[nmglug] Comcast and Thunderbird Blues Reprise

[Tom Ashcraft]

It's happening again.  And no, I'm not off my meds, but I'm beginning to 
wonder if perhaps I should be on some as this stuff is starting to make 
me feel really crazy.

Anyone know their way around the .thunderbird directories well enough to 
point me toward the likely suspects?

First, Comcast apparently configured our rented modem-router in such a 
way that imap.comcast.net failed in all instances of Thunderbird on 
different machines in our house.  I eventually discovered and adopted 
the workaround of using imap.ge.xfinity.com (perfectly functional, but 
with invalid certificate problems, probably due to my lack of knowledge 
or comprehension or motivation or time to figure it all out.)

Next, I purchased our own modem-router and soon discovered that with the 
new router imap.comcast.net works fine in all instances on different 
machines in our house.  So I set 'em all back to imap.comcast.net 
recommended defaults.  Smooth sailing until...

Now, after a couple or three weeks of successful use, I discover that on 
my wife's machine that both  instances of Thunderbird in separate user 
accounts accounts have stopped downloading emails with 
imap.comcast.net.  Ubuntu MATE 18.04 kicks up little screen messages 
saying that it can't connect with imap.ge.xfinity.com--which, of course, 
it shouldn't now be trying to do because server settings in both 
accounts are configured for imap.comcast.net

Where do these gremlins reside and from whence did they come?  Is it 
witchcraft?  I put it to the council:  Should someone be burned at the 
stake or is it only a wee misunderstanding?