[sf-lug] Mail problems (or Firefox, or systemd,...)

[Ken Shaffer]

On Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 8:56 AM Akkana Peck <akkana at shallowsky.com> wrote:

> Ken Shaffer writes:
> > Anyone else having email problems?  Last month, systemd on my Ubuntu
> 18.04
> > stopped resolving mail.comcast.net.  No known changes on my part, not
> even
> > an update, it just stopped working, but none of the other sites I visit
> had
>
> Comcast apparently recently changed the name of the server people
> need to use for email. I haven't been paying strict attention (even
> if I had Comcast service, they've caused enough email problems with
> things like bogus spam rejection that I wouldn't use them for my own
> email -- seems like I'm always dealing with issues like "I'm not
> getting email from the XYZ list to my Comcast address"); but my
> impression is that the preferred hostnames to use for mail changed
> at some point (perhaps long ago) and the grandfathered older server
> people have been using up to now is being gradually retired,
> starting with not renewing its cert.
>
> This thread might have some helpful information:
>
>
> http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/2018-December/004909.html
>
> and in particular these messages:
>
> http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/2018-December/004924.html
>
> http://lists.nmglug.org/pipermail/nmglug-nmglug.org/2018-December/004926.html
>
> but read the whole thread since there might be other relevant info.
>
>         ...Akkana
>
Thanks Akkana,
Your third link had a link to the current comcast recommendations, which
include using pop3.comcast.net instead of mail.comcast.net,
and port 587 instead of the alternate 465 for smtp.  I tend to just copy
the old setup, and after a few years, things do change, so checking back to
the source is recommended.
  Not that the existing server/port setup didn't work in evolution when
using the /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf link for /etc/resolv.conf.  Or
that the changes fixed anything in getting the 127.0.0.3 nameserver to work
(from the /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf link).

The error from evolution when trying to get/send mail was:
   Error while Fetching mail from ... at comcast.net
   Error resolving "mail.comcast.net": Name or service not known
In a big orange banner across the evolution window

(Well, after the changes, the error was ..."pop3.comcast.net"... )

I didn't notice anything odd running nslookup or systemd-resolve when I
reset the /etc/resolv.conf to the stub-resolv.conf.
Anyway, redirecting the link works for me, as a minimal change to the
system -- a solution which is frequently suggested on google for dns
problems.
Ken
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