A few days ago I found I couldn’t send any emails. “Server must be down” I thought, but then I noticed that I couldn’t send email from any of my accounts. I began to wonder why my mail client said it couldn’t connect to the mail server it had just connected to when I received my mail.

To make a long frustrating story short, it turns out that Comcast has started blocking outgoing traffic on port 25. A quick look around the intertubes informed me that they’ve been doing it in various markets for months; I guess they finally got around to doing it in my corner of the Seattle area.

Comcast says they’re doing it to thwart spam, but the downside is that they are thwarting plenty of not-spam too. Plus there’s that whole thing where you’re paying for something and you have the ability to do something one day and they take it away from you the next and you’re still paying just as much.

Anyway, I’m all about fixing stuff instead of just whining about it (okay, maybe I had to whine a little…), so on to the fixin’ part.

Not so much.


Use Comcast’s SMTP Server
Comcast wants you to use their SMTP server for all your outgoing email needs. If you’re okay with this here are the settings that will actually work:

Server: smtp.comcast.net
Port: 587

Don’t forget to set your email client to authenticate with your Comcast user name and password.

You can find detailed instructions for configuring various email clients on Comcast’s web site.

Switch To A Different Port
Most of us would rather keep using our 3rd party SMTP servers. Comcast is only blocking port 25 so check and see if there is another port you could be using. Here are some other commonly used ports:

  • 26
  • 2525
  • 587
  • 80 (this one should be safe for a while =)
  • 265

For example, I know Yahoo works with port 80.

Use A Reflector / Redirect Service
There are various services out there that will help you send your mail on a port other than 25. Here are some that I have found (I haven’t tried them so if they don’t work it’s not my fault):

  • No-IP.com Offers mail reflector service.
  • DNSExit Offers mail relay service for outgoing email
  • GoDaddy If you sign up with an email account fro them you get access to an SMTP server that will let you send mail from any account and works on alternate ports.

Plenty of other email providers offer SMTP servers that are none too particular about your return address.

Whine
If after all that you still feel the need to complain, go ahead and call Comcast. For those of you who want to wait on hold forever the number is 1-800-COMCAST. If you want to actually talk to someone who knows what’s going on the super-secret number is 1-856-317-7272.

I’m pretty sure if you call they’ll just try to upsell you to their Business Class Internet which is like $150/month. I’d upgrade, but I’m not sure how they plan on giving me 16Mbps when they can’t even get me past 1Mbps currently. Oops, there I go whining about Comcast again. I think I’ll go see how the class-action suit is going.

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