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Thunderbird email downloads from Comcast broken

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by howard32

howard32
howard32
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I use Thunderbird (78.13.0 64-bit) on Linux Mint as my email client. I use Comcast as my ISP and have for the past 10 years, easily downloading emails (via iMap) to my workstation.

Until the afternoon of October 6th, when I started getting Certificate errors not allowing downloads. I have been able to send emails from this account from my workstation. I have also been able to continue to download emails from another account with no problems.

Comcast (support tiers 1, 2, and 3) has absolved themselves of all responsibility for any issues with their Certificates (which seem to have been updated on 26 Sept 2021 5pm Pacific time) and referred me to "the Thunderbird Company". Passing the buck.

Have any of you encountered this issue? Have any of you a clue how to resolve this?

Thanks for your expertise & help, 

       howard
I use Thunderbird (78.13.0 64-bit) on Linux Mint as my email client. I use Comcast as my ISP and have for the past 10 years, easily downloading emails (via iMap) to my workstation. Until the afternoon of October 6th, when I started getting Certificate errors not allowing downloads. I have been able to send emails from this account from my workstation. I have also been able to continue to download emails from another account with no problems. Comcast (support tiers 1, 2, and 3) has absolved themselves of all responsibility for any issues with their Certificates (which seem to have been updated on 26 Sept 2021 5pm Pacific time) and referred me to "the Thunderbird Company". Passing the buck. Have any of you encountered this issue? Have any of you a clue how to resolve this? Thanks for your expertise & help, howard

All Replies (2)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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howard32 said
. . . when I started getting Certificate errors

Please explain the problem in detail. What happens? What is/are the exact error message(s) ?

howard32
howard32 Question owner
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I get a popup in Thunderbird: Add Security Exception You are about to override how Thunderbird identifies this site. Legitimate banks, stores, and other public sites will not ask you to do this. Location: mail.comcast.net:995 Get Certificate [a Button] This site attempts to identify itself with invalid information. View [a Button] Wrong Site The certificate belongs to a different site, which could mean that someone is trying to impersonate this site. [checkbox] Permanently store this exception. Confirm Security Exception [Button] Cancel [Button]

Whether the checkbox is on or off, no mail gets downloaded with the Confirm PB pressed. Instead, the popup goes away and the lower left margin of the Thunderbird window says

csw_hjc@comcast.net:Connected to imap.ge.xfinity.com...

and nothing happens.

When I followed the advice of https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-78-faq#w_after-upgrading-to-thunderbird-78-i-cannot-get-or-send-email-messages

and reset the minimum TLS level to 1, nothing changed in this behavior. Likewise, when I followed the advice of https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/setting-up-thunderbird to change the port from 995 to 993, nothing changed in this behavior.

The Certificate indicates it was changed on 9/26/2021 at 5:00pm Pacific time.

I hope that helps a bit.