Comcast Email Issues - Can't Send Emails

Big cable ISP such as Comcast like to redirect all port 25 traffic to their own web servers to reduce SPAM. SPAM is much less likely when using secure connections over port 465 and 587, so these are usually open. Newer versions of Apple mail will try all of these, but if you aren't using secure mail and port 25 responds, it will try to use that. The best solution is to use secure mail and if that alone doesn't do it, try specifying port 465 or 587 manually.

I have been having the same sending issue with Cox. I tried port 465 and it worked! Thanks. Mail seems to use port 995 and works, but did not work with Entourage 2008.

Clarification, please, since Port 995 is for incoming POP servers using SSL, while Port 465 is for the SMTP (outgoing server) with SSL. They are entered at different places in the setup preferences.

Ernie

I have the exact same issue, you posted in 2007, 3 plus years later it is still an issue. Does anyone have an answer?

I currently have the same issue since a couple of months ago. I am thinking about quitting working with mac mail. I write my messages to find out two hours later that they are still in the outbox. Sometimes they leave, sometimes they stay there until I click the send button a hundred times.

It is happening in my macbook as well as in the ipad.

I tried changing the ports as said in the above discussion, but it is not working. Does someone know how to deal with this?

I gave up on Comcast email service over three years ago. Since then, although I still use a Comcast email address, I route all email through mac.com and have been very happy with that. Of course, it costs a few dollars annually to do this but I have never had any luck with Comcast support re: any other solutions.

Well I had problems with Mac Mail and Comcast, so switched to Thunderbird Mail and all comcast settings working fine.
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird

I, too, had (have) problems receiving and sending mail via Comcast using the app Mail.
But switching to Thunderbird has not helped. (Oddly, I do not have the same problems using Mail on my iPhone). As have others, I worked at length with Comcast tech support, with them concluding the problem was Mail, not Comcast. The problem: "'mail.comcast.net' refused to allow a connection". I have tried a number of ports and SSL off and on - btw, one comcast helper said SSL off, another said SSL on.
Again, Thunderbird produces same errors.

auribe wrote:
I currently have the same issue since a couple of months ago. I am thinking about quitting working with mac mail. I write my messages to find out two hours later that they are still in the outbox. Sometimes they leave, sometimes they stay there until I click the send button a hundred times.

It is happening in my macbook as well as in the ipad.

I tried changing the ports as said in the above discussion, but it is not working. Does someone know how to deal with this?

Keep MacMail, dump Comcast

DrChaos wrote:
I worked at length with Comcast tech support, with them concluding the problem was Mail, not Comcast. ... Again, Thunderbird produces same errors.

That fact, and the 20 million other Comcast customers using Apple Mail, says Comcast tech support is wrong.

The default settings try multiple ports at once and one of them is returning an unexpected error so it never tries a port that will work. Click the box to set a custom port number and enter one of the other port numbers. That will cause it to bypass the one port that is problematic.

Sorry. The "earlier posts" are all over the place. I have tried many recommended ports: 587, 552, 25, ...
with and without SSL. Can you be more specific?