a long question and arrived at this page. I guess I was right! hehehe
October 15th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I am happy to report that port 465 has fixed my sending mail problem. Thank you everyone!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Ahh - port 465!
A new one to try… thanks for sharing
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
[...] also blocks Port 25, which many e-mail clients — including Outlook — use to send messages. Of course, [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Man you hit it right on the head. I thought I was reading my own blog. Comcast bastards! The time and frustration they have cost me.
My ONLY problem is that even AFTER changing my settings to the 587 port, I’m STILL unable to send my mail (and I’m not sure why) hopefully someone out there will have figured this out because I sure can’t, I changed and reconfigured my settings in everyway I can think of to no avail. It is SO frustrating!
October 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I was using 587 for one email, and 25 for others which are still working on port 25. 587 and 465 don’t work in NJ. What should I try next?
October 29th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Well I figured it out…I had to change my SMTP settings to “mail.comcast.net” to SEND e-mail from home. Oddly enough, even though I had to make this change, the e-mail STILL appears to arrive from my work address. So, now I just have to change all me settings when I work at home. Pretty stupid really, but whatever. At least I got it worked out.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Hey, just for the heck of it, I changed my smtp settings to mail.comcast.net I still get the 0×800CCC92 error - email server rejected your login. Don’t understand. My other accounts still use ports 110 and 25 and this one had been using 110 and 587. Tried all the other ports recommended, and I still get the error. Comcast techs don’t support Outlook 2003 and told me to get mail from Comcast, but I can’t get into that either. They are upgrading their system, and the webpage that uses the email account in question is inactive too.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Did you change your log-in and password settings to coincide with your comcast account as well?
October 29th, 2007 at 8:10 am
yes - after contacting several comcast techs, most of whom would not support outlook, one finally assigned a new password for my comcast account which I then changed in outlook and it works.
I can access both comcast email and outlook through this account. Don’t know why I couldn’t use my own pw, but at this point i’m grateful. they confirmed settings 110 and 587
October 29th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I had some password issues with comcast.net when I was trying to get set up. It seems to me that I should have been told at the outset I couldn’t use all numbers in my password. I finally found a tech who reset my password .. guess what all letters.
I’ll keep you posted on my ongoing battle. I am not going to give up my yahoo mail.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:38 am
passwords were all working fine until Comcast started to update their format - I didn’t change any settings. PW now need to be minimally 8 characters. Yes, when they reset my password, all letters too!!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Well. boys and girls, I did it! I am no longer under the heel of comcast! I have changed to AT&T for internet and phone. My condo fee covers basic cable so I’m stuck with that. I can use mt yahoo email with no tampering.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Jerry and HMR, congrats on getting past it.
Marty? Wow, good for you! Here in Oregon Verizon offers FIOS - 20 megs over fiber!
Verizon FiOS
I’d try it in a minute if I could get it, but i can’t -
January 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ:
Comcast gave me the same BS story about spamming. I was running an email server at home, which does violate their policy. But it was not compromised, and only processed a few messages a day. They blocked port 25 and told me to switch to 587 *WITH AUTHENTICATION*. If you switched to port 587 and it still doesn’t work, go into the Account properties for your email, and make sure you check the authentication box under one of the tabs, and type in your Comcast username and password for the email account. Hit OK and close Outlook, then go back in and try to send a message.
If you have a non-Comcast email account, you must select its properties and use these same settings, with Authentication. This effectively logs you into your Comcast email account to send a non-Comcast email out. Sounds like they did not tell some of you that.
BTW, they are lying to people and saying that ALL customers have had port 25 blocked. None of my friends in my local area are blocked yet (Jan 2008) on port 25 - I have been blocked since April 2007.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Yes Bob, exactly - Thank you.
well, i don’t know if they’re “lying” so much as they just can’t get their story straight between departments and support levels, and there’s nobody addressing it for us consumers or even for the tech crowd.
I cannot find (and I’ve asked them this on the phone) ANYwhere they are publicly explaining or discussing what the heck they’re doing, or why.
NOR, will they offer any suggestions!
It’s REALLY frustrating people all over the country!
January 10th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks a lot, you really saved my day by fixing the comcast weird problem.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
Read below, it worked for me, thanks bob.
imac G5 osx 10.4.10 Comcast user (reluctantly) using mail on the mac.
Bob Says:
January 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ:
If you switched to port 587 and it still doesn’t work, go into the Account properties for your email, and make sure you check the authentication box under one of the tabs, and type in your Comcast username and password for the email account.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
Yes, Arty is correct. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I immediately called Comcast support on told them to spread the word about the solution to all the upset calls, and then to pee in the breakfast ceral of the idiots that are making these changes without alerting their customers!
After much frustration after all my emails quit working 2 days ago I did as he suggested. Here’s how I did it in Outlook 2002 when Comcast had no idea how to help me.
Comcast email accts only need to change the Outgoing Server port from 25 to 587 under the Advanced tab in More settings
Other email accounts follow this..
Tools..Email Accounts..Next
Double click the email acct you want to alter
All email accounts must have smtp.comcast.net as the outgoing mail server.
Click More Settings..Outgoing Server tab
Check My Outgoing Server requires..etc.
Check Log On Using and type in your Comcast username and password.
Click Advanced tab and change your Outgoing Server to 587
Click OK and then click Test Account Settings and you’ll be fine.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Thank you for having this discussion on your site. It saved me hours of Comcast headaches. I found this discussion with a search in Dogpile.com for “suddenly unable to send email from outlook 2003″. Just for fun I did a Chat session with Comcast support. The person was confused, as they had no idea that there was an “Outlook” versus “Outlook Express”. She (I think) tried to give me a link for a “one-click fix” for express. I don’t believe English was the person’s first language, either. I can only imagine how long it would have taken to get this fixed had I not found your site right away. I work remotely most of the time, and due to restrictions on our hosted email server, allowing sending only from within the office’s range of IP addresses, I have to send through my comcast account. I asked the person to pass up the ladder that I was PISSED OFF that I was never notified of the change.
March 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
You’re welcome, Matt. Glad it helped
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I read this yesterday, after my husband and I discovered we could no longer send emails through Comcast here in FL. I spent the day trying to find out from Comcast what they had done. The first “tech” put me on endless hold until I hung up (and I was still being nice then!). The following “techs” were equally useless. Not a word about why our two different email programs — Eudora and Pocomail — had suddenly stopped sending mail. They wouldn’t even acknowledge the logic therein that pointed to the trouble originating with Comcast. “Comcast doesn’t support 3rd party email programs” was all they said, handing the problem back to me. “Use Comcast webmail instead.”
Then I found your write-up and all was revealed! A little SMTP port checking program verified that Comcast had indeed closed port 25 on us. I worked around it using AuthSMTP, which we have for our business laptop.
I called Comcast back this afternoon and gave them an earful. No warning that port 25 was being closed, no mention of it when I called looking for help. I’m still in fits over it. And I pity the Comcast customer who isn’t as dogged in hunting down the source of their send problem or computer savvy enough to rectify it.
And we’re paying nearly $50/month for this “service”. Unfortunately Comcast is our only realistic option at the moment.
Anyway, thank you so much for writing about this. Without it I’d probably still be pulling my hair out.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
You’re welcome Mary. Did you note the date on my post? July of 2007?
I cannot believe Comcast is so unconcerned and uncaring about customer service.
Think of the hundreds or thousands of work-hours lost to this problem that they’re causing…
Someone should start a class action lawsuit against them, in my opinion.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Looks like Comcast has just turned off port 25 for the Baltimore area (April 2008). And it’s so sad that the support folks still have no idea. I e-mailed them about suddenly not being able to send mail, noting that nothing had changed on my end, and asked what was up with their server - I got the standard (scripted) reply, “check your firewall settings, etc.” Since I knew it wasn’t my firewall, I thought then to do a web search and found this answer. Funny thing is, I also found references to using port 587 on Comcast’s own website - and still, the support people don’t mention it! How can they make this kind of change and not tell the customers or their own support staff?? A simple e-mail to the customers, that’s all it would take.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I can no longer access my old webpages after comcast upgraded. The old webpage was transferred automatically, but it is not formatted the same. It cannot be edited either via the new system. So I need to redo, but I Can’t find the link to recreate new webpages -can anyone help?
April 9th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Comcast just bought out Insight in IL and I hated to transfer over to their servers but finally had to. #1 I lost one of my absolute favorite e-mail nics. #2 It took a few tries to get e-mail to work in Outlook2003 but I did it-WOO HOO! BUT NOW…for days I can no longer send e-mail, only receive it.
Okay, so I called Comcast and got an Indian who spoke very poor English so I had to ask him to repeat everything-especially with his softer voice. So, I reset the 995/465 and checked the SSL’s. Then I could not send or receive. I called again, just for the tech to tell me this was all correct and finally said he would transfer me to tech II but warned me they do not have support for Outlook 2003. Okay..sooo while I was on hold, I was nice enough to open Outlook 6 and set up my default e-mail in there so they COULD talk to me with support. Sure enough same problem so this worked out great right? WRONG-the little twerp transferred me to MICROSOFT!!! AND of course they are not open at 2 in the morning! As if that was not bad enough, when I called Comcast back AGAIN…it said my phone number does not exist!!!
I went ahead and let the call go thru and told the rep I WANT A MANAGER! So, she said she would transfer me to Tech and ask for manager-ok fine. I did just that and the tech asked me why and got my info-continually telling me no manager was responding yet-which is probably true! So he asked if he could help me at all and I said ok…told him all. He said I cannot help with Outlook though but this one time I will try. I said I told you I set up Outlook Express 6 while I was waiting on hold the 2nd time around! So we went thru it all just to be told I need the 587 and 110 and do not check SSL. So I did all this and it “looked” like everything would be ok…
WRONG! I now cannot send or receive e-mail and I figure I better not call them again right now because if I do, I am going to let “someone” REALLY have it as if I was not blatant enough as it was!
And to make matters worse, I go to Symantec to see about maybe setting something to allow the ports-just a stab in the dark for selfteching…and their answer on their site?? Upgrade to 2007 and then after that you can upgrade to 2008. Well, I had recently done that and had to do online chat with them forever and let them do remote access and nothing has been the same! AND when I upgrade I lose my most favorite ad blocker and popup blocker. So I defintely went back to my old 2006 version!!! But they seem to have removed all the great 2006 tech support issues on their site!
So now I have been searching, well let’s see, it’s now 5:15 am-3 hours later…I finally found this site and I was SO hopeful I would get the magic cure…but it tells me the port and stops there LOL
But yes you are right, some people may be frustrated this VERY minute and BOY AM I!!!! (yes 4 !’s)
I am hopelessly stuck with NOONE to help me at this point and something has got to change soon…
I also am stuck with Comcast because my area is not wired for DSL and they are not going to come out just to wire my flat although I helped put one of their kids thru K-8 for all the years I had SBC who is now AT&T.
And get this, while on the phone they asked about my phone service and I said ah I do not have AT&T, I have Lingo VOIP. They said we have…I said I know but you also charge $40/mo. And so they asked my features with Lingo and I started naming them off…after I named off about 12 of them and he did not stop me…I finally got tired and said I get 21 features total. He said well, right now we have a special, since you are a valued customer, I can offer phone for $20/mo. It’s still $4/mo plus tax, more than what my service with Lingo is and I pay by the year so I am not cancelling a contract for this crap! I am smart enough to know I will have to call them for tech for the blasted phone as well, and with service I got today? NO WAY JOSE!!!
But back to the Outlook, NAV, Comcast issue…this is almost not worth it all!
April 9th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Tracy - I’m with you! This makes NO sense…
HMR - I’m afraid this is completely off topic, and I can’t follow what you may be talking about. Does you comment have something to do with Comcast hosting your website? If so, you’ll have t ocontect them, or use the “Ask Scott” in the menu on the left of this blog.
Computer Junkie - It MAY be that your webhost just has not enabled port 587 for you yet. Give them a buzz, because it should work fine.
Also, don’t forget that in your swapping of Outlook and Outlook Express versions, MS has sometimes changed the order of listing your settings - putting POP3 before SMTP and SMTP before POP3 -
If you are not paying close attention, it’s easy to accidentally mix up the two ports - Outgoing SMTP should be 587, incoming POP3 is port 110
April 11th, 2008 at 12:36 am
APRIL 10, 2008: SAME PROBLEM AS ABOVE - EVERYTHING IS OK EXCEPT CANNOT SEND MAIL UNDER OUTLOOK OR VISTA MAIL ON ANY OF MY 5 HOME COMPUTERS. I FOUND THE FIX. COMCAST HELP DESK FINALLY GAVE UP ON THE PROBLEM AFTER 30 MINUTES, THEY GAVE ME A TROUBLE TICKET AND THEN NEVER GOT BACK. WHEN I TRACED THEM THEY AGAIN PROMISED TO PHONE BACK BUT DID NOT. I MADE A CALL TO MY NEPHEW, STEVE, HE FIXED THE PROBLEM IN 1 MINUTE. 1 MINUTE FOLKS. COMCAST SHOULD PAY MORE TO THEIR HELP.
THIS FIX IS GOOD FOR COMCAST IN THE SF BAY AREA. GO TO MAIL PROPERIES TABS. UNDER SERVERS TAB CHECK THE BOX FOR “MY SERVER REQUIRES AUTHENTICATION”… UNDER “ADVANCE” TAB EXCHANGE THE DEFAULT OUTGOING PORT 25 WITH “465″. THEN CHECK BOTH BOXES FOR OUTGING MAIL “THIS SERVER REQUIRES A SECURE CONNECTION (SSL) AND INCOMING: “THIS SERVER REQURES A SECURE CONNECTION (SSL)
TRY IT NOW …. IT WORKED FOR ME FINE
GOOD LUCK
PS
MY BRAINY 38 YEAR OLD NEPHEW IS UNEMPLOYED IN SAN JOSE, CA. AND WILLING TO EXCEPT ANY WAGE… “ANY WAGE”… AND ANYONE WHO WANTS TO OFFER HIM A JOB MAY CONTACT HIM AT steve_w.morgan (at) sbcglobal.net YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED… TRY HIM OUT
SINCERELY,
“59 YEAR OLD UNCLE” JOE BIELEFELD, CUPERTINO, CA
ed. - Scott fixed the email address for Steve
April 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Well, Joe B. That only worked because your company’s mail server for the domain you were trying to use happened actually be secure.
I’m guessing your nephew was familiar with your domain, so that’s why he knew that.
This is certainly not to imply that he’s not well qualified though, and please, nephew Steve, tell us more about why port 465 worked for your uncle? (if you do, I’ll fix the email address that your uncle nicely posted for the spambots
I welcome your input…
April 15th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I lost the ability to send outgoing mail about 2 weeks ago in the Boston area (Needham). Receiving fine, but sending is out. After reading through prior posts I sense I may have some difficulty in finding a successful combination of settings to return email sending back to normal.
I’m using a Mac, OS X 10.5.2 and Eudora 6.2.1. Past settings of smtp.comcast.net and NO Authorization used to work fine. I’ve played with checking the “Use submission port (587)” but no luck. Any advice from others struggling and/or succeeding in the area?
April 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
If you’re trying to send through your own domain, call your webhost and ask them.
Undoubtedly, after 2 week in Boston, they’ve encountered others like yourself and can recommend another port to try besides 587.
(or, move your hosting to Comcast - yikes!)
April 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Well, just went through this process myself. I’ll add just three things:
- For me, in downtown San Francisco, port 25 was the one that worked. 465 didn’t
- The agents on online “chat” are MUCH BETTER than the imbeciles on the phone. Click “chat now” on http://www.askcomcast.com/contactus.asp
- If you didn’t get an @comcast.net address originally, you have to to sign up for one for the SMTP credentials. Processing this takes 30 minutes to 48 hours. You’ll need to ask for a ticket # and contact them later to get the email / password.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Hi Scott,
I checked Outlook and Express and have the pop3 and smtp same on both so that’s good at least. But after many calls to them and online, they only send me to MS which I will not pay $40 per session to find out what’s wrong. Everything was working then stopped and I had not added anything different to my pc. I also disabled NIS and NAV and still get same problem…oh! btw, I have my HD partitioned so I reinstalled XP Pro, Norton’s etc on C: drive so this is also a very fresh install with all the updates and still same problem.
I just find this very strange
May 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Good Job! That did it. whats odd is my condo acct works fine my country acct didn’t.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Scott,
I want to say thank you for this blog. I had the same problem with comcast exactly one week ago and after spending 1.5 hours online with comcast tech support, the problem resolved itself. The tech guy claimed that he did not do anything but I am not stupid and I know that he did since I did nothing different.
I use 3 computers with 5 different email address and use each email accounts pop3 and smtp info and have never had a problem before. I used outlook 2003 and XP for years until I upgraded to outlook 2007last year. I never had a problem sending email ever until 1 week ago.
I use comcast to connect to the internet, located in chicago, but do not use comcast for email at all. I have my own domain with 4 email address and another private email account that I use for all email.
I spent an entire Friday evening last week trying to figure out what was wrong (I knew it was not my email address) but thought it was my equipment (router, hub, cable modem. When that did not work, I called comcast and the guy was nice but was useless. I think he just reset my system and ended the call.
According to comcast website, they disable your email send capabilities for 24 hours if they sense that you are sending more than 1000 emails a day. I have no virus and do not send anywhere near 1000 emails a day.
I thought all was well until I tried to send email out last night. It was a no go. Could not send from any email address or computer. I could send if I went directly to the web based email but not from outlook. I thought it would fix itself but after 24 hours it did not. I tried shutting down the network and let it reset itself but that did not work either. It has been a week since the previous fix but I was not going to spend another friday night online with comcast.
So my search in google brought me to your site. I tried changing the outgoing port to 587 but that did not work so I kept reading and found port 465. OMG. It worked. The incoming port stayed 110, outgoing changed to 465 and I picked SSL under the “use the following type of encrypted connection” drop down. I did not check the “this server requires an encrypted connection” box.
So again I must say thank you so very much. I am up and running again.
Barbara from Chicago.
May 24th, 2008 at 5:38 am
I’m so glad you took the time to comment, really. It’s amazing that Comcast does this without training their support people.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I have not read through the entire thread but I wanted to share what worked for me. I have comcast at home and am trying to setup my business email using Outlook 2003. I experience the same issues with the ports, and with comcast not being very helpful. After all my frustration I finally decided to use my incoming mail server as my outgoing mail server with the default ports(110 and 25). I have sent 5 differnt tests which have been successful. I hope this continues to work for me. I just wanted to share in case it can help anyone else.
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Well, I just thought I’d chime in on this thread. I just experienced the issue this morning with this message:
“Dear Comcast Subscriber:
ACTION REQUIRED: Comcast has determined that your computer(s) have been used to send unsolicited email (”spam”), which is generally an indicator of a virus. For your own protection and that of other Comcast customers, we have taken steps to prevent further transmission of spam from your computer(s).”
I smelled the BS right away and did some digging around. Used the switch to port 587 in Outlook Express, and things seem to be ok for now.
But, this all comes at a time when I am very suspicious of these kind of “behind the curtain” changes with these giant conglomerates. Especially since I watched this:
http://www.edgemediatv.com/icke/index.html
It’s a video of a talk by a Brit named David Icke who has been researching this “Big Brother” phenomena for nearly twenty years. It is three hours of his detailed explanation of his research findings.
If you are at all concerned about the growing powers, not only of the U.S. government, but of the “hidden” power system behind it all, then this is a must see for you.
If you are just curious and interested in keeping an open mind, then this information will help you to weigh these kind of goings on, like this email issue for example, with a broader framework of possible reasons why this is happening.
Prepare to be shocked and angered by what he has to say. Indeed, perhaps that is a very good thing for us all. Like the bumper sticker says, “If your not angry, then your not listening.”
I particularly like the one from the video that says, “Politics may not be the oldest profession, but the results are the same.”
Why is Comcast so unresponsive and in apparent disarray about this issue?
As Scott says in a post above:
“…well, i don’t know if they’re “lying” so much as they just can’t get their story straight between departments and support levels, and there’s nobody addressing it for us consumers or even for the tech crowd.
I cannot find (and I’ve asked them this on the phone) ANYwhere they are publicly explaining or discussing what the heck they’re doing, or why.
NOR, will they offer any suggestions!
It’s REALLY frustrating people all over the country!”
What is going on?????
For myself, and especially after viewing the above video, my suspicion about Comcast’s motivations are very highly aroused. Confusion and secrecy are two “tools” commonly and succesfully used by manipulators and fascist regimes since time immemorial.
Our rights and freedoms are eroding by the hour, and this could be just another little example of something far deeper and far more sinister than you could even imagine.
Unless people start to step back, connect the dots, smell the bulls–t, get really pissed off and start doing something about it, it is only going to get worse.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Thanks James for weighing in. Looks like a great presentation at that video - now if I could just find 2 hours to watch it!
July 24th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
What a pain in the a$$?! This problem just started this week and after talking to a few different geeks in tech support they have yet to offer up anything that works. I have read through this entire blog and have tried everything mentioned and nothing is working. We are in Tucson, AZ so if anyone has some suggestions on how I can get my business email account to send from my Outlook 2003, I would be forever grateful. I would say email me direct but I currently dont have a way to respond! Thanks Comcast!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Hey,Matt
Not sure if it will work for you but it did for me. Just change the outgoing email in OE to port 587. If you don’t know how, a bit of Googling will turn up some instructions I’m sure….
It’s fairly simple. If that doesn’t do the trick, perhaps someone else has some suggestions.
Good luck!
July 25th, 2008 at 7:55 am
If port 587 doesn’t work, simply call your ISP, and ask them what other ports you should try for SMTP.
Tell them you KNOW they’re blocking port 25 for sending mail with other than their server, and you just want top know what port you should use.
Get a supervisor involved if necessary - they DO know the answer, really.
Then, your web host may also have to enable that port for you too, but the answer is there…
July 25th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Maybe this change constitutes a deceptive marketing practice on Comcast’s part and the following group should be alerted. See the article attached to teh following link:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6581628.html
Comcast P2P Critic Launches Class-Action Bid
Lawsuit Alleges MSO Cheated Customers by ‘Blocking’ Internet File Transfers
In the article it states “Comcast knowingly caused its subscribers to pay for services that they did not receive”
Maybe the same here?
August 18th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Guess what folks? Now they are targeting the Harrisburg, PA area as of last Saturday, August 16th! Went through FOUR techs in over FOUR hours, no result. Went through Norton IS and AV, uninstalled that, installed McAfee, nothing found, uninstalled that, went out and bought AVG (have been meaning to do that anyway since Norton is such a pain!), it found nothing (of course, because there is nothing there!), ran registry cleaner, found nothing! Unistalled Office for XP (I am running Vista now, but had XP when I bought my Office Suite), reinstalled, Outlook is clobbered, will no longer work (message says it was “damaged by another application”, so setup Vista’s Microsoft Mail ( Vista’s version of Outlook Express). Recovered my folders and their contents, but my address book is gone, STILL cannot send mail! So, will try one of the solutions above when I get home, but won’t call Comcast againg! Would rather get a root canal without anesthesia than call those idiots again!!
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Thank you, thank you!!!
These changes just rolled through our area (Santa Cruz, CA). After a lot of trial and error and Google searches I was able to get our comcast addresses sending email again. The strange thing was our business domain addresses were not able to send to any comcast address. I even had our domain host open up port 587 on our email server. We could then email any other domain, just not comcast, which was a BiG problem as some of our clients have comcast email addresses.
This was the key to solving this issue:
Comcast email accts only need to change the Outgoing Server port from 25 to 587 under the Advanced tab in More settings
Other email accounts follow this..
Tools..Email Accounts..Next
Double click the email acct you want to alter
All email accounts must have smtp.comcast.net as the outgoing mail server.
Click More Settings..Outgoing Server tab
Check My Outgoing Server requires..etc.
Check Log On Using and type in your Comcast username and password.
Click Advanced tab and change your Outgoing Server to 587
Click OK and then click Test Account Settings and you’ll be fine.