Comcast account randomly fails mail check?

[epack]

My husband and I each have a comcast.net account that is used strictly for access to and communications from our comcast provider, literally nothing else. As I do with most of our other accounts (gmail and a personal domain), I run them thru MWP on a 15 minute check cycle, and most of the time, all is well; however, randomly, once or twice a week or less, MWP throws an authentication error on the comcast account(s). I do nothing except respond to the OK prompts, including not entering the password again, try it again, and it works fine. These are the ONLY accounts that do this, and usually but not always, both flag at the same time.

Anyone have any ideas?

TIA

[ataraxy]

This will be a Comcast issue, not a MailWasher issue.

Your current approach is the best that you can do, unless you are prepared to remove the accounts from the scheduled check, and just remember to check these accounts manually once each day (or whatever is necessary).

[epack]

This will be a Comcast issue, not a MailWasher issue.

I hear you, but it's MWP that holds the credentials it checks the inbound against? Doesn't it use my stored info to check against what the email has on it? The email itself would only have the email address, tho, not the account passwords. Or wait, MWP must "phone home" to the comcast server? That would certainly explain it if there was something funky about THAT server. I guess it must Duh moment?

So if MWP has the right email AND passwords, which it does, AND the email address is correct, which it is, AND the server is "available", it "should" be let in. And an immediate cancel and re-check DOES lets it thru. The email itself would be the same as it was the first time, right? But if the CC SERVER is flaky, bingo. What am I missing here? Sorry, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand why this is happening.

Your current approach is the best that you can do, unless you are prepared to remove the accounts from the scheduled check, and just remember to check these accounts manually once each day (or whatever is necessary).

Naw, it doesn't happen all THAT often, and there's rarely anything of value there anyway

elaine

[ataraxy]

I hear you, but it's MWP that holds the credentials it checks the inbound against? Doesn't it use my stored info to check against what the email has on it? The email itself would only have the email address, tho, not the account passwords.

It doesn't work like that.

Or wait, MWP must "phone home" to the comcast server? That would certainly explain it if there was something funky about THAT server. I guess it must Duh moment?

That's more like the way that it works. If you want more information try http://www.howstuffworks.com/e-mail-mes ... email1.htm There are a few other useful articles on that site if you do a bit of searching.

So if MWP has the right email AND passwords, which it does, AND the email address is correct, which it is, AND the server is "available", it "should" be let in. And an immediate cancel and re-check DOES lets it thru. The email itself would be the same as it was the first time, right?

That sounds like the incorrect model in your first paragraph. That's not how it works.

But if the CC SERVER is flaky, bingo. What am I missing here? Sorry, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand why this is happening.

Yes, that's pretty much what is happening. The server may be too busy, or there may be some congestion between you and the server which means that the messages take too long to get through causing MailWasher to think that there is a problem.