[nmglug] Interesting development re Comcast imap servers

[Alucard]

I recently had to stop paying Comcast because they wouldn't let me out 
of a 3 year agreement for over 6 years. The contract I was under had a 
clause that said if I moved before the 3 year agreement was complete I 
had to renew the contract from day 1. Since I stopped paying them they 
are asking me to pay over $3,000.

But to be honest I'm glad I stopped paying them. That contract was 
fucked up.

Jared
(disclaimer, I work at an ISP/CLEC now)

On 3/24/19 8:57 PM, Tom Ashcraft wrote:
> Dear NMGLUGers et al,
>
> Some of you may remember my consternation and annoyance over that 
> situation I had where I could no longer receive email with any Linux 
> desktop client, most notably Thunderbird, from Comcast imap servers; 
> where all of the known Comcast imap servers failed for me; where I 
> eventually discovered a workaround by using the 'canonical' server, 
> imap.ge.xfinity.com, a server that has never provided a valid security 
> certificate.
>
> Where only the Xfinity webmail page worked properly.
>
> At the time, all of this generated a considerable amount of interest.  
> Some of you were exceedingly generous with your suggestions, time and 
> effort helping me to work through it all.
>
> I'm still working to incorporate all the new understandings I gained 
> as a result.
>
> Well guess what.  I think I just discovered the proximate cause of the 
> problem:  our rented Comcast router for which we had been paying for 
> the privilege of being abused with a for truly embarrassing period of 
> time.
>
> Chalk it up to procrastination and matrimonial politics (aka my own 
> stupidity.)
>
> Having had the wonderful success of finally figuring out how to set up 
> Cloudflare DNS on Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, and Lubuntu machines (thank 
> you NMGLUG, especially Anthony B), I decided I wanted to act on the 
> notion that I should probably try to set up a Pi Hole ad-blocking 
> firewall.  But I knew that I'd first have obtain a third party router 
> in order to obtain a configurable interface.
>
> So about a month ago I finally purchased and set up our own Netgear 
> unit and returned the Comcast rental (even though the Netgear unit is 
> a relatively inexpensive model, it will still take about fifteen 
> months to recover the cost via savings from ending the Comcast 
> rip-off; thus the decision was not completely trivial.)
>
> Other than shopping and reading quite a few questionable product 
> reviews, the whole process was entirely simple and painless.  That 
> alone should have set me to thinking.
>
> This afternoon while updating a computer that I don't usually keep in 
> Albuquerque or use online, I noticed that when I opened Thunderbird, 
> email downloaded instantly.  Which I did not expect because I knew 
> Thunderbird was still configured for imap.comcast.net.
>
> Hmm.  What if I set my other computer back from imap.ge.xfinity.com to 
> imap.comcast.net?  Lo and behold imap.comcast.net now works just fine.
>
> I conclude that our rented Comcast modem-router with the default 
> crippled interface had, unknown to me and against my wishes, been 
> configured as a firewall against the use of desktop Linux mail clients.
>
> At least that appears to be the case here in Albuquerque.
>
> Any new I-told-you-sos or similar tales of woe out there?
>
> Tom in Albuquerque
>
>
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