About MakingItAllWork

I was involved with the Linux problem with imap.comcast.net server.  With a plethoria of aliases, you need to be able to cope with whatever is going on internally with the IP mechanations, and this was solved by adding a GNU utility specifically for URLs that map to large numbers of aliases.  That may or may not have something to do with the current problem with some Windows platforms but I think it's one of the IMAP servers that isn't in my area, so my Windows system doesn't connect to it.   That's why I suggested that a user with the problem get the exact error message and the exact URL that is in use when the error occurs and call Comcast tech support. ... View more

Webmail was my next suggestion.  If you can't receive on Comcast Webmail, write down the exact message or take a screen shot with the error message displayed and save it.  You should also take note of the URL for the page showing the error.  Mine begins with "https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/..." (the rest is strange, but write that down too).  With that in hand, call Comcast and report the outage.   I can't help further there because Webmail works for me from my main machine right now. ... View more

On your desktop or tablet, pen a command prompt and give the command   nslookup imap.comcast.net You should get 15 aliases for that URL.  I get 96.115.225.204 96.115.227.17 96.115.227.65 96.115.227.72 96.115.228.127 96.115.228.201 96.115.228.69 96.115.228.78 96.115.229.28 96.115.229.76 96.115.230.66 96.115.233.59 96.115.234.20 96.118.209.144 96.118.212.35 If you get all these, the server is working.  Note that you dont' get a reponse from a nslookup on these IP addresses; that's normal.   Comcast and others are getting more stringent about proper email setup because spammers use automated mass email.  The Comcast page for email setup says: With IMAP email, (e.g. with incoming mail server imap.comcast.net) use port 993 with SSL enabled.  If "necessary" use port 143, also with SSL.  The sending email setup is to use smtp.comcast.net with port 587 and SSL enabled.  If "necessary" use port 465.  Require Xfinity username and password for logon for both receive and send.   This gives you alternate ports to try for both send and receive. ... View more

Things are fine for me here.  Whatever it is, it's not happening in this area. @clc4 wrote: I can't get my email to load - internal server error.  Unable to load request. How did you forward to your gmail? I'm using Thunderbird under Windows 10 (two builds, one with the dreaded October update and one without) and LInux (Debian 9).  I use VPN on the phone and laptop, which has the October update, but not on the desktop with Windows 10 or on Linux.  I only go to web mail occasionally to check the spam folder there.   You might try VPN to get to a server in a different area if you have VPN ready to go on something handy. ... View more

I'm easily confused, it seems.  It's been a long time since I have heard from this thread, and I didn't recall the excursion into fixes in the underpinnings of Thunderbird, specifically missing IP utilities in fresh or sparse Linux installations.  I should have checked the thread before replying, but it didn't occur to me soon enough that people would essentially highjack the thread with a conversation about Linux geek stuff, and furthermore that I was a major contributor to the highjacking.   FWIW, I had the problem with a fresh Linux installation and a new Thunderbird installation.  I found the problem and its solution in a few minutes on a Linux forum.  In the process, I saw this thread in one of the web searches and came here and saw fit to share the solution. ... View more

Yes, I checked back and although no one asked for help about LInux, some announced that they were running under Linux.  I found that on some Linux distributions that they don't install some rarely-needed IP utilities that service URLs that map to many, many aliases, as imap.comcast.net does.  And, I did share a solution for that for Ubuntu/Debian that probably works for most if not all other distributions.  So, there was a digression with people sharing solutions, including me, but no one asked Comcast a question about Linux.  And, your disclaimer is entirely appropriate so that people don't get the impression from user-to-user advice that you solicit questions or provide help for anyting other than your own products, i.e. Comcast/Xfinity internet, email, VoIP phone, cable, etc. as services.  As far as I know, the only located-at-the-customer hardware that you service is your own cables, set-top boxes, modems, and anything else you sell or rent with the Comcast or Xfinity trademarks (VoIP modems and phones?). ... View more

Sorry, I haven't asked anyone about LInux in this Century.  I do have a Linux machine that I use Thunderbird on, and all my accounts are IMAP on that machine because main, laptop, phone, etc. are the masters of their respective email accounts.   But I never asked any question about Linux or Thunderbird here.  I have noted a couple of outages of imap.comcast.net on this forum, I think.  It's turned out that these outages are usually so brief that nothing is wrong by the time anyone really notices.   I'll scroll back and see if anyone asked about Linux on this thread.  I will agree that asking about an OS on a Comcast/Xfinity board is, uh, not thoughtful. ... View more

I'm sorry, did someone ask a question about Linux?  There were questions about imap.comcast.net not responding, but not about Linux.   It seems that this was a short-lived server or routing outage some months ago.  Thank you for going through old threads and contributing. ... View more

No, don't reinstall the whole OS, becuase that will give you an installation with the minimum default installed utilities and likely will result in even more missing utilities.   I solved that problem under Debian 9.5.0, which is likely a little different from your Ubunto 16.10, which is likely based on a little eariler relase of Debian.  Make sure that you have nss-resolve installed too.  Then, start by looking at the results of an nslookup command.  If you don't have nslookup installed, it's in libnet-nslookup-perl.  You should get a long list of alternate servers, such as Non-authoritative answer: imap.comcast.net        canonical name = imap.ge.xfinity.com. Name:   imap.ge.xfinity.com Address: 96.117.3.201 Name:   imap.ge.xfinity.com Address: 96.117.3.136 ... If you do get that list, the problem may be in your firewall or a SPAM blocker or some such.  Perform an attempt at setting up a Thunderbird (or other email package) account using imap.comcast.net and then immediately look at your system logs and see what's happening.   If you don't get that list, check for these packages that you have these packages (that use nss-resolve):  libc6, libselinux1, and systemd.  Try rebooting to make sure that all the newly installed modules have read the changes in their configuration scripts and look at the nslookup results again. ... View more

Installing libnss-resolve worked for me.  I had been trying everything for days.  Debian 9.5.0 64-bit, Thunderbird. ... View more