Solution to "Comcast currently unavailable" when adding your Comcast email to iPhone

So last Friday my Comcast email stopped downloading to my iPhone.  First I tried various solutions suggested by Xfinity Online Support & Apple's Online Support pages. None worked.  So then I tried deleting my Comcast email account from my iPhone & then planned to add it back.  Which is where I ran into the "Comcast currently unavailable" issue.  Called Xfinity Tech Support.  Wasted about 4 hours talking to various people who did not seem to understand what the issue was nor were particularly energized to solve it.  So out of frustration I tried calling Apple's Tech Support.  They did understand the issue.  And pretty quickly provided an answer. 

Turns out that my VPN app was causing the issue (In my case Norton 360).  Here is what I had to do.

On your iPhone, go to Settings,  General, VPN & Device Management, then tap Delete VPN.

Then go back to Settings & add your Comcast email account.  The verification process between the MAIL app on the iPhone & the Comcast email server should connect now.   Unfortunately, as things stand, you will have to forgo using VPN until a solution is found for the iPhone.