Comcast Sucks

If you live in Downtown Memphis and use Comcast to get a high speed Internet connection, you may have noticed that Microsoft Outlook stopped working properly after Friday of last week.

This happened for those who are using their own email address (anything@randomdomain.com) and sending it out through Microsoft Outlook.

After much trouble shooting the past days and calling Comcast twice, I was able to debug the problem. Please note that Comcast was no help in this process; they refuse to answer questions if you are using your own e-mail. My question to them was, "has anything changed on your end?" This seems reasonable.

Everything on my end was working properly. I rebooted multiple times, I restarted my wireless router and my cable modem, I set up my email on a seperate computer, I tried sending out through different mail accounts, etc. There were no signs for the problem.

But of course, the problem wasn't me. It was Comcast. Comcast decided to change their e-mail settings over the weekend, and they did not communicate those changes to their customers... even when their customer (me) called twice.

If you have been having trouble sending e-mail for the reasons listed above, here are the steps to change Outlook, so that it will work again.

Happy troubleshooting!

Step 1: Open Outlook
Step 2: From the menu at the top, select “Tools” --> “Email Accounts”
Step 3: Select the “View or change existing e-mail accounts” radio button, then select “Next”

Step 4: Click the “Change” button
Step 5: Type “smtp.comcast.net” into the “Outgoing mail server” field (I whited out my entries for the other fields, but they should remain as they are today—with your own email information, such as anything@randomdomain.com)

Step 6: Click the “More Settings …” button
Step 7: Click the “Outgoing Server” tab
Step 8: Click the “My outgoing server requires authentication” box
Step 9: Select the “Log on using” radio button
Step 10: Type in your COMCAST user name and your COMCAST password. You may have to call them to get this information. Their number is 901-259-2225.

Step 11: Click the "Advanced"

Step 12: Type "587" into the "Outgoing server" box

Step 11: Click “OK”

Step 12: Click “Next >”
Step 13: Click “Finish”

After you complete these steps, your e-mail should work again! Good luck. :-)