Email Issues for myself....and it seems like a lot of other people too

For the past week or so it seems like people are having issues with web mail, pop mail and imap.  These issues don't seem widespread but they have been reported out here.  I've had the issue of sending an email and getting a Permanent Error (almost immediately) only to be able to send the email a minute or two later with no problems.   The issue (and this one is annoying as heck) is that when I click on "Get Messages" in Thunderbird it now takes up to 30 or 40 seconds at times for Xfinity to respond (and then get my emails).  Using webmail is not a problem however.