[akent35]

I have the latest version of Office 2011, and I have been having a minor issue with Outlook. Let me explain as best as I can.

My ISP is Comcast, and about 99.99% of the time, things work well, both with Outlook and Firefox. About 2 to 3 months ago, I attempted to send 3 messages from Outlook, but apparently at that point in time (actually happened twice in two days), the messages never got sent. Instead, they are sitting "in limbo", so to speak. In fact, I have Outlook running right now, and here is what it says at the bottom of the screen:

"connecting to smtp.comcast.net (somewhat long grey bar next) 0/3"

The main "hassle" is that when I want to send another message, Outlook kind of "hangs" before sending it out. I have not had any issue sending messages (other than the "hanging", and thus waiting) since then.

On quite a few occasions, I have done google searches on this issue, visited Microsoft's site, and Comcast's sites for help. I cannot find anything. I have also looked within Outlook for anything about this (including the messages themselves, but no luck.

So, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can resolve this issue. Would appreciate it!

[ghporter]

Outlook appears to be trying to send those three unsent messages before sending your new message. Entourage does something similar (I'm sticking with Office 2008 until I absolutely have to change, for a number of reasons), and Outlook on Windows does it whenever there's been a problem sending older messages.

If your old outgoing messages are no longer needed, go into the outbox (whatever the formal term for it in Outlook is) and delete them. That should get rid of the "hang" when sending new messages.

Another thing to do is to make sure your settings for Comcast's mail servers are up to date. I've seen AT&T change servers more than once in the same month - without notifying longtime users like me. It can't hurt to check, and you may find that they've made a change like adding or altering authentication, etc.

[akent35]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Outlook appears to be trying to send those three unsent messages before sending your new message. Entourage does something similar (I'm sticking with Office 2008 until I absolutely have to change, for a number of reasons), and Outlook on Windows does it whenever there's been a problem sending older messages.

If your old outgoing messages are no longer needed, go into the outbox (whatever the formal term for it in Outlook is) and delete them. That should get rid of the "hang" when sending new messages.

Another thing to do is to make sure your settings for Comcast's mail servers are up to date. I've seen AT&T change servers more than once in the same month - without notifying longtime users like me. It can't hurt to check, and you may find that they've made a change like adding or altering authentication, etc.

Thanks, ghporter. I was FINALLY able to "see" the Outgoing box, and deleted them. Even though I am not having that issue at all now (and did not have it before), I'll go ahead and make sure the setting for Comcast's mail servers are up to date.

Thanks again!

[Mike Wuerthele]

Comcast has also been known to block outgoing mail ports during times of major traffic, or if somebody near you geographically is sending out loads of what may be spam. You may have been temporarily caught in the dragnet.

[akent35]

Originally Posted by EstaNightshift 

You may have been temporarily caught in the dragnet.

I suspect that was the case.