In this post from August 2008, I made some harsh comments about Comcast customer service. At that time they were true in my opinion. Recently I upgraded my (not as flashy and new as these) Intel Mac to the newer Leopard operating system.

Everything went better than smooth except for my email. I was not able to send email from my imac to Comcast SMTP server. Leopard’s email ‘Connection Doctor’ and the ‘Preferences’ section kept reporting the Comcast Smtp server was offline.

I made two calls to Comcast this evening trying to find a solution. My experience tonight was with a new and improved Comcast customer service. I spoke with two different service people who were both experienced enough we did not need to start with, “Is your computer connected to the internet?”

Although Comcast customer service was not able to provide a good fix, the second person I spoke with gave me enough options I was able to resolve the problem myself.

Comcast tells me a lot of users are having the same issue with Leopard’s email, so I decided to post a fix. I was told that Comcast is experiencing some undefined server issues around the country at the moment, so be aware this may not be a problem you are having right now.

Here is the Leopard email  fix:

Problem: I could not send mail from my mac to the Comcast SMTP server.

Fix:

Under Preferences -> Accounts -> Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) -> Edit SMTP server list -> advanced use the following settings

Click the radio button:  Use default ports (25, 465, 587)

or: Use custom port and enter 587

Uncheck: Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

Authentication: None