@Home network: Mail workaround

"Mail, HelpViewer, Software Update, and Sherlock will not work properly for some people who have @home cable modems, but I found a way to make Mail work reliably, at least for me. I opened up the Preferences for Mail, and changed the entries for the mail servers from a DNS name (i.e. mail.xxx.com) to the actual IP number of the server, and now Mail is working perfectly. I suspect the same workaround would fix the problems in the other applications, if it were possible to edit their IP addresses.

There is an incompatibility between these few Mac OS X applications and the @home network. I can move my computer to a different network connection (that is not part of @home) and use the same DNS servers and not experience any problems. Additionally, nearly every application works fine (including the Network Utility "Lookup" applet) on the @home except for these few. I wonder if they use a different API call for DNS lookups."

Update: A reader reports no problems whatsoever with @Home, however, he is also behind a MacSense xRouter Pro MIH-130. Another user reported no problems with the standard modem configuration. Harry Stone suggests the problems may be due to differences in individual cable modem headends.