cable modem blocks email-help!!

I've never heard of a home router blocking common email ports right out of the box. Are you sure you're using the right port for your email access?

 

I don't think I heard an modem would do that......Are you really sure? Maybe return it if that's the problem..

 

Who is your ISP? IIRC, there are some ISPs that block port 25 to anything but their own SMTP servers (Comcast, Cox, etc). You may need to change the port your are using (if Apple supports alternate ports, try using their SSL port) or use your ISP's SMTP servers to send mail.

Edit: It looks like Apple also has port 587 opened for SMTP (smtp.me.com) so I would give that a shot.

You can also run several commands from the terminal in order to see if you can get a connection or not.

Code:

telnet smtp.me.com 25

Code:

telnet smtp.me.com 587

If the connection is good you should see the following line printed after hitting enter

Code:

Trying 17.148.16.31...
Connected to smtp.me.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 asmtpout024.mac.com -- Server ESMTP (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.03 (built Aug  7 2008; 32bit))

If you don't see anything for 10-15 seconds, you probably can't connect and you can exit telnet by hitting Control-] then Control-C

 

The cable modem isn't blocking 25--unless you configured it to do so--and by the error message that's not the case.

As has been noted, it's your ISP. Try changing your SMTP ports in the mail account settings to 587 or 995. Those are the most commonly used; in fact, Cox suggests 587 in their support pages (or used to anyway).

 

Have you shared the serial number and MAC address of your new modem with your ISP?