# Mac, Outlook, and comcast ISP . Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410 "2013-03-20T01:49:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/1 "2013-03-20T01:49:14Z")
So, my buddy and I both have Macs using iOs 10.6 and MS Outlook 2011. He and I both use comcast as an ISP. However, suddenly we cannot send emails from his network. We can receive, but we cannot send. None of this happens for either of our computers on my wireless network. Neither of has changed any settings. The comcast help line is useless. Googling tells me to reinstall Safari, but that seems rather absurd. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/2 "2013-03-20T03:09:32Z")
check your ports, as a ‘security’ change they are no longer useing the “standard” setting, so no more ports 25/110 ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/3 "2013-03-20T04:00:17Z")
Yep, comcast sent an obscure? email last month that announced some SMTP ports were being closed. So if you use Secure SMTP, the standard ports are 25, ,465, 587 (with mac mail at least). 25 is now not usable on Comcast so you have to set it to use 465. It should surf between those three, but it didn’t and I just solved it by setting to 465. ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/4 "2013-03-20T10:33:22Z")
Comcast, Outlook, _and_ iOS? I think I see your problems, pal. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/5 "2013-03-20T14:08:49Z")
> [@JLRogers](#): > > Comcast, Outlook, _and_ iOS? I think I see your problems, pal. 😛 Yeah. Tell me about it! 🙂 Good advice a above but my port settings are set to 25 and 110 and that works fine at my house. With comcast. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/6 "2013-03-20T14:27:56Z")
I should add: Neither of us is using comcast for mail. That is, we dont’t have [comcast.com/net](http://comcast.com/net) mail addresses. We use the mail service from our Web hosting company. Does that make a difference for the port settings? Both our computers work fine at my house, but at his house, neither computer can send mail-- only receive mail. But we’ll try the different port setting and see what that does. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/7 "2013-03-20T19:19:55Z")
Your friend’s ISP connection is definitely doing something funky - or maybe their broadband router has some long-forgotten port blocking set up - that’s keeping the mail from getting out. If Comcast is blocking a port on your friend’s connection, (they probably just haven’t gotten around to blocking it on yours) it doesn’t matter who they’re using for email. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/8 "2013-03-20T19:30:32Z")
Here’s SMTP settings for Comcast “xfinity!!!one!” email: [http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email//](http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/email-client-programs-with-xfinity-email//) Here’s settings for Comcast: [http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/comcast-outlook-settings/](http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/comcast-outlook-settings/) Not sure what you have or what is the difference between the two. Try both. Don’t follow all the steps, just the SMTP part. You may need to put in your Comcast username/password in the SMTP settings, since you can’t use your POP email settings for it (since they are not your Comcast username and password) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/9 "2013-03-21T01:37:07Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > Yep, comcast sent an obscure? email last month that announced some SMTP ports were being closed. So if you use Secure SMTP, the standard ports are 25, ,465, 587 (with mac mail at least). 25 is now not usable on Comcast so you have to set it to use 465. It should surf between those three, but it didn’t and I just solved it by setting to 465. Didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![ptr2void](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ptr2void/32/3406_2.png) [@ptr2void](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ptr2void)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/10 "2013-03-21T10:27:59Z")
My settings, which work: [Account Information](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ih88a23hii3k8au/Screen%20Shot%202013-03-21%20at%206.19.52%20AM%20copy.png) [Advanced](https://www.dropbox.com/s/3w0tzinzdkhj03s/Screen%20Shot%202013-03-21%20at%206.20.05%20AM.png) ---
**Author:** ![ptr2void](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ptr2void/32/3406_2.png) [@ptr2void](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ptr2void)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/11 "2013-03-21T10:41:26Z")
And I just now realized…you’re talking Outlook, not Mac Mail. I’m sorry, let me setup my other computer which has Outlook. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-outlook-and-comcast-isp-help/653410/12 "2013-04-10T15:06:18Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > Yep, comcast sent an obscure? email last month that announced some SMTP ports were being closed. So if you use Secure SMTP, the standard ports are 25, ,465, 587 (with mac mail at least). 25 is now not usable on Comcast so you have to set it to use 465. It should surf between those three, but it didn’t and I just solved it by setting to 465. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > Didn’t work. Just bumping this thread in case anyone else has this problem… So, today my computer got hit with the same problem. A call to comcast was useless. But I reset the outgoing port to 587, and now everything is fine.