I believe Shaw changed something that affected Mac users...

[appleMacTech]

I believe Shaw changed something that affected Mac users back around the beginning of December of 2019. That is the ONLY possible explanation.

Here is the good news - the problem in it's initial form (as noted in my very first posts) got better a month ago. For about 4 weeks now (touch wood), we have NOT been getting "can't connect to imap.shaw.ca" or "multiple account errors" anymore on our Mac desktop computers OR on our iPhones.

So obviously, someone at Shaw MUST HAVE fixed something. How could this problem just go away on its own on multiple devices (desktops, phones, etc.), on multiple operating systems and through all the different methods of access (wireless, cellular, etc.)?

NOW, here's the bad news. Here is the latest problem that started as soon as the last series of problems stopped:

Checking e-mail on our phones takes WAY longer than it ever used to now. It takes 15 to 20 seconds to check 8 e-mail accounts on one iPhone, It used to take about 3 to 4 seconds (this does not happen on our Mac desktop computers, ONLY happens on our iPhones). Checking those same 8 accounts on our desktop Macs takes about a second (if that). We do not get any error messages any longer but the "progress wheel" spins and spins, using up more battery power, not to mention cellular usage when on the Rogers network.

Why? Nothing at all has changed on our end.

[snlwhite]

It appears that the same problem keeps surfacing. Yesterday (Feb 9) and this morning (Feb 10) I have been encountering the same issue. Iphone cannot connect to server, and when I logged into MY SHAW account, none of the emails I have were listed! It looked like all my email addresses ending in shaw.ca were deleted. I promptly went on the chat with a support rep, and he said that it was a problem on their end, and he just fixed it. When I asked him what the problem was and should I expect repeated outages- he never responded. So there you go. What happened Shaw? Why are the same issues resurfacing? 

[shaw-tony]

@appleMacTech @snlwhite thank you for the info. I am looking to find out more details about this and have passed your feedback/details to our engineer. I am sorry for any inconvenience. 

[appleMacTech]

For crying out loud, now this just started happening on my Late 2015 iMac running Mojave 10.14.6. Delays checking Apple e-mail. When on earth is Shaw ever going to fix these problems for their Mac users? I AM SO FED UP WITH SHAW, honestly we're just minutes away from pulling the plug on this non-existent and sub-standard "service", talk about a lack of knowledgeable tech support, it's not just pathetic, it's a joke

[Joe999]

So this issue has been happening with me for the last 2 weeks as well. Since we all know that Shaw is responsible for this, why hasn't anyone from Shaw come out and tell us what their plan is to fix this? I see the date goes back to February. This is unacceptable. when you call in, you get someone who's reading from a card about what to say. How can this problem be so intermittent, works sometimes then not.

[Joe999]

Update, I called Shaw a few days ago and they said they had no more issues with this even when I mentioned the ticket # that had been opened.

They said that ticket is now closed. However, I started experimenting with the outgoing port numbers. What I found is that 587 and 25 work on different days. Strange right? Not really, something or someone on Shaw's end is doing this so that's why it works intermittently. There is no consistence on when things get changed on Shaw's end so try changing the port number. Unclick automatically manage connection settings under server settings that is under the accounts which you going through preferences in the mail. Important Note: when you change the port value, you'll know right away if it worked as the account imap.shaw.ca offline message will just say imap.shaw.ca. You can click the automatically manage connection settings box after if you want, it should still work. So far this is working but still wonder what Shaw is doing on their end.

[mdk]

> What I found is that 587 and 25 work on different days. Strange right?

Is your iPhone always connected to your home WiFi network, or is it sometimes using your "cellular data" connection?

[Joe999]

This is only happening on my Mac at home. IPhone and Tablets don't have this issue as they connect directly to shawmail.

[Sabresoft]

The problem that I have is connecting to email accounts hosted on Uniserve in Vancouver, connected through Shaw as my ISP. I get the same “cannot connect” error messages (on my Mac, iPhone and iPad) on an intermittent basis. Also when the mail is out I cannot connect to the Uniserve servers for my site administration (server not found error). 

While the Uniserve email fails to connect, my iCloud mail works just fine. If I flip to LTE on the iPhone when the Uniserve Mail is out on Shaw, it works just fine on LTE. 

I was going to contact Uniserve support about this  Even if it is a Shaw problem they may have some ideas as to what might be going on. 

[mdk]

@Sabresoft -- when you get the "cannot connect" message, use the Windows command-line TRACERT command to the name of that "site administration" web-server, and post the results here, and also send the results to UNISERVE.

The Internet was designed to have multiple paths to everywhere. So, it makes sense that when the path via Shaw is not working, then the path via LTE may be unaffected.