connection timed out

- Who is your email provider?

- When did this start?

- What is your computer's operating system?

- Is this an IMAP account or POP3?

- What setting did you change and how did you change it?

- Please quote the error message precisely and in full.

Thanks for the reply. I'll answer as best I can. 1) Email provider is Spectrum 2) Not sure when it started, but it's been weeks. 3) Windows 11 Home - Version 10.0.26300 - Build 26300 4) Config Editor. Menu/Settings/General/Config Editor. Went to: mailnews.tcptimeout. Changed to 2000 5) Not 100% sure, but something like connection to server has timed out. I'll note it the next time I get it.

Oops. Missed one. It's an IMAP account.

That "mailnews.tcptimeout" is probably overkill. The value represents how many seconds it will wait before giving up on trying to connect to the server. If it really takes over a half-hour to connect you've got bigger problems than that setting. It probably doesn't hurt anything, but I'd still dial it back to something more reasonable, like maybe 120 - 300.

The first thing to do is to confirm that you have the correct settings. Here are Spectrum's recommendations. Not that the exact ones depend on your provider's name/domain:

https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/mobile-email-setup

Try restarting Thunderbird in Troubleshoot Mode (see <Help | Troubleshoot Mode>.) Among other things, this will disable all add-ons, in case one is misbehaving. I suspect this isn't your problem, though.

Computer anti-virus and Internet security programs are notorious for interfering with email connections. If you use any, try temporarily disabling it or creating an exception for Thunderbird.

Be aware that Spectrum has a history of intermittent connection issues. There was a spate of them a few months ago. Spectrum's front like tech support either didn't know about them or didn't understand them or just wouldn't admit it. If you could get through to the next level, they DID admit it, though they didn't offer a solution. Eventually they fixed the problem on their end and it went away. In other words, it was never a Thunderbird issue. That was not the first time. I don't know if this applies to you now, except to keep in mind that Spectrum email is not very reliable.