SMTP server configuration for Apple mail (and related issue)

Three different kind Comcast staff attempted to provide suggestions for what to do (under Direct Messaging) but nothing concrete in terms of a fix. Unfortunately, they do not have the capability even for an attachment and no capability to view/share a screen or call. But at this time, based on what was posted by others, it is clear that a change had to be made by Comcast technical staff that impacted configurations for outgoing servers for their customers using 3rd party email clients:

- the same problem happened with Apple mail as with Thunderbird, two different clients

- the same problem happened for multiple users, mostly around the same time

- the fix figured out by the Thunderbird user who posted here, shows that a new way of configuring 3rd party email clients is required and once that's done, then everything works. So something was changed by Comcast, but support staff and customers were not informed.

Unfortunately I cannot repeat what the Thunderbird users did as I have only one Apple computer and I cannot afford to just play around with it trying to guess what might work. As I am seeing it, once one has a problem, there is no way to get help, so I do not need more issues than I already have.

I could not get an answer regarding this problem having been reported to technical staff or not. Maybe if enough users complain, someone will pay attention to it. It is really sad and bad that this is how Comcast operates, provides "support" and addresses problems they create for their customers.

Again, if you REPLY, I am not notified that posted. Only if you use Comment (as I learned the hard way) a notification about a new post is sent.

I have no idea what "relaying through Google" might mean, so this means that I am not doing it.

Again, Comment can be used any time. That's what I am using for all my posts. I just noticed your other reply. As the screen capture and the detailed text description in the prior post shows, the different Comcast outgoing servers are associated with different email addresses, one of them being Google. The rest I had to black out as they are private info. I have no idea why this is the configuration, if I remember correctly it was setup automatically.  Are you an Apple Mail user?

I wanted to check if someone from Comcast maybe posted something useful to address the problem I reported, but now I get a 404 from the link I was pointed to for direct messaging and there is NO icon for it (never was). Can someone please explain what this Direct Messaging is, how is supposed to work and what exactly is good for? I do not understand it. Thanks.

Until yesterday, webmail (Comcast email through the browser) worked without problems for the mail address for which outgoing mail did not work with Apple mail.

As of today, I am getting the following error message when looking at webmail for the email address in question:

I forgot to mention that now, ZERO emails show up for the email address in question in webmail (Comcast mailboxes for the problem email address). I had to had a few hundred last night... I sent a test message from Apple mail (from one of the still working email addresses) to the problem email address. It came in Apple mail but not in webmail, where I got the error message for this imap.comcast.net server. I am NOT using an imap Comcast servers, I am configured for POP3 !!!!!!   Comcast, do NOT touch my configurations! I do NOT want IMAP for my incoming email !!!!!!!!!

In webmail (Comcast email using a browser), out of the 3 email addresses I had working, only one still works. I DID NOT CHANGE ANYTHING !!!!!!!!!   Do NOT touch my last email address that still works and tell me what to change to fix what you messed up as of yesterday !!!  I hope that Comcast staff is reading these emails and do not just ignore them.

As of 5:10 pm on 11/27/22 I can no longer send or receive email with NONE of my Comcast email addresses I have from Apple mail. I am attaching the error message. My network is fully functional for everything else. What are you doing, Comcast? Why are you just making arbitrary changes on live accounts making a bad situation worse and worse?

Supposedly a ticket was opened. Could someone please get back to me a tell me what you are doing?

As of 5:35 pm on 11/27/22 my webmail is not receiving any messages with any Comcast email addresses that I have. I attached the error message. By now I do not have any functional Comcast email address using webmail or Apple mail. Email is extremely important to me. Is there anyone at Comcast who knows what they are doing? Obviously I am not making any changes anywhere.

@Again wrote: "... Comment isn't available after the first initial post; only reply. ..."

Sure it is. Just scroll down to the box that says "Comment on this post here..." at the bottom of the topic.

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.

I posted this message with a screen capture which did have an email address in it, so I am sure it will be removed.

Message:

As of 5:10 pm on 11/27/22 I can no longer send or receive email using Apple mail with ANY of my Comcast email addresses I have. I am attaching the error message. My network is fully functional for everything else. What are you doing, Comcast? Why are you just making arbitrary changes on live accounts making a bad situation worse and worse?

Supposedly a ticket was opened. Could someone please get back to me a tell me what you are doing?

Error message that was in the screen capture:

"There maybe a problem with the mail server or network. Verify the settings for acct xxx or try again.

The server returned the error: Connections to the server "Mail.comcast.net" on default ports timed out"

By now I do not have ANY functional Comcast email accounts... not even from webmail. Am I the only one for whom Comcast is totally disabling email?

Update at 7:15 pm. Email using Apple mail returned to its state as of last night, meaning that it still has the problem reported on 11/20 and pursued ever since (the main email address not being able to send emails. However, webmail for the email in questions doesn't work at all (it worked until last night) and it doesn't show any emails in the inbox or outbox. Is this a new way for an email provider to make changes, debug, test, etc? In the old days programmers used to have a test environment, tested the changes they were planning to make and then moved them into production. I have not seen something like this happening with any other application but Comcast...  Then one is left with no help, nobody saying one word seemingly not caring at all. Sorry this is not the way to do it, it is not acceptable support or development.  Please do not cause further damage, test in your test environment before you implement.

Update 11/28/22 at 4:20 PST. Now not only I cannot send out from the problem email using Apple mail, but using another email address, I can no longer get email to the problem email address in Apple Mail. This used to still work 2 days ago....   Instead of a fix, new and additional problems are created. In webmail ALL my email for the problem email address that was on the server appear to have been deleted. That's why I want my email on my computer. I can back-it up from there, I can have it when I want it, I do not have to depend on Comcast. As what's happening shows, they can delete ALL one's email on the server in no time and just claim that it didn't happen. Nobody until now addressed the problems that they created, they just create more of them....

Update on 11/29 - Comcast restored what was working before 11/28/22. Obviously they made some changes that created the additional problems. The initial one (the main email address cannot send emails out using Apple mail) still was not fixed.

I got a call from Comcast and they suggested to change the password for the email address that does not send out email from Apple mail, my primary email address. I had some notes about how to change email passwords in Comcast from a long time ago, but the website changed since then and I don't know how and where to do that. I have a login/password for Xfinity (login.xfinity.com) and separate user ids and passwords for each of my email addresses used in Comcast (webmail with a browser) and with Apple mail.

I'd appreciate steps for somehow getting to the place where I can change my password for my main email address.

I really do not believe that this will solve any problems that I have, but this is the only thing that Comcast staff had to suggest. I just hope that I will not find myself in more trouble that I am in.

Since the email address in question works for incoming mail in Apple mail, for incoming and outgoing mail in Comcast and on my iphone, it is hard to believe that changing the password would do any good.

I posted this initiall on the wrong thread. Sorry about it.

With help from Direct Messaging I managed to change my password. As anticipated it did NOT fix the problem reported on 11/22/22. Nobody at Comcast seems to have a handle on this or know what to do.