Problems sending mail in Outlook

I can receive but not send mail. The message is "connection to the server was interrupted" and extending the server timeout to 2 minutes 40 seconds does does not help.

When I go into mail accounts and run the "test account settings" option, the error message says: "The specified server was found but there was no response from the server. Please verify that the port and SSL information is correct. "

Yet when I check, it seems to be correct -- i.e., incoming server 110, outgoing server 25, no authentication required for outgoing server.

Oddly, I just ran to my office and checked Outlook 2003 there and it works perfectly. The settings are exactly the same as my Outlook settings at home on my laptop. The only difference is that Outlook at the office is connected to the cable modem via cable and at home it's via a wireless router.

(My office comcast is a business account rather than the residential account I use at home, but I can't see how that would make a difference.)

So why does one work fine at sending mail and the other doesn't?

Any idea what the problem is?

 

Yes, it's a residential Comcast account (whereas at the office I have a Comcast business account).

Is it possible that residential Comcast customers suddenly are required to use Comcast's outgoing mail server, whereas business customers can still keep using their own mail provider's server (in my case, smtp.well.com)?

 

Okay, Comcast told me to change the outgoing server port from 25 to 587, then check the box that says "My outgoing server requires authentication," but leave the outgoing mail server at smtp.well.com.

And it worked! So all is well now.

The explanation he gave is that sometimes "someone" decides to block port 25 because a lot of spammers use it. Did Comcast block it? "Not that I know of," he said.

Obviously, Comcast obviously swapped the permissable port and, of course, didn't tell anyone. You'd think it'd be in their interests to flag the change to all their users in order to avoid exactly the kind of call I had to make this morning.

But whatever.

 

Well, Comcast sure changed SOMETHING from Thursday to Friday.

I've been using outgoing server port 25 for 3 years on the same machine and the same installation of Outlook without a hitch. Then suddenly on Friday port 25 with an outgoing mail server of smtp.well.com didn't work anymore.

Nothing changed on my end, so unless Outlook just got bored and decided on its own to switch the ports it would accept, I have to conclude that it was Comcast that changed its permissable ports.