[nmglug] Interesting development re Comcast imap servers

[Brian O'Keefe]

Thanks for fighting the big assh*les!

Brian

On 3/25/19 9:01 AM, Alucard wrote:
> 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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>
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