Thunderbird Connects but times out

Scott, ping gets this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Don>ping imap.comcast.net

Pinging imap.ge.xfinity.com [96.118.242.226] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 96.118.242.226:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Users\Don>

Okay, this is getting weird folks. My wife has a comcast email account under my primary one and she hs no problem downloading her email. (She uses Thunderbird, too.) My primary access is from my desktop PC running Win 7 Home Premium, which is where I've been having the issue. I just shut it down and restarted it (for the third time) and the issue is still there. My usual browser is vivaldi. I've also tried Brave and Edge with no luck. The only changes between the 26th and today are removing Flash and Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials from Vivaldi (Haven't installed it on any other browsers).

I also have a laptop which infrequently gets used but is generally kept up to date. Surprise, I can access and download my email in T-bird on the laptop. I can also access email on the xfinity site with my browser on the laptop. The fact that my wife can download emails in T-bird on her laptop, and I can too on my laptop, precludes a problem with connectivity - modem, router, etc. The problem seems - I say seems - to be isolated to my PC. but I cannot for the life of me figure out where and why.

OTOH the one difference is both laptops are accessing the net via wifi whereas my desktop PC is hardwired. It's hard to see how that would bear on the problem though, since I have made no changes.

Hi,

The third party email client software update worked !

Thanks to all those that helped.

scott

Hi,

There is some progress thanks to BruceW in thread https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Email-Web-Browsing/imap-comcast-net-is-not-responsive/m-p/3409113/highlight/false#M223283

Our problems may be due to a change of behavior on port 993 of imap.comcast.net.  So i suggest trying port 143 and/or updating your third party email client software.  This is more than 'grapsing at straws' but still guesswork since port 143 does not work for me (my software update is in progress).

In order to search for a pattern, it would be useful for users to send the verbose and verbatim details of thier imap connections.  This is what worked for me before Tuesday morning:

set ssl_force_tls=yes
set spoolfile="imaps://imap.comcast.net:993"

For reference:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email?view=app

www.mutt.org/doc/manual

Note that telnet is a better tool than ping for investigating as it appears that pinging to imap.comcast.net has been disabled for security reasons.

scott

Glad to hear you're back in business. In my case, all three computers have the latest version of Thunderbird and all installations are set for port 110. Two systems work and one still doesn't. Since current settings, which have been the same for years, are working on two computers, I'm hesitant to make any changes on the recalcitrant one. Besides, even if I change the port in the email client, that doesn't address the issue of not being able to view emails via browser on the comcast/xfinity site.

My thunderbird is up to date as well and using port 995 as I've always had it set to pop3. I haven't had any progress with thunderbird or accessing email through the xfinity.com website. Thunderbird is able to access my gmail accounts without any issues.

I wish there was an edit feature. 😕

So I just synched my comcast email account with my Outlook account and Outlook receives incoming mail from my Comcast account without a problem. That would seem to eliminate a hardware issue.

I'm having the same issue since Tuesday. Some thing changed around noon Eastern. I'm running Outlook 2016 using imap port 993 for over a year. SMTP is working just fine. My iphone is working via imap on my network using defaul email app.

I also lost connectivity on Tue of this week. My desktop which is hardwired to my router and running Thunderbird times out when attempting to connect to imap.comcast.net (also confirmed using other email clients including Outlook, eM client and Win10 native client). Sending email on smtp.comcast.net works fine. Also if I go to Comcast's webmail page I am unable to connect with my desktop (times out). However my laptop, my wife's laptop (all identical to my desktop with respect to Windows updates and Thunderbird) and my tablet and phone  have no problem connecting and both sending and receiving email! The only difference is that one is hardwired (desktop) and all the others are wireless. To confirm this I disabled the wireless radio on my laptop and connected it directly to my router using an ethernet cable. When I do that my connection times out when Thunderbird attempts to contact imap.comcast.net! I'm at a loss how wired vs wireless makes a difference. One last point, if I turn on vpn on my desktop I can now suddenly send and receive email from Thunderbird!!!!! Why does vpn fix the problem?

Hi,

To review, i always could read my email at connect.xfinity.com, but i prefer to read it with the third party software mutt; that worked Monday night, but did not tuesday morning.  As far as i know there were no changes on my side.  After pursuing wrong leads for a couple days i discovered that upgrading mutt enabled to read my email again.

My speculation is that something changed on the server side, but i do not know what.  I thought that maybe there was a server side software upgrade that changed some details of the imap protocol, but after web searching that i do not think that is correct; the imap protocol seems stable over at least a decade.

scott

Which begs the question, why?

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@TS2430 wrote: ... I tried using a VPN and it worked for me too!! ...

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@whichfinger wrote: Which begs the question, why?

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When you use a VPN to send mail using Comcast's mail servers, they see the connection as coming from one of the VPN's IPs. If that IP is clean, it works. If the IP has been flagged by Cloudmark Sender Intelligence or some other IP reputation service as not trustworthy, Comcast rejects it. Typically the IP has been associated with spam or some other form of abuse. Please see https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Email-Web-Browsing/Can-t-Send-Emails-from-PC-or-Phone-App/m-p/3355422#... for a discussion by employee @ComcastCSAEmail of how Comcast uses CSI.

Thanks, but that's only tangental to the issue. Like all of us posting here, he suddenly can't access his comcast inbox to read his mail. Then he discovers he can access his inbox if he goes through his vpn. Why does his vpn render his comcast inbox accessible? And why can't the rest of us access our inboxes via Thunderbird or, in some cases, directly via browser, when nothing on our ends has changed? A review of the posts in this thread might better highlight the issue.