Unable to contact Charter/Spectrum's outgoing email server on macOS Apple Mail

Enter the following in the Terminal app: telnet smtp.mobile.charter.net 587 <return>

A successful response would be something like: 220 nnnnnnnnn.charter.net -- Server ESMTP (Oracle Communications Messaging Server nnnnnnnn)

A failed response would be something like:

• Connecting to servername.domain.com...Could not open connection to the host, on port 587: Connect failed

  This would indicate:

  • The SMTP server is not configured to receive mail on this port, or
  • The SMTP server is not running properly, or
  • A network issue is preventing your email client from accessing the SMTP server, due to:
    • Software or hardware firewall not properly configured, or
    • Misconfigured DNS servers.
• smtp.mobile.charter.net: nodename nor servername provided, or not known.

  This would indicate a DNS resolution failure.

• Trying nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn...
  • This would indicate a port is being blocked by either your ISP or your email service provider, or
  • The destination SMTP service is unavailable, or
  • Restrictions on the destination firewall, or
  • Restrictions on the source firewall, or
  • Incorrect FQDN or IP address for the destination SMTP server, or
  • Incorrect port number

FWIW. I just tried it with the info you provided in the link and I got the second failed response.

I am interested to hear suggestions, ideas, or work-arounds that others are using since there seems to be no real fix for this problem. I use a mac desktop for all my email work. As a start, I have adjusted the charter.net webmail settings to forward all email to an iCloud.com account. I am beginning to use iCloud.com as my primary email. That's my work-around.

eightzero wrote:

I conclude Charter has simply provided a service that is non-functional.

Many reports here, problems with Spectrum.

Get a different email service is your best resolve.

Tesserax, this is an excellent suggestion. However, I believe that telnet has been removed from Mac OS High Sierra. When I ran terminal I got the bash cannot find the command. A quick search on google seemed to confirm this. I cranked up a virtual Windows 7 on my mac and tried the telnet, open mobile.charter.net 587 and never got any response from the server. I also tried open smtp.charter.net 25 and I did get a response from the server. I am pressing ahead with moving away from Charter email.

I tried to make it clear—it is a known issue.

Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback

Yes and I should have realized that you posted in the High Sierra area. With this version use “nc” instead of “telnet.” Sorry about that.