[X4U] MAIL APP Question

[Wayne Clodfelter]

Ed Gould wrote:
> Sigh... I have COMCAST as my ISP and it seems that COMCASTS mail server 
> is down more than almost any other ISP's server I have run into.
> Since Tech Support is useless (especially for MAC users) does anyone 
> have some debugging tips so that the delay on the phone is minimized?
> I usually get a prompt for the mail password that indicated it is down. 
> Does Apple need to put better diagnostics in or is the MAIL app 
> terminally dumb?(should I request APPLE to giver better diagnostics OR 
> is this an Apple versus COMCAST disagreement on how SMTP works?

Depending on how attached you are to Apple's Mail app, you might give 
Thunderbird a try (maybe you already have). I had a problem with a 
different ISP some time back--maybe 2 years, using Mail app. I gave 
T'bird a try and it never triggered the loss of service that Mail app 
did. The error I got was something to the effect that my mailbox was in 
use by another account, and it wasn't. It had the appearance of losing 
my connection to the server. My only recourse was to call my ISP and ask 
for a reset. Or try another email app. So I tried T'bird and the problem 
went away.
Was it my ISP's fault? Possibly, but was I going to get them to change 
anything on their end? Probably not. And now I like T'bird so much that 
I have not thought about going back to Mail app even though I moved my 
email service back to an ISP that never had the problem with Mail app.

-- 
Regards,

Wayne Clodfelter
<wayneclodfelter at mindspring.com>