Outlook 2002 with Comcast Cable Internet

[Guest]

I'm a new Comcast cable internet customer. I can't get my email using
Outlook 2002. I can send and receive my email via the Comcast website.

I receive the following Outlook error messages when I test or send/receive
with both my new Comcast and old AT&T email accounts:

- "Send test e-mail message: The specified server was found, but there was
no response from the server."

- "Task 'postoffice.worldnet.att.net - Sending and Receiving' reported error
(0x800CCC0F): The connection to the server was interrupted..."

Here's some more info:

- I double-checked my Outlook settings for Comcast email. They seem
correct. I'm using mail.comcast.net (incoming) and smtp.comcast.net
(outgoing).
- I tried connecting via Comcast cable internet connection to my old (but
still active) AT&T email account via Outlook. No luck. Same error messages.
- I temporarily disabled my Comcast cable internet connection and used my
old AT&T dial-up connection. Then I attempted to get my AT&T email via
Outlook. It worked correctly.

Thanks for any help that you can offer. Regards.

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

First of all, you probably won't be able to get to your AT&T outgoing server
using your Comcast connection - most ISPs now block connections to any
outgoing servers but their own.

As to your other problems, have you installed the various Outlook 2002
service packs? Could you try actually sending/receiving mail rather than
using the "Test Account..." button - it's not always reliable, and often
doesn't give good error messages when problems occur. What errors do you
get when you actually send/receive?

 

[Brian Tillman]

First of all, you probably won't be able to get to your AT&T outgoing
server using your Comcast connection - most ISPs now block
connections to any outgoing servers but their own.

Well, s/he probably will if s/he gets the authentications set up correctly.

 

[Jeff Stephenson [MSFT]]

No. The problem is that, as a brain-dead "anti-spam" measure, many ISPs are
now blocking a connection to port 25 of any but their own servers. The
argument is that they control their own servers, but not everyone elses.
They don't want someone using a connection to their network (and thus using
one of their IP addresses) to send spam through some other open-relay
servers, because their IP addresses would end up on one of the black-hole
lists. <personalOpinion> Just one of the reasons I hate the black-hole
lists - their existence is changing how we can use the Internet...
</personalOpinion>

--
Jeff Stephenson
Outlook Development
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

[Guest]

Thank you to Brian and Jeff for their comments and help. Your replies caused
me to rethink the process for configuring Outlook 2002 with Comcast.

- Last night, when I recreated the new Comcast email account in Outlook
2002, it worked! I can't honestly say what I did differently this time, but
the problem is fixed.

- Jeff is correct that I cannot access my old AT&T email account through
Outlook 2002 when using the Comcast internet cable connection. That's not
really a problem because I intend to close the AT&T account now that I know
that the Comcast connection is working correctly.

You have been very helpful. As a Microsoft stockholder, I'm pleased with
the company's recent efforts to improve the customer experience.

Regards

________________________________________

 

[Guest]

I too am receiving this 0x800CCC0F 'The connection to the server was
interrupted' error message whenever I try to send/receive with my pop server.
I just recently switched to a cable modem connection with Charter (from my
previous dial-up connection with AOL), so what you said seems to explain my
problem except that I started using Charter November 30 and up until
yesterday (Dec. 4) I was able to send and receive messages through my pop
server without any problem. I would greatly appreciate any further insight
you could offer me.

Matt

 

[Brian Tillman]

We have not been able to send to any aol.com email address for
sometime now and after reading these posts I'm wondering if our
inability to use aol started when we got a new dsl modem? Could the
way the new modem was set up be the reason we lost sending to
aol.com?

No. Outlook neither knows not cares what type of network connection you
have. However, changing network connections and not configure account
properties to match your new configuration correctly can have an effect.
What symptoms do you have? What error messages appear? Describe your
account settings.

 

[Brian Tillman]

OH HEY HEY HEY! I think I found where
the snaphuuu could be! When I go into email options and go to
send/receive there two entries -- all accounts online and offline ...
which when i edit it shows the specs for exchange, fax, yahoo and one
"remote mail" that has a red x on it!. When I check it to be included
the x goes away and it's dropped into my personal folder with "send
and receive options now funtioning! Now my only question is WHAT is
the "OAB Sync" send/receive group? It's set for online only but the
only things it checked for is Download offline address book???? on
the exchange account ... the other ones have red x's on them???
Should this account even be here??? thanks for any suggestions.

I don't recognize the OAB account, but if you intend to use Outlook offline,
it's worth having the Offline Address Book synched. I suspect your IT
people created that send/receive group so that the OAB downloads at a
different frequency than the "All Accounts" send/receive group. However,
where I work, that's not done as a separate send/receive, it's done in the
send/receive group that contains the Exchange account. The "Download
offline address book" option is checked for the Exchange account in the "All
Accounts" send/receive group.