Cannot send email!

I hadn't thought about the Security setting as described here. It is a good tip, but didn't reflect my situation at all. As some others found, Comcast did something to help and whatever it was, it cleared up the mess and my email started working again on its own.  I just hope it doesn't start failing all over again because help with correct answers were not coming from Comcast at all. Thus that avenue does not offer much help in getting anything solved on this particular issue.

Do not install the latest Windows update. I installed last night and now my Outlook is not sending again. Could be coincidental, but I doubt it. Tried from my iphone and it is working.

I have the latest update too, came in Monday, version 20H2, and my email is working fine. I'm certainly thankful for that! Now if they could only get the battery issue working. 🙂

rk

There have been many good theories put forward in this thread, but there seems to be no verified cause or a solution that works for everyone. Something is definitely affecting Xfinity (Comcast) email service to third party email client applications running on Windows.

My wife and I use Outlook (latest Office 365 version) running on Windows 10. Our Comcast.com email service was working fine until yesterday (Nov 10). We lost service between roughly 8:30 am and 3:15 pm Eastern Time. Service then remained solid until late last night, but we could no longer send or receive email from Outlook early this morning and it has been out all day. We can still access email at Comcast.net in a browser or using email apps on our Apple phones (IOS).

I have seen postings on the internet claiming that security protocol registry settings in Windows may have been changed by a new OS release. Our service was fine until November 10, so I did a system restore to November 9. That had no effect. I also then installed the latest updates to Outlook and the Office 365 apps, and that didn't work, either.

There is some chatter that a Windows registry setting for the TLS 1.3 protocol needs to be enabled. There is no such node in our registry settings now, enabled or disabled. The fact that our service comes back intermittently seems to shoot down that theory - at least in our case.

I cannot call Xfinity customer support because we are no longer paying customers. After years of Comcast internet service, we continue to use Comcast email. However, I did spend over an hour yesterday on the phone with Microsoft technical support. The support rep was competent and very helpful. He tried everything he could think of and concluded that the connection problem is on the Comcast side. He even tried to reach Xfinity tech support on my behalf, saying that they would probably talk to him. (That's really going the extra mile. Microsoft Support sure has changed in the last few years.)

I know that the problem is not in our email account settings in Outlook, because those same settings work fine on two different machines when service comes back. 

If any of you folks are paying Xfinity customers, I hope you will put the pressure on!  😎

How did you retain your Comcast email account without being a paying Comcast customer? I have always wondered if there is a way to keep the email account without being a broadband customer.

And your analysis is spot on - there is something happening on the Comcast side and as customers we can do nothing but hope they resolve it. It could be connected to Windows updates but that is not a given. I have noticed that it seems to be attachments which block outgoing connections. If Comcast was a more efficient and well managed company there would be someone from the tech side monitoring this thread and interacting with us. And there may be but they apparently have to remain silent. This is NOT user error or a user configuration problem - it is too widespread and over too diverse an array of clients for it to be anything other than a Comcast SMTP originiating issue.

Xfinity and most ISPs allow former customers to keep their email addresses and email service indefinitely without having an active billing account. I can actually log in to our old Xfinity account to see past billing information, but I cannot contact customer service by phone or chat. As long as there is no 90-day lapse in email activity, the email account will remain active.

Apparently, the cost of carrying those email accounts is offset by brand visibility (@comcast.com) and general goodwill.

I even wondered if pressure was being put on parties using email clients to do all their email from the web where it could be monitored better! I knew from the get-go that it was not a Microsoft problem. As mentioned earlier, I even tried sending email from my old Dell laptop with Windows 7 and it too did not send. It's working now, thank the Lord! and has been since the 3rd day after it quit- that's called resurrection! Worked on the 3rd day. 🙂

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@pipesdma wrote:

There have been many good theories put forward in this thread, but there seems to be no verified cause or a solution that works for everyone. Something is definitely affecting Xfinity (Comcast) email service to third party email client applications running on Windows.  [....]

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It is not just Windows users.  I am having problems (gross delays in the handshaking process when sending mail and when receiving mail) with a third-party email program on my Macintosh computer. The problem is intermittent.  Sometimes, it is completely gone.  Then, without warning, it comes back, and stays for hours.

I have been a paying Comcast subscriber since ~ 2000.  I signed up for service in my former neighborhood, and when I moved to my current residence, I paid Comcast a healthy chuck of change to run cable almost 1000 feet so that I could continue to enjoy high-speed Internet connectivity via Comcast.

These problems of grossly delayed handshaking and even of timeouts arose without warning several months ago.  They come and go with no discernible pattern.  Sometimes they last for some number of minutes, other times they last an hour or two or even several hours, and yet other times they last for days.

Very frustrating!  Hardly Comcastic!

Comcastic- cute. 🙂 I Noticed that also about the slow handshaking process. Must be the Wuhan Virus. Yup. Has to be.

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@RKelly5327 wrote:

I even wondered if pressure was being put on parties using email clients to do all their email from the web where it could be monitored better! I knew from the get-go that it was not a Microsoft problem. As mentioned earlier, I even tried sending email from my old Dell laptop with Windows 7 and it too did not send. It's working now, thank the Lord! and has been since the 3rd day after it quit- that's called resurrection! Worked on the 3rd day. 🙂

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The Comcast web-mail is no substitute for a well-designed email client.

I use the Comcast web-mail portal when I have to do so.... e.g., when my email client cannot successfully complete handshaking with the Comcast mail servers.  However, there are all sorts of things that I do with my email client that I cannot do with the Comcast web-mail portal.  E.g., I have a number of mail boxes for email lists to which I subscribe, and for similar purposes, and I have constructed filters to route various email messages to various mail boxes automatically and with no intervention on my part, and the messages that those mail boxes contain remains readable regardless of whether I am on-line or off-line.  Furthermore, with a simple mouse click, I can cause mail to be displayed in chronological order, in reverse chronological order, by sender, etc., etc.  Unless I am overlooking something, the Comcast web-mail portal does not allow for such.

Also, my third-party email program has powerful Boolean seaching capabilities that allow me to almost instantaneously find an elusive email that I remeber having received from someone a couple of years ago that relates to a particular topic.  Unless I am missing something, the Comcast web-mail portal does not do anything like that.

In no way to I consider the Comcast web-mail portal an adequate replacement for a well-designed, third-party email client.

Well, here is some anecdotal information. We could not send or receive Comcast emails in Outlook today (Nov 11) until around 7:00 pm Eastern Time. Service returned about 3:15 pm yesterday.

It is interesting that the reported outages vary so much by dates and by symptoms. We are not seeing evidence of timeout errors, for example - only a failure to connect to POP and SMTP servers. 

Also, since we are no longer paying Xfinity customers I could only fill out a web form to send a message with a compliment or complaint to the office of Tom Karinshak in customer service. Lo and behold, I got a reply and have been assured that they are "actively investigating" my concerns. Hang in there, everyone!

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@leojn wrote: ... How did you retain your Comcast email account without being a paying Comcast customer? ...

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Please see https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-only-faqs
and https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/using-email-only

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@pipesdma wrote: ... Thank you for your kind response. I already know all of that, though. ... I cannot get live or chat Xfinity support because I am no longer a paying customer. ...

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Please note that my reply was addressed to @leojn and was specific the question "How did you retain your Comcast email account without being a paying Comcast customer?".

You stated that you had reached office of Tom Karinshak. Information from that office is, in my experience, approximately as good (or as bad) as that supplied by the phone and chat reps. If you can't get help from that office, nor the phone nor chat reps, the only other thing I can think of is visiting a Comcast Service Center or Xfinity Store. Check locations and hours at https://www.xfinity.com/support/service-center-locations.

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@pipesdma wrote:

Well, here is some anecdotal information. We could not send or receive Comcast emails in Outlook today (Nov 11) until around 7:00 pm Eastern Time. Service returned about 3:15 pm yesterday.

 

It is interesting that the reported outages vary so much by dates and by symptoms. We are not seeing evidence of timeout errors, for example - only a failure to connect to POP and SMTP servers. 

 

Also, since we are no longer paying Xfinity customers I could only fill out a web form to send a message with a compliment or complaint to the office of Tom Karinshak in customer service. Lo and behold, I got a reply and have been assured that they are "actively investigating" my concerns. Hang in there, everyone!

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This topic has now been marked as "Answered," but we really do not know what the solution to the (widely) reported problem is.

It is good that you have received at least some form of response, and that the problem has, for you, gone away... at least temporarily, but hopefully permanently.  For others of us, including paying subscribers such as me, the handshaking problems continue, and the mystery remains.

The response that you have received from Comcast does not answer the essential questions:

•  why are these delays happening; and
• when will Comcast identify and eliminate their cause?

The problem is not limited to the use of one particular Operating System, or one particular email client.  This clearly indicates that the cause of the problem that subscribers (and others such as yourself) are experiencing lies on the Comcast side of the communications link.

Finally, I respectfully suggest that whoever has denoted this thread as Answered remove that designation.