Can't access email when connected to Xfinity

I have had this problem since using Xfinity. I have to use a VPN to check my emails from my HG account. This isn't a Gmail account; this is an email connected to my business website hosted on Hostgator. I can access my email and website like usual when I am disconnected from Xfinity. I can use a VPN to access my email when connected to Xfinity. Hostgator says that Xfinity has blocked access to my servers, but Xfinity says that's impossible. I have been dealing with this for years, significantly affecting my business. I have probably invested hundreds of hours on the phone with Xfinity trying to get help throughout the past few years, and they all tell me that they can do nothing.

This affects any devices that are connected to the Xfinity network. Everything works perfectly when disconnected from Xfinity.

The correct answer here is to cancel Xfinity's terrible service, but Xfinity is the only option where I live.

What else can I try to do here? Has anyone else ever had this issue?

Responses

XfinityCSAEmail

Official Employee

•

1K Messages

3 years ago

Good Afternoon,

To clarify, when you connect to your HostGator hosted email via VPN you experience no issues? but when you connect via your Xfinity internet connection you cannot? If that's the case then HostGator is absolutely in fact blocking your connection/IP. The only thing that changes with a VPN service is your reporting IP when you access their servers. We do not block nor have we ever blocked connections to HostGator. Can you confirm what the error message is when you try to connect to your hosted email? Additionally, have you provided them your IP address to have them check their block lists? To note, from personal experience in dealing with issues similar to this, its always the hosting website that for some reason placed the IP onto one of their internal blocks and is preventing access to the service. Additionally, if you are using an email client, try accessing your hosted email via the webmail client because an email client may just provide a generic error message where the webmail version will generally provide a direct error code/message.

user_8ff818

Visitor

•

2 Messages

@XfinityCSAEmail Correct. If I use a VPN on any of my devices, I can access my email. Also, if I disconnect my iPhone from wifi, I can normally access my email.

The error that I receive is that their server cannot be reached. It doesn't matter if I use Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird on my iMac, iPhone, iPad, or PC. Nothing can access HG's servers when connected to Xfinity unless I use a VPN.

I have given them my IP to check for blocks many times. Remember, I've been working on this for years.

I am unable to access webmail also. I can't access anything related to Hostgator at all. I can't even go into my cPanel. Everything times out because my browser is unable to connect with Hostgator.

One more detail. Sometimes I will randomly get access to everything like I should. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Sometimes it changes daily, sometimes weekly. As I type this, I can't access anything. But maybe I will randomly get access momentarily, and all of my devices will receive emails. Then, I would wake up and see that I had a new email. And then I will try to send an email, but it gets trapped in my outbox for the next 3-4 days until I get access to everything again. I predominantly have to email through my iPhone exclusively because I can easily disconnect from Xfinity's wifi and email like normal.

Thanks for your response! Hopefully you might have a new perspective!

3 years ago

XfinityCSAEmail

Official Employee

•

1K Messages

Good morning,

To note in regards to any blocks that Comcast would place on lets say to a website/ip/host is our footprint wide. We generally utilize blocks for very specific instances where the general security of our subscribers is involved. Common example would be a hosted phishing website url that we may place a block on or an IP address that is exclusively hosting malware. So to clarify on blocks Comcast would place - if we block it, its not just for 1 person. It would be a block for ALL Comcast users. I've run a test on multiple devices and different IPs within the Comcast footprint and they can all access hostgator. In your situation its unlikely that it is a block placed by Comcast affecting you and even if it were - hostgator would need to submit a ticket to us as the owner of their servers/IPs and notify us of the steps they took to resolve the issue. This is most common in issues where Comcast users are not able to access your hosted website. In regards to your specific issue - you seem to be just unable to access their login panel from their website, that's exclusively controlled by hostgator.

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3 years ago

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user_8ff818

Can't access email when connected to Xfinity

XfinityCSAEmail

user_8ff818

XfinityCSAEmail

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