[X4U] Problems with MAIL after 2.1.2 update

[Ed Gould]

After updating to 10.4.11 I have had two outages on the Apple Mail  
program. The first occurred approximately 2 weeks ago. I could get  
mail but not receive mail . It just would not give me any error  
message just timed out getting mail. I contacted my service provider  
(COMCAST) and asked them if they had changed any server settings  
(ports etc) and they said "NO". After 2 hours on the phone they  
contacted Apple and they stepped me through the same things that  
COMCAST had done. Two things stood out one was that the port number  
had "magically" changed COMCAST had me put in 26(IIRC)
and that I was to use secure sockets. They (COMCAST) said no that is  
supposed to be 587 and I was supposed to be using secure sockets. I  
said fine why has this worked for over 2 years and I asked if they  
had changed anything and they said "NO" (I don't believe them). I  
changed  the port they wanted and *NOT* to use secure sockets. and  
guess what, it worked.

Tonight I started to getting a message from Apple mail saying the  
retrieve email was timing out. I called COMCAST and we went through  
their debugging procedure (again)  and nothing worked.  They then  
told me to stop/start email and all of a sudden it started to work.

Have I got a bug in Apple Mail or is this a case of COMCAST changing  
something and not admitting to it?

Ed

ps: When I went back in tonight the secure sockets was turned on  
(magically) and I have not touched it.