24th
July
2007
You’re not alone…
Users all over the country are finding out daily that suddenly, for no apparent reason at all, they are unable to send mail if they want people to reply to their business or personal e-mail addressed other than one that is @comcast.net. This is because Comcast is blocking port 25 , which is your default port for sending email through your mail software.
The error message says (fill in your own X):
The connection to the server has failed. Account: ‘XXXX’, Server: ‘xxx.xxx.xxx.xx’, Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0×800CCC0E
Gee that’s helpful, isn’t it?
If you are using mail.yourdomain.com for your SMTP outgoing mail server, then you get an error saying “unable to connect to the mail server” even though it just successfully connected to the mail server to retrieve your incoming mail. After wasting time calling your web host, and going through various troubleshooting techniques, they tell you to call Comcast.
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:
Change the port your computer is using for SMTP outgoing mail, from Port 25 to one that your hosting provider will allow. In most cases, this seems to be port 587 for Portland providers.
To do this in Outlook -
- Go to tools – e-mail accounts – view or change existing account
- Sselect the appropriate mail account and hit the change button
- Go to the more settings button, and into the Advanced tab
- Change your default port 25, to port 587, and you should be back in business in most cases.
Still broken?
- Added note from comments below – Some people in the midwest for whom 487 didn’t work succesfully chaged to 465 and picked SSL under the “use the following type of encrypted connection” drop down. They did not check the “this server requires an encrypted connection” box.
In Outlook express -
- Go to tools – accounts – Mail tab
- Choose Properties box – Advanced Tab – and from there you can do the same
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.
Other stuff I've written:
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Scott says:
I’m so glad you took the time to comment, really. It’s amazing that Comcast does this without training their support people.
Frank says:
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.
James says:
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.
Scott says:
Thanks James for weighing in. Looks like a great presentation at that video – now if I could just find 2 hours to watch it!
Matt says:
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!
James says:
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!
Scott says:
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…
Scott T says:
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?
Patsy Sweetra says:
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!!
B Alexander says:
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.
Mike says:
This just started happening here in MN, Twin Cities area.
Fun stuff, FYI – port 587 seems to work for Network Solutions hosted email
Pete says:
I also spent hours and hours troubleshooting this at my Mom’s home office in OroValley Arizona.
After hours of messing around, uninstalling virus protection and firewalls, reading forums, I even tried the alternative port 587 but that didn’t work at first because in addition to having to use port 587 I found out later we now have to use Authentication and login with comcast username and password.
Ling says:
This is just an awful way of doing business. I just helped out a friend in Denver. She got the bogus email from comcast saying that a virus was active on her computer and that she needed to take action. Tech support recommended her to take her computer to the computer shop!
And all that she needed was change two email account settings (Outlook Express):
- Servers > Outgoing Mail Server > check “My server requires authentication”
- Advanced > Outgoing mail (SMTP): 587
Now I can understand why Comcast wants to limit their SMTP server to process outgoing mail from Comcast customers only.
But to implement this change WITHOUT notifying their customers, and – apparently – WITHOUT educating their customer support successfully is beyond my understanding.
Boohoo Comcast for pissing off your paying customer base when clear communication could have easily prevented tons of users from wasting hours and hours of unnecessary suffering.
Mary says:
I had the same error just come up and did the two things suggested above, change the port number and enable the box that says require authorization and VOILA…the problems disappear.
If I hadnt done a search for it I would have most likely gone to Comcast help for it. I did get an email stating something that said my email addy was being used to send spam and they reccommend that I use their McAfee, which I don’t like. I dont think I should have to use their firewall when the one I have (AVG) works perfectly fine!
wendy says:
i need alot of help i can not send or recieve any messages and i can’t carry the internet everywere i go and i do not know why and the box that lets the internet in the laptop and where it says message the light doesn’t turn on and i’m not even sure if this is my e-mail if you could please help i would be thankful
– wendy
Scott says:
Sorry Wendy, If “the light doesn’t turn on” then you’ll have to call your internet service provider, which I’m guessing is Comcast.
Heather says:
I’m in Maine and have the same problem. I spent days on end with Comcast with several different answers to the same question of why can;t I send email all of a sudden. I even spoke with a supervisor who was a real jerk. He came to the conclusion that it was my Mac Mail program that was the problem because I can log into there webmail and send email. i shouldn’t have to do that. I’ve never had a problem using my Mac Mail until they changed server port numbers, which do not work. I gave up talking to them and am now using AOL for email. It’s crazy that you pay so much for crappy service. I would switch but they are the only company that has bb in my area
Matt says:
It happened to me too! I hate Comcast so much I can’t stand it. I was fearing that I’d have to call tech support at Comcast and my email provider (register.com) and spend a long time on the phone with a foreigner with no knowledge. What a headache that is… but fortunately I did some Googling & found this topic before doing that. I just switched my port to 587 (from 25) & outbound mail started flowing again!!! I don’t know if they block port 25 based on geographic location, or on a customer by customer base. My guess is by customer… and they will probably eventually block port 587 on me in the future, but it works now. It is outrageous that they don’t contact their customers when changing aspects of their service. We run our office out of the house, and email is critical!!
Thanks to all above for the great info!!!
Comcast Blocks Outbound SMTP Email on Port 25 says:
[...] your port 25 fails and you can send – but not receive – your email, here is a useful, step-by-step solution guide – it won’t entirely save you from alleged federal spies, but it is an alternative to using [...]
Lynn in PHL says:
Thank you to everyone for your insights into this farce which is Comcast email. With all the excellent advice contained here, I was able to save myself many hours of frustration and get my email up and running again in a relatively short amount of time. A fruitless chat with Comcast techs lead me to search on my own and I was fortunate enough to find the answer here!
For those in the Philadelphia area, the fix for me was to have the outgoing mail server to require authentication (with the settings being my comcast.net address); change to port 587 and have it require a secure connection (SSL checked).
The amazing thing about this is the length of time this has been unraveling… more than 16 months and Comcast is no better dealing with this issue.
melne says:
THANK YOU SCOTT FOR THIS SITE!
I’ve been email-less at home for 6 months. Thanks to this site, and all the user comments, I can send email again!
I use email from my domains, using Comcast as the conduit to connect with the remote domain servers. In May, I received the same “Action must be taken–your computer is sending spam” email from Comcast that another commenter mentioned above. And, no more email could be sent.
Then I moved–and much to my surprise, I was able to send 3 emails–I thought the move fixed it, but 2 hours later, it no longer worked. And most recently, I bought a new computer. I was able to send 1 email, and it shut down again. Then I found this site.
My Fix:
I’m in the San Francisco-Oakland, CA area.
In the receiving portion, use your usual domain’s POP mail servername, ID & password.
In the sending portion, change the port to 465, set the SMTP server name to “smtp.comcast.net,” check the box or button to require SMTP Authentication. For SMTP user ID and password, you enter your COMCAST EMAIL ADDRESS and its accompanying password.
Then, email goes out!
I had to try about 20 combinations of info (from all the suggestions above) before it worked, but I’m back in business all thanks to YOU all.
You saved me calling and wasting hours with Comcast.
Let’s hope these solutions keep working. It’s ridiculous that they did this, but I’m just thankful that there WAS a workaround.
Thanks,
melne
Courtney says:
Okay I am so grateful to have found this site and have made the appropriate changes and now I have email going in and out but I still have one challenge with my outlook on a vista computer and that is the password verification box popping up everytime I send and receive and since it is my business account sending I have to type in that info and than when I receive I have to type in my comcast info! I have tried clicking the box that says save password and it is still making me fill out those boxes every time!! HELP PLEASE I am at wit’s end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
courtney
Scott says:
Well that’s unrelated to Comcast – it’s an Office / Vista issue. My wife had the same problem – try this and see if that helps…
Corey J. Anderson says:
Apparently I just got hit with this too. I run a mail server in my garage and was using it for inbound mail. My computers in the house suddenly stopped being able to send mail through my remotely hosted server also due to Comcast blocking port 25 both in and out of my residence. No warning or notice at all. Unacceptable. Maybe I’ll stop tossing away all those FIOS offers from Verizon… Comcast will soon be losing my Internet business account, as well as phone service, and cable TV.
How I was able to again send mail through my remotely hosted server running linux was to bring up another port (587 seemed to be what people are using) and do the changes mentioned by others here to the client settings.
I’m running postfix on my server and to redirect incoming traffic on port 587 to port 25 I added this:
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp –dport 587 -j REDIRECT –to-ports 25
I put it in my /etc/rc.local so it will be there on next bootup.
System sending mail on submission port over ssl - Rantings by Nick Buraglio says:
[...] acquisition of insightbb), this stopped working. I did a little debugging and it is my belief that port 25 is being blocked outbound from the comcast network. Many people speculatethis, and as a network engineer I think it is actually a good idea. First, [...]
Web says:
I had this problem in NJ and I changed the port, its weird just out of no where it didnt work.
BigTallMatt says:
I have had this problem in Delaware since the beginning of 2008 and have spent countless hours troubleshooting assuming it was a problem on my end (firewalls, malware, you name it) before I stumbled across this site. Thanks all for producing such a helpful resource for all us poor Comcast users! Up until recently, Comcast has been the only game in town. Maybe now that Verizon FiOS is here, it’s time to switch to a provider that still believes in customer service!
steve says:
My Outlook Express quit cooperating on my main PC. I have a couple so determined the OE worked on other PCs.
Been driving me nuts for a while, but not important. Today I finally nailed it by uninstalling IE7. IE7 boinked it. Uninstalling that fixed it. No Comcast here – Verizon for now. Good luck.
Theresa Kasper says:
Comcast hosts our website & we have 4 emails with that domain name. Since comcast’s migration we haven’t had a day without issues. I have account #1 on a desktop, laptop & blackberry. I have accounts #2, #3 & #4 on 1 desktop & only #2 was not working properly. Had a lot of hap-hazard cannot connect sometimes with #2 as well as the #1. I had comcast on the phone atleast 6 times & talked to 11 different people. At 1 point they told me my addresses were too long (can only have 34 characters in an address) & had to use the alias then “trick” it. This worked but only for #2 not for #1 which was not working on the desktop. I came upon this site & tried the fix for #1 & so far for the past 1/2 hour it has worked on the desktop. Strange is that I don’t need the fix for #2, #3 & #4 (atleast so far) and the desktops are in the same office on the same router.
joshua says:
I’ve tried all combinations of 587, 26, 465, with and without SSL, with and without SPA. Nothing. Still can’t send email using Outlook 2007. I’m in Indianapolis, if that helps.
Heather says:
I had the same problem. Try this:
Incoming Mail Server= mail.comcast.net
Username= yourusername@comcast.net
Password= yourpassword
Outgoing mail server= mail.comcast.net
Server Port= 587
Authentication should be set as password
Username= username@comcast.net
Password= yourpassword
Jen says:
The port change came to parts of NE Florida. After viewing & downloading every tip, trick & hint from this blog, I still ended up no-where. We were able to send email, but not with attachments. Tried several different mail programs, spent at least 4 hours total time on the phone w/ Comcast to no avail. Had resigned ourselves to having to log on to the net to send files. Then, our old router died (Linksys BEFSR81 v2). Sought out a new one on eBay & had to upgrade to the v3. Looked a little different than the old one, but nothing radical. Lo & behold, we were suddenly able to send attachments. So, at least w/ Linksys, it may be the version of the router & not something software related.
elyse says:
Okay, here’s the weird thing…I’m also in the Portland OR area, but today is the first day I knew anything about the Port 25 problem. And it only happened after I was helping someone with *his* Port 25 problem. After fixing his email account I sent a test message from his email to mine, and when I tried to reply to it I got the error message.
It’s got to be more than coincidence…
Jane Carter says:
I am having intermittent problems sending, replying, or forwarding mail. No problem receiving.
I’m using 3 different versions of Mac Mail on 3 different Macs, same problem.
Using port 587 as Comcast told me to. Had a nice rep who understood Mac Mail, and I got it working. But its still intermittent. See that other people with different mail programs are having the same problems. I am so glad I found you here with Google. I am going to try some solutions this morning. I will add as I go along, if I get it working.
Thank you for having this discussion!
Jane
Gwen says:
I just solved the same problem talking to a Comcast representative. My Mac account comes into my Mail account. Until recently – I had not problems sending email from the Mac account. Recently error messages occurred.
Long story – short, after 2 phone calls, and a representative who finally understood my question – I changed settings of port server on the Mac account from 25 to 587. Now I can send emails from the Mac account again.
Jane Carter says:
I think that was what solved our problems around here too. The Comcast Rep who I talked with, told us to go to port 587 also, and that worked for a while. Sadly, it was intermittent.
But for the last 2 weeks, its worked perfectly, so I think that Comcast has been working on the problem, even tho the reps are unaware that they are.
So from what you say and from our situation at the moment, I think its been solved, at least here in the East.
Thanks,
Jane
Doug says:
None of this solves the problem if you want to get your email from your work account and the port for that SMTP is 25. I got hit by this today with no warning. Now I cannot answer my work emails. Thanks Comcast.
A 1.5hr chat with tech support ran me through all sorts of changes to no avail. They finally said I’ll have to reboot to change the settings.
Ticked off in Massachusetts,
Doug
Scott says:
Well sure it does Doug – Just get your IT guys to either open up port 587 for you, or more likely, tell you what other port they’ve got open. You can solve this wiothout Comcast – (you sort of have to! )
Doug says:
Yeah, I had to get one of my business email providers to give me an alternate port, which was ok, but the other one refuses. I’m still working on them.
Jane Carter says:
If you are using Macs, I can guide you thru how to change your server settings for outgoing mail, and how to change your ports. The instructions for doing this if you use a PC are back in the beginning of this thread.
You can do it yourself.
Jane
Doug says:
Jane,
I guess I wasn’t quite clear in my post. I already know how to change port settings on PC’s and had to do that for Comcast and several of my other mail providers.
However, that does absolutely no good if the mail provider ONLY uses port 25 with no alternative port. Therein lies the problem and why I am putting on the pressure for an alternative port asap. I think they will cave shortly and open another port since several other employees, including several muckity-mucks at work, are or will have the same port 25 problem crop up shortly.
Doug
Scott says:
I can’t imagine that any business provider wouldn’t have an alternate port to offer you Doug – They’re simply going to HAVE to!
Jane Carter says:
Hi Doug,
I guess I didnt read carefully, but I sure hope you get them to fix it.
Not having email work correctly is certainly a pain.
Good luck with them,
Jane
Judith says:
Okay, Comcast sent me a notice last week that they were closing Port 25 and that I should start using 587 instead. So I set my personal email to 587. But my business email comes from a third party provider, and it was stopped cold. I can actually receive emails from the business account, but I can’t send them, no matter what I do. I even got my business provider to open up Port 587. One email went through, but then I couldn’t send any more. I was online with a Comcast tech yesterday about this when Comcast simply went down, and it was down for 24 hours. I am FROSTED!!
I don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried every suggestion on this forum, but NOTHING works! Comcast is the only provider I can use around here. DSL or sattelite are out of the question, so I’m royally stuck, and I’m terminally frustrated. How are small businesses supposed to survive with Comcast as their ISP??
If anybody has anything to suggest, I’m all ears.
Judith
Scott says:
Outgoing was “stopped cold” on port 587? Is there an error message? Has Comcast verified this to be true? What city are you in, Judith?
Doug says:
Judith,
My guess is that your work ISP did NOT open port 587 and that is why you cannot send email. I would check back with them and ask again for an alternate port.
Or it could be that in your email program the option “outgoing server authentication is required” is not selected. It should be selected for most email accounts. In MS Outlook you’ll find this under Email accounts -> more settings -> outgoing server. You should have a similar option in your email program.
I was finally able to get my work ISP to provide an alternate port (not 587) and all is well again.
Doug
lroden says:
In case helpful to those in SF Bay area: Comcast stopped sending all our outgoing email this morning, thanks to the helpful chain here we got it working. We have had to use port 587 (no encryption) for email outgoing through our Google and Well accounts, and port 465 with SSL (but not checking the Encryption Required box) for email outgoing through our business accounts at GoDaddy.
Glen says:
I just temporary relocated from Detroit to Austin and I am having trouble sending email out with OE. I can receive it fine and I can go on-line to the Comcast website and work my email from there but I want to use IE.
Any suggestions?
Phil says:
I’m in Portland OR, and I too went through the unannounced change with Comcast, fortunately my web host and Comcast supports using port 587 for my web host SMTP server. However I recently ran into a problem sending mail to liveoffice clients. Using my Comcast account mail is received and processes just fine. But when I send mail via my web host smtp server, it never gets to my recipients and no bounce message. According to liveoffice their RBL service McAfee TrustedSource has my Comcast provided IP marked as malicious. My IP recently changed with Comcast and both the old and new are listed as malicious. I tested several IP’s within the range of both my current IP and my previous IP, they all come up as malicious. Any ideas why mail sent using smtp.comcast.net initially coming from the same IP works but using my web host SMTP fails? Or better anyone got an easy solution or fix to this? This started in the fall of 2008.
Scott says:
@Glen – You’ll have to provide details of what “having trouble” means for anyone to offer any help.
@Phil – If mail arrives at liveoffice client fine, but when using your web host’s SMTP it fails, then it sounds like RBL service McAfee TrustedSource has THAT IP address marked as malicious.
This seems on the surface to have nothing to do with Comcast, and everything to do with McAfee TrustedSource and your host’s mail server.
You can verify this by testing a liveoffice message using your webhosts webmail going through a proxy like hidemyass.com. If the message arrives that way, then i’m wrong. If not, then Comcast is innocent (this time).
Glen says:
@ Scott,
I fixed my problem. In my OE account properties, Servers tab, I needed to check the “My server requires authentication” box under the Outgoing Mail Sever.
I think this has something to do with Comcast and some anti-spam prevention method.
Richard says:
Same problem here in SW MI – couldn’t even send with port set at 587. Comcast has been no help in past 2 weeks. With the help of all your comments was able to get Outlook to send. Strangely, it took this sequence: uncheck outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication, change port to 587, then check outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication, then click use same settings as my incoming mail server. Somehow, I’m not surprised Comcast couldn’t fix it even though they caused it.
Van Moore says:
I just got hit this morning in Salem, Oregon, and have gone through the process, but still nothing. I am using Outlook 2003. What are you using?