Comcast and other email - not happening

[dsulvett]

Well, before the apple supporters flame me, i will start by saying everyone at apple support has been absolutely wonderful, but, they wont tell the truth...here is my story...

i have two email accounts, my comcast and account from my website....neither account can be trusted receiving and sending email...22 hours of tech support with AT&T (apple, why didnt you bribe verizon into taking your phone, that would settle half the issues) and apple also...tier 2 support none the less...

went over every aspect of my email, twice, three times....2.5 hours worth tonight...still, no joy.

finally, i google "comcast email and iphone" and you will see, just how many issues there are with this. so i called comcast....i said, have you had alot of calls about your email and the iphone, after a short second i hear... YES! quite a few!...... seems to me, apple doesnt want to tell you they are having issues with sending and receiving emails....my blackberry NEVER had a problem...i told the nice guy at apple that...he didnt understand....he said he was stumped...well, we continued to change the settings over and over until, i just gave up....

Well, thats not the only thing everyone should know about.... battery life when "3G" is on....maybe, 3 hours???? ok, 4 at best...lets talk about the "3G" network... WHERE IS IT?????? about 25% of the time, i see "3G" the other 75% is either "E" edge (hey, i didnt buy the "E" i bought the INCREDIBLE, life changing "3G"...but it isnt there....

So, what goes??? is there anyone at apple that will just come out and say....;listen people...just wait until we get the bugs out... all i want from them is the truth, in the mean time......the blackberry is looking better to me.

[Kriss]

Wow man, sorry to hear you're having such a tough time with email. I have comcast too but my email works great. I have four accounts and each works fine. I have them set up as POP accounts. The server settings are:
incoming: mail.comcast.net, Outgoing:smtp.comcast.net I also have it set to leave my mail on the server for a few days so I don't accidentally delete anything as well as giving me time to get the mail on my other computers. I am also using .Mac for email as well as Gmail and they are all working properly.

I have a 3G connection almost everywhere I go around my neighborhood. My battery life is proportional to how much I play around with my phone. If I leave the games alone, I can go two days on a charge. This is with 3G, location services, push email and wi-fi on all the time. Now if I play a game. I will only get about 4 hours.

I think perhaps you should take your iPhone back and get it replaced. Perhaps there's something wrong with it like a broken antenna that's causing your problem.

Anyway, Sorry to hear you're having such trouble. I was frustrated with the battery life as well but it was really because I was playing with it all the time that killed my battery. Wish I had more suggestions for you but I thought you should know that not all iPhones are having these problems.

[timothy]

Well as far as battery life goes, iphone 1 was better. I have 3g just about everywhere here on the Los Angeles/Ventura boarder. At least I am not the only one who's having email issues! Iphone 1 just needed a little tweak in the settings. Iphone 2 took the settings for my mac mini and it has yet to get an email through. Iphone 1's GUI was quick to respond. 2's GUI seems to lag. Hit a button and 2-3 seconds later it does something. If you're doing anything with the phone using 3g and plugged into a usb port, you can still drain the battery. 3g uses alot more power than I thought. Of course now with 3g, if I wanna get a song or app I can do it right from the phone, no waiting to get home.

All-in-all I'm still glad I went v.2. There will be updates, and fixes will wittle away the problems.

Edit: Yep. Had to setup the email account manually. Figures, the iPhone 1 was the same. Took 2 minutes.

[stevetim]

are you having trouble just creating your Comcast account? I use Comcast and have no issues. Let me know if you need help just setting it up. I don't sync my account with iTunes as this caused a few issues itself.

[nbdiver]

I would have to agree on the email problem. I spent an hour with an Apple tech trying to set up my pop Cox.net account to no avail, finally the solution was to forward my cox.net email to my gmail account and receive it that way, a poor solution for a business user. Apple is no where near a solution for the moderate business user as they would like to be. I can't speak for exchange users but if I can't get a simple pop account functioning, I can't imagine the hell people might be going thru setting up exchange. My hope is they work out the kinks soon or my phone goes back to Apple and I go back to Verizon. As a sidenote, I love the phone and its gui, its just not ready for the light business user yet in my opionion!

[Baltorep]

In regards to Comcast mail. When I set my mail up a year ago, Comcast did not allow mail to be sent off network. Using Edge would cause the mail to be not delivered. The solution was to sent outgoing mail to go thru gmail, smtp.gmail.com. Once that is done things have been perfect.

[sbynyc]

I've been using comcast email for many years and the iPhone since it came out in July 2007. One thing I've noticed with the 3G iPhone is that push isn't really push. It is fetch. It fetches every 15 minutes (or more depending on your settings). If a PC with my email client (Outlook 2003) is running either at home or my office, the only time my iPhone gets mail from my comcast account is if it happens to fetch it before my comcast server has sent it to Outlook on my PC. If my PC (or email client) is off, then the iPhone is the only device fetching off of my comcast server and I get all of my email on the iPhone.
On my Verizon Treo 700p and 755p, VersaMail was awful close to a real push feature. Indeed, all mail on my comcast server would appear without fail on my PC and Treo almost simultaneously. I love my iPhone but Apple's got a long way to go.

[dancavallaro]

I've been using comcast email for many years and the iPhone since it came out in July 2007. One thing I've noticed with the 3G iPhone is that push isn't really push. It is fetch. It fetches every 15 minutes (or more depending on your settings). If a PC with my email client (Outlook 2003) is running either at home or my office, the only time my iPhone gets mail from my comcast account is if it happens to fetch it before my comcast server has sent it to Outlook on my PC. If my PC (or email client) is off, then the iPhone is the only device fetching off of my comcast server and I get all of my email on the iPhone.
On my Verizon Treo 700p and 755p, VersaMail was awful close to a real push feature. Indeed, all mail on my comcast server would appear without fail on my PC and Treo almost simultaneously. I love my iPhone but Apple's got a long way to go.

Apple can't magically make your POP Comcast account push. Yahoo, Exchange, and MobileMe are push, and nothing else is. That's not Apple's fault, but a limitation of other email services. And the reason your iPhone only gets mail if it fetches before your computer does is because you have a POP email account, and Outlook on your computer is likely set not to leave messages on the server after downloading them.

[dsulvett]

Apple can't magically make your POP Comcast account push. Yahoo, Exchange, and MobileMe are push, and nothing else is. That's not Apple's fault, but a limitation of other email services. And the reason your iPhone only gets mail if it fetches before your computer does is because you have a POP email account, and Outlook on your computer is likely set not to leave messages on the server after downloading them.

well, on the phone with AT&T right now... im giving up. I truly beleive the people with COMCAST email accounts that are saying that they have no issues are employees of apple. The thing that gets me is this, Microsoft gets such a bad rap for issues they have, how does apple get away with it???? This IPHONE was supposed to revolutionize the cell the phone, as far as i am concerned, it makes me think the Apple is rotten...sorry...

[SnowCoast]

well, on the phone with AT&T right now... im giving up. I truly beleive the people with COMCAST email accounts that are saying that they have no issues are employees of apple. The thing that gets me is this, Microsoft gets such a bad rap for issues they have, how does apple get away with it???? This IPHONE was supposed to revolutionize the cell the phone, as far as i am concerned, it makes me think the Apple is rotten...sorry...

Are you using one of these perhaps?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/office_space_kit_mat.jpg

Seriously though, the problem is with Comcast not with Apple. Apple has many shortcomings, but this is Comcast's issue.

[stevetim]

One thing you might wanna try before assuming apple and Comcast are at fault is show us your settings on the phone.

On my V1 it took me a couple of tries to get Comcast email set up correctly over the edge network. If I remember we had to set up smtp.comcast.net:25
The 25 being a port that would let you send mail from remote over edge. Apple techs didn't even know this. They were in the dark because Comcast didn't inform them of the issue.

Giving up and blaming everyone you can is just gonna get you nowhere.

[nbdiver]

Are you using one of these perhaps?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/office_space_kit_mat.jpg

Seriously though, the problem is with Comcast not with Apple. Apple has many shortcomings, but this is Comcast's issue.

Apple told me that the problem with my Cox.net account was that I had to have wifi turned off because Cox.net doesn't allow remote access to its servers. The problem is it still had problems after we turned wifi off. I was finally able to receive email thru that account but I was not able to send using AT&T's server which could have just been an intermittent problem? Either way, it is not a seamless process at all. I am hoping that after the dust settles with the rush for 3G that maybe things will work properly.

[dsulvett]

Apple told me that the problem with my Cox.net account was that I had to have wifi turned off because Cox.net doesn't allow remote access to its servers. The problem is it still had problems after we turned wifi off. I was finally able to receive email thru that account but I was not able to send using AT&T's server which could have just been an intermittent problem? Either way, it is not a seamless process at all. I am hoping that after the dust settles with the rush for 3G that maybe things will work properly.
Are you kidding me????? what, you must be joking? im not going to insult you but you work for apple dont you???

My blackberry recevied email religiously, NOT a problem at all... yes even comcast....the issue here is, Apple better think twice about going to the corporate customer, they will find themselves in a lawsuit quickly...

not apple but comcast...? (cut me a brake)

[nbdiver]

Are you kidding me????? what, you must be joking? im not going to insult you but you work for apple dont you???

My blackberry recevied email religiously, NOT a problem at all... yes even comcast....the issue here is, Apple better think twice about going to the corporate customer, they will find themselves in a lawsuit quickly...

not apple but comcast...? (cut me a brake)
Easy buddy! No I don't work for Apple, I am a real estate professional unfortunately! I am not defending Apple at all either, I am considering going back to Verizon because of the email problem myself. I was able to get my email from my Cox.net account on my Treo 700wx with no problems on Verizon but the comment I made about wifi is true, I confirmed that with Cox. Verizon was not pushing email thru wifi, they used a program called verizonsync which is similar to RIM for blackberry. It was very reliable and I could expect my emails to hit my phone only a couple of minutes after it hit my email account. On the iPhone the way I have it set up thru gmail, it takes about 30-45 minutes to get to my phone. Part of that is a delay from gmail because I can sit at my desk and watch the email come in from the browser so I know how long it is taking.

[the2whlmntndewd]

I set up my comcast email on my phone while laying on the beach during my vacation. No wifi, no help, and i'm retarded when it comes to tech lingo. Sooo it is either some wierd setting issue you are having, or bad luck?

[Tex]

Dude, this guy is fired UP........

It is an Apple conspiracy!!!!:eek:

[timothy]

well, on the phone with AT&T right now... im giving up. I truly beleive the people with COMCAST email accounts that are saying that they have no issues are employees of apple. The thing that gets me is this, Microsoft gets such a bad rap for issues they have, how does apple get away with it???? This IPHONE was supposed to revolutionize the cell the phone, as far as i am concerned, it makes me think the Apple is rotten...sorry...

Yeah I can see Apple hiring 1000 employees to scour the web propogating the belief there are no problems. And since when does Microsoft have a bad rep in phones? They're up to Windows Mobile 6 now and most don't complain about it. As for apple being rotten, I too believe they should strong arm Comcast into compliance, as you seem to infer, so the problem goes away.

[stevetim]

The OP doesn't want help at this point. He just wants to rage. Please lock this thread. Pointless.

[sartoric]

Has anyone encountered this problem with comcast - I can send/receive from HOME using my wifi fine. At work I CANNOT send/receive mail - I have literally stood right underneath the wifi router - the phone says I am connected with a strong signal - but nothing will go in or out - it just tries for hours? Could comcast somehow be blocked on my campus? That seems odd. Maybe my iphone has problems with this Wifi?

p.s. Who do I call for support?

[nbdiver]

Has anyone encountered this problem with comcast - I can send/receive from HOME using my wifi fine. At work I CANNOT send/receive mail - I have literally stood right underneath the wifi router - the phone says I am connected with a strong signal - but nothing will go in or out - it just tries for hours? Could comcast somehow be blocked on my campus? That seems odd. Maybe my iphone has problems with this Wifi?

p.s. Who do I call for support?Mine is a similar dilemma but I don't think I have ever successfully sent from my home Wifi. I am on Cox.net and they don't allow mail to be sent thru an access point like wifi because according to them it is an unsecured network. I use the AT&T smtp server cwmx.com and it works ok. This is an issue with your service provider so I would call Comcast first and see if they will allow you to use smtp thru any wifi location. Good Luck!

[Kriss]

Has anyone encountered this problem with comcast - I can send/receive from HOME using my wifi fine. At work I CANNOT send/receive mail - I have literally stood right underneath the wifi router - the phone says I am connected with a strong signal - but nothing will go in or out - it just tries for hours? Could comcast somehow be blocked on my campus? That seems odd. Maybe my iphone has problems with this Wifi?

p.s. Who do I call for support?

I'm not sure if this is your problem, but if your campus isn't blocking, perhaps you need to know the Wi-Fi settings like the gateway of your campus router. Perhaps just having a connection isn't enough. You may need to manually configure the gateway.

Other than that, I have had a similar problem where my work is Verizon and my home is Comcast. Basically, I had to set the POP server to mail.comcast.net and the SMTP to outgoing.verizon.net. Yours might be something different for your campus provider. I also know all my routers' settings so I can get in and out easily.


Kriss

[PapaST]

This might have already been discussed but I'll throw this out there just in case. Kriss, kind of touched on this. When sending emails it is important to know how you're connected. Your connection will determine your SENDING server (smtp server). For example if I have comcast wireless at home, if I send emails via wifi it will need to go through the Comcast SMTP server (probably smtp.comcast.net). If I send via EDGE or 3G then my connection is actually AT&T thus I need to send via AT&T smtp server (cwmx.com).

Alright so say I have a pop account and the incoming sever is set to pop.mydomain.com and my outgoing is set to cwmx.com. Then all day long if I'm using my edge or 3G then my emails should send no problem. If I jump on wifi then chances are I won't be able to send because I'm set for cwmx.com but trying to use comcasts servers. Most servers nowadays are set NOT to allow relaying (in this case comcast relaying an email to CWMX.com). This blocking of relaying is to help cut down on spammers.

So this is where some if not most users have. All the different wifi and other connections available to users can cause a major headache for sending. Receiving shouldn't be a problem. One thing I have noticed, if someone tries to send off a server that is not correct then RECEIVING will not occur until the email has been sent. This is probably where most people are finding that they cannot SEND or RECEIVE when in essence they probably just cannot send an email that is stuck in the outbox and thus not even getting to the receive part.

Hopefully this helps some of us.

[PapaST]

Another thing I've found that might help others. Try your account with and without SSL.

[sartoric]

I have read in other forums there is a problem with the Iphone 3G getting stuck on "checking for mail" for hours, days. Powering down and restarting resets the phone and mail is OK for the time being - but then it crashes again. My husband and I purchased our phones at the same time - I got the 3G 16gig and he got the 3G 8gig. His phone does NOT have this problem but mine does. :(

Also, where is the "Outbox"? what happens is I send an email and it disappears from the screen - sometimes it shows up in sent mail, sometimes not. So if I hit "send" and it is stuck in cyberspace because of these connection problems what happens to it? I would like to be able to see that it did not get sent, I have no way of knowing since all records of it are off my phone.

I sent two yesterday - neither showed up in "sent mail" - one made it to my other account, one did not. WTF happens to the lost ones??