Visitor
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5 Messages
Email Not Working - ESMTP server temporarily not available
I live in a retirement complex with a couple of hundred other residents. Many of the other residents use Xfinity for email. About 5-6 weeks ago, a number of us began having sporadic email problems when trying to sync our Xfinity email using a local mail client -e.g., Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.
I've enlisted the help of a technical person to diagnose, and what we found by turned on Outlook's "transport logging" is that the Xfinity mail server is failing authentication with the error, "Excessive failed authentication, ESMTP server temporarily not available." What's strange is that the email client will work fine for a while, then suddenly stop working, and then it will mysteriously start working again a bit later. No configuration changes are made (i.e., the username and password are NOT changed) between when the email works and stops working. I only have two devices (laptop and desktop), so his rules out the issue seen on other posts where users have multiple devices, and one device has the wrong password. What's even stranger is that one of my devices will work (email client connects and syncs email) at the same time my other device errors out with this problem!!!
Here's an excerpt from the log (email address obscured) where it wasn't working, and then less than a minute later it was working:
2022.11.02 13:21:38 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Begin execution
2022.11.02 13:21:38 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Port: 465, Secure: SSL, SPA: no
2022.11.02 13:21:38 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Finding host
2022.11.02 13:21:38 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Connecting to host
2022.11.02 13:21:38 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Securing connection
2022.11.02 13:21:39 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Connected to host
2022.11.02 13:21:39 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 421 resomta-c1p-023412.sys.comcast.net resomta-c1p-023412.sys.comcast.net Excessive failed authentication, ESMTP server temporarily not available
2022.11.02 13:21:39 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
2022.11.02 13:21:39 [Edited: "Personal Information"]: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr = 0x800ccc67
2022.11.02 13:21:39 [Edited: "Personal Information"]: Synch operation completed
2022.11.02 13:22:08 [Edited: "Personal Information"]: Synch operation started (flags = 00000001)
2022.11.02 13:22:08 [Edited: "Personal Information"]: UploadItems: 1 messages to send
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Begin execution
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Port: 465, Secure: SSL, SPA: no
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Finding host
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Connecting to host
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Securing connection
2022.11.02 13:23:24 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): Connected to host
2022.11.02 13:23:25 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 220 resomta-a1p-076786.sys.comcast.net resomta-a1p-076786.sys.comcast.net ESMTP server ready
While scouring Xfinity's support site, we came across the following information on Xfinity ⋅ Service Policy Assurance, where it states:
- Watch the sending limits
Comcast allows 25 simultaneous connections per sending IP address.
Comcast allows 100 recipients per message.
Comcast allows a throttle rate based on your sender reputation and authentication.
Internet is provided to the residents living in Westley at Tehaleh (the retirement complex where I live). As a result, anyone using connecting to Xfinity email would appear to have the same public IP address (65.141.209.42).
We currently have a hypothesis that there is something on Xfinity’s side that blocks the email connections if there are too many people trying to connect to email at the same time. This would explain why this started occurring a 5-6 weeks ago when a number of new residents moved in, and also why the problem is intermittent.
Is there someone at Xfinity who can PLEASE help us investigate this issue given that it is affecting multiple people who live in my retirement community, and rely heavily on our email working?
BruceW
Gold Problem Solver
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26.3K Messages
2 years ago
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/cannot-send-email-0x800ccc0f-connection-to-server-interrupted-or-0x800ccc67-esmtp-server-temporarily-not-available-message/61b28270f06968168603033a?commentId=61b7a0b5f069681686037267 may be relevant.
In that very long topic an employee explains that the "Excessive failed authentication" block is removed periodically. In https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/cannot-send-email-0x800ccc0f-connection-to-server-interrupted-or-0x800ccc67-esmtp-server-temporarily-not-available-message/61b28270f06968168603033a?commentId=61c38fb7af4f9801ee5e85dd employee @XfinityCSAEmailwrote:
Please be aware that there are 2 kinds of responses in this Forum: Replies and Comments. When you Comment on a post by scrolling down to "Comment on this post here...", I am notified of your response. But if you select Reply, I am NOT notified and may not be aware of your response.
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russ-m
Visitor
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5 Messages
2 years ago
@BruceW Thanks for taking a look and pointing out the other posts. While there are some similarities with those posts, there are also a couple of key differences which make me believe this may have a different root cause.
First key difference is that during our testing, one machine continued to work while the second machine was seeing this error. In the other posts, when the error occurred it appears that all other devices also stopped working.
The second key difference is that this would switch from working, to not working, and back to working in a very short interval (sometimes less than 5-10 minutes). Whereas in the other post, this seemed to stop working for specific periods of time until the "block" was removed on Xfinity/Comcast servers at a specific time.
I was a bit confused by the Xfinity employee's comments about the issue being traced back to a specific private address (e.g., 192.168.*.*) as these addresses aren't routable over the public internet. Basically they would be translated via NAT to a public IP address, and the public address would be what Xfinity should see on their server logs. So I wasn't sure how the Xfinity employee could track it back to a specific device on their network?
I'm still leaning heavily towards the theory that there's some sort of limit by Xfinity on the number of concurrent sessions given that all of the residents would have the same public IP address for their email connection, or there's something happening in the network that's disrupting connection to the email server.
Still hoping to connect to someone at Xfinity directly who can help diagnosis this conclusively, and hopefully provide a solution. Xfinity .... anyone there?
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XfinityAlex
Official Employee
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897 Messages
2 years ago
@russ-m See if that works for you, I've made an exemption on our side for that mentioned IP. It looks like some device at the Community is misconfigured with an incorrect password. If folks there would like, we can have our CSA group reach out to the account holder to help them resolve what is going on.
To some of your confusion, each host can provide a bit of identifying information called the HELO (or EHLO for Extended SMTP). That can sometimes be useful information to help folks identify the system having the issue.
Additionally, the defense mechanism has various thresholds, which is why you see it coming and going sometimes. And there is a limit on concurrent sessions, but that is not what that error is suggesting (the excessive session error is explicit). Let me know if you have more questions (or send me a DM if you don't want to make it public)
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