Mail not receiving - failing to connect on Port 0 (should be using 110 ??)

Question

Hi Apple,
Would you please help?
Mac Mail has ceased receiving email on my machine.
The last time Mail on my iMac received email was Wednesday, Nov 7, 2007.
My home setup has a DSL modem feeding a firewall (Astaro Version 6), which feeds a hub.
The hub feeds two boxes. One is my iMac running OS X 10.4.10 (Intel) running Mail (Version 2.1.1 (752.3)). The other is a home-brew Windows XP box.
For over a year, until Wednesday, I got all my email through Mail on the iMac.
Since Wednesday, nothing - no mail.
I've done a bit of troubleshooting; here's what I've found out.
When i run Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> Advanced it tells me I'm using Port 110.
When I run Mail -> Window -:> Mail Connection Doctor it tells me "Connection and login to server succeeded" for both my incoming and outgoing email servers.
But when I run Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Console, and then go back to Mail and click on "Get Mail", then go back to Console to see what happened, a new error message shows up telling me that it tried to use Port 0 (rather than 110) and failed. At the same time, no email shows up in the Mail Inbox. None since Wednesday.
And yes, I've tried restarting the iMac. No joy.
(Port 0? Why port 0? Why not Port 110??). Anyway ...
So in desperation, i went over to the Windows XP box (the one hanging off the same hub, remember?).
On the Windows XP box I get all my email, just fine.
So the iMac Mail problem is occurring somewhere this side of the hub, even though the Mail software claims to be set up correctly.
Apple, your Support web page directed me to this Forum.
Please help!
P.S. Here's the full error message from Console:
2007-11-10 09:56:57.201 Mail[657] -[POP3Connection fetchMessages:] failed: NSError "The connection to the server "incoming.verizon.net" on port 0 timed out." Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=60 UserInfo={
NSLocalizedDescription = "The connection to the server \"incoming.verizon.net\" on port 0 timed out.";
"_MFHelpAnchor" = "string:isp set up network send problem connection";
}

Answer 1

Hi David and Shari2345,
I spoke with Apple Support at length today, and they solved the problem.
David, I hadn't realized that AppleCare also applied to software - I'd thought it was for hardware only.
The answer to the problem, in my case, was that I had been sent one (or several) files with very large attachments, and their presence in the input queue caused a problem for Mail. Once those emails were gone, Mail started working again just fine.
Specifically, the Apple tech, today, asked me if I had any form of web access to my email account.
I do, so I used that to look at the incoming email queue.
On the day that Mail had stopped working (back on the 7th), someone had sent me one email with an 8-Meg attachment and one with a 2-meg attachment. Someone else had also sent one with a half-meg attachment. I didn't recognize the senders of these emails, so i deleted all three emails from the queue (still using the web email interface).
That fixed the problem. Bingo - the log jam was unstuck, and Mail began to receive all my outstanding email.
It's working fine, now.
Shari2345, give the same process a try, if you also have web email access.
Thanks for your help, David. It felt pretty lonesome there, before you replied!
Shari2345, I hope this helps.
And thank you, very much, Apple Support.