Reading time: 10 min · Last verified: August 2026 · SMTPedia editorial team
Roadrunner mail did not disappear. The brand did. The mailboxes that end in rr.com, roadrunner.com and the regional variants still accept IMAP and SMTP connections, and Charter still publishes settings for them under the Spectrum name. What makes the Roadrunner email settings awkward is not that they are hidden: it is that Spectrum publishes two different mail servers and keys the choice to the domain in your address rather than to your device, your plan or your app. Almost every third party guide collapses those two servers into one, and the automated summary at the top of the search results does the same thing while adding a hostname that Spectrum does not publish at all.
If your address ends in roadrunner.com, adelphia.net or any of the rr.com regional domains, both your incoming and your outgoing server are mail.twc.com. If it ends in charter.net or spectrum.net, both are mobile.charter.net. Spectrum publishes these under a heading that says so in as many words, “Server Settings Based on Domain”, on both its email server settings page and its email troubleshooting page. One hostname does both directions. There is no separate outgoing name, which is why entering an invented smtp.twc.com or mobile-smtp.roadrunner.com fails.
Roadrunner Email Settings at a Glance
These are the values Spectrum publishes for legacy Time Warner Cable and Roadrunner domains, read in August 2026. The username is the complete email address including everything after the at sign, and authentication is required in both directions.
| Setting | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Incoming server | mail.twc.com | rr.com, roadrunner.com, adelphia.net and regional variants |
| Incoming protocol | IMAP | The protocol Spectrum documents |
| Incoming port | 993 | SSL on |
| Outgoing server | mail.twc.com | Same hostname as incoming |
| Outgoing port | 587 | Requires authentication: yes |
| Username | Full email address | Not the part before the at sign |
| Password | Your Spectrum email password | No app password or mail key scheme |
If your address is charter.net or spectrum.net instead: replace mail.twc.com with mobile.charter.net in both fields. Everything else on this table stays the same. The Spectrum branded settings reference covers that side of the same platform. | ||
None of those port numbers are a Charter invention. 993 is the implicit TLS form of IMAP and 587 is the standard submission port for authenticated outgoing mail. The reference on email protocols and their standard ports sets out which number belongs to which service across every provider, and it is worth a look if you are being asked to choose between 587 and 465 by a client that offers both.
Two Servers, One Brand: The Split Nobody Reproduces
Charter acquired Time Warner Cable in 2016 and Bright House the same year, then folded all three mail estates under the Spectrum name. The mailboxes were not merged into one namespace. Spectrum’s own settings page still separates them, and it does it explicitly: the section is headed “Server Settings Based on Domain” and it lists the domain families beside the hostname each one answers on.
mail.twc.comSpectrum lists this as both the incoming and the outgoing server, and names the domains it serves, including the paired ones: roadrunner.com and adelphia.net, mi.rr.com and twmi.rr.com, nycap.rr.com and berkshire.rr.com. This is the row that a Roadrunner address needs.
mobile.charter.netThe same page publishes a second block with mobile.charter.net as both incoming and outgoing server. Spectrum’s device walkthroughs for iPhone, iPad and Mac use this name too, which is part of why it leaks into guides written for Roadrunner users.
smtp.twc.comA separate outgoing hostname is the most common invention in third party Roadrunner guides, and the search engine summary offers it as an alternative. Spectrum publishes one name per domain family for both directions. A Spectrum moderator has also corrected a customer away from mobile-smtp.roadrunner.com on Spectrum’s own forum.
The practical consequence is that “which Roadrunner server do I use” has no single answer, and a guide that gives one is guessing on your behalf. Read the domain on the right of your own address first. If it is one of the rr.com regional forms, or roadrunner.com, or adelphia.net, you are on the Time Warner side of the estate. This pattern of a retired brand kept alive on a successor’s infrastructure is common enough to have its own reference: the directory of legacy consumer domains still running on successor infrastructure lists the others.
Roadrunner IMAP Settings
IMAP is the protocol Spectrum actually documents. Its published block gives protocol IMAP, SSL on, incoming port 993, outgoing port 587, and authentication required. The Roadrunner IMAP settings are therefore mail.twc.com on port 993 with SSL enabled, authenticating with the full address.
IMAP keeps the authoritative copy of the mailbox on Spectrum’s server and mirrors it to each device. POP downloads and, by default in many clients, deletes. If you have a phone and a laptop on the same Roadrunner address, IMAP is the one that keeps them consistent.
The mechanics of folder mapping, the special use folders and the TLS negotiation are the same here as anywhere: see how IMAP is configured, authenticated and mapped to folders if a client is syncing but showing the wrong Sent folder.
Roadrunner POP Settings and Why They Are Harder to Pin Down
This is the point where honest reporting and the search results part company. Spectrum’s published server settings block covers IMAP. It does not publish a POP3 port. The figure everyone quotes, 995, appears on Spectrum’s support forum in guidance from community helpers rather than in the settings documentation, and it appears alongside repeated advice not to move an existing account from POP to IMAP casually.
What we can and cannot state. That 995 with TLS is the port POP3 uses under implicit TLS is a fact about the protocol, not about Spectrum, and it holds everywhere. That Spectrum supports POP on a Roadrunner mailbox on that port is described on Spectrum’s forum but is not part of the settings Spectrum publishes. We report the difference rather than flattening it. If POP is what you need, what POP3 leaves behind on the server and how retention is configured covers the behaviour you are opting into.
Roadrunner SMTP Settings
The Roadrunner SMTP settings are the shortest part of this page and the part that breaks most often. Outgoing server mail.twc.com, port 587, authentication required, using the same full address and password as incoming.
Port 587 is the submission port, and the encryption that belongs on it is STARTTLS: the connection opens in the clear and is upgraded before credentials are sent. Some clients label that choice “STARTTLS”, some call it “TLS”, and a few offer only “SSL/TLS” and “None”. On a client that offers STARTTLS explicitly, choose it. Spectrum’s outgoing block says SSL on and port 587 without naming the negotiation method, and a Spectrum forum thread aimed at Roadrunner users spells out the practical reading: 587 is the common port for STARTTLS, so select that rather than SSL/TLS. If the distinction between the two is unfamiliar, how SSL and TLS actually work on a mail connection explains why the same port can be described both ways, and configuring SMTP authentication in any client walks through the fields themselves.
One field trips people up more than the ports. Authentication must be switched on for outgoing mail, and the credentials are the same ones the incoming server takes. Clients that leave the outgoing username blank inherit nothing, and a server that refuses an unauthenticated submission returns a relay refusal rather than a password prompt. If your client shows a code instead of a sentence, the SMTP error code directory maps it, and the 550 Must Issue STARTTLS response is the specific one you get when encryption was never negotiated.
Setting Up Roadrunner Mail in Outlook, iPhone, Android and Thunderbird
Every client asks for the same seven values. The order and the wording change; the values do not.
Choose manual setup and IMAP rather than letting autodiscover guess: autodiscover has no record for these domains and will offer the wrong host. Enter mail.twc.com in both server fields, 993 and 587, and tick the outgoing authentication box, which Outlook keeps on a separate More Settings tab.
Add the account as Other, not as one of the named providers. iOS will ask for incoming and outgoing hosts on the same screen and will try to save without the outgoing password: enter it anyway, because iOS marks the outgoing server optional and then fails to send.
Pick Other or Personal IMAP. The security type dropdown is where this goes wrong: SSL/TLS on 993 for incoming, STARTTLS on 587 for outgoing. Leaving the outgoing dropdown on SSL/TLS with port 587 is the single most common Android failure.
Thunderbird probes the server and usually lands on the right combination once the hostname is right. Use Configure Manually so the probe starts from mail.twc.com rather than from a guess based on the domain in the address.
Is Roadrunner Email Being Shut Down?
Not for existing addresses, on Spectrum’s own account of it. Spectrum stopped issuing new email addresses to new customers in June 2024, and its support staff have stated on the company forum that email remains a supported service for people who already have an address. What has narrowed is the support surface rather than the service: Spectrum troubleshoots its webmail, and for third party clients it will supply the server settings and little more.
That is a different situation from a provider that has actually closed its mail platform, and it is worth keeping the two apart when you plan. The timeline of providers that did shut their mail down shows what a real shutdown looks like and how much notice tends to precede it. A closed to new signups estate is nevertheless a good reason to stop using an ISP address as the recovery address for anything that matters, since it disappears if you leave the ISP. Forwarding your mail to an address you control is the low effort version of that migration, with the caveat that forwarding interacts badly with authentication, which that page covers.
What Spectrum Does Not Publish
Listing the absences is as useful as listing the values, because each absence corresponds to something a third party guide has invented to fill the gap.
- No separate outgoing hostname. There is no published
smtp.twc.comand no publishedmobile-smtp.roadrunner.com. One name serves both directions per domain family. - No per protocol hostnames. Spectrum does not publish
imap.charter.net,pop.charter.netorsmtp.charter.net. Providers that do split their hostnames by protocol exist, and mixing an IMAP hostname with a POP port is a classic failure there, but Roadrunner is not one of those cases. - No app password or mail key. Your account password is the credential. This is unlike AT&T, which issues a secure mail key for third party clients, and unlike AOL, which requires a generated app password.
- No POP3 port in the published settings block. Covered above. The number circulating is protocol standard and forum sourced, not vendor published.
- No sending limits, no attachment ceiling. Spectrum does not publish a per message recipient cap or an attachment size for these mailboxes. Any figure you find quoted for them has no vendor source behind it.
Providers contradicting themselves across their own documentation is not unique to Charter, and the failure mode is worth recognising: IONOS ranks its two outgoing ports in opposite order on two of its own pages, which produces the same effect of a customer following official guidance and still getting it wrong.
When the Settings Are Right and It Still Fails
Three symptoms come up repeatedly on Spectrum’s forum from people whose configuration matches the published values.
A certificate warning naming the server. Customers have reported their client refusing the certificate presented by the incoming and outgoing server and offering to accept it anyway. Accepting an untrusted certificate permanently is how a client stops warning you about a genuine interception, so treat a recurring warning as a reason to check whether the fault is transient rather than as a box to tick.
Sending fails while receiving works. Almost always the outgoing authentication box, the outgoing password field, or the security type on port 587. Change one at a time.
A password that works in webmail and fails in the client. Reported on Spectrum’s forum for some legacy regional domains. If webmail accepts the credential and the protocol connection does not, the credential is not the variable, and there is nothing in the client settings that will fix it.
If mail is reaching you but leaving slowly or bouncing selectively, the problem has moved past client configuration and into delivery, where the records that route mail to a domain and the response codes on the wire are what tell you anything. Other US consumer ISP mailboxes with the same setup shape are documented separately: Comcast and Xfinity, Cox, CenturyLink and EarthLink.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the server settings for Roadrunner email?
Incoming and outgoing server mail.twc.com, IMAP on port 993 with SSL on, outgoing on port 587 with authentication required, username the full email address. That is the block Spectrum publishes for the roadrunner.com, adelphia.net and rr.com domain family. Addresses on charter.net or spectrum.net use mobile.charter.net in place of that hostname.
Is Spectrum eliminating Roadrunner emails?
Not for addresses that already exist. Spectrum stopped giving email addresses to new customers in June 2024 and has said on its own forum that email remains supported for people who already have one. Support for third party clients is limited to supplying the server settings.
Is Roadrunner email POP3 or IMAP?
Both protocols have historically worked, but IMAP is the one Spectrum documents. Its published settings block names IMAP with port 993 and does not give a POP3 port. If you are setting up a new client, IMAP is the supported answer and the one that keeps multiple devices consistent.
Is Roadrunner email no longer supported?
The Roadrunner brand is retired; the mailboxes are not. They run on Charter infrastructure under the Spectrum name, and Spectrum publishes current server settings for the legacy domains. What ended is new signups, not the service.
What are the Roadrunner email settings for Outlook?
The same values as any other client, entered through manual setup rather than autodiscover: mail.twc.com for both servers, 993 incoming, 587 outgoing, and outgoing authentication enabled on the More Settings tab. Autodiscover has nothing to find for these domains and will offer a host that does not answer.
Why does my Roadrunner account receive mail but not send it?
Almost always one of three things on the outgoing side: authentication not enabled, the outgoing password left blank because the client marked it optional, or the security type set to SSL/TLS on port 587 where STARTTLS belongs. Fix one at a time so you know which one it was.
The Short Version
Read the domain on your own address, then pick the hostname that Spectrum pairs with it. Roadrunner, adelphia and rr.com addresses take mail.twc.com in both server fields. Charter and Spectrum addresses take mobile.charter.net. IMAP on 993 with SSL, submission on 587 with authentication, full address as the username, ordinary account password. Everything beyond that which you find quoted for a Roadrunner mailbox, a dedicated outgoing hostname, a per protocol server name, a sending limit, is somebody filling a gap that Spectrum left open.
About the Author
Alaa · LinkedIn
Email infrastructure specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience in SMTP, deliverability, and email verification. I’ve configured and troubleshot mail systems across Postfix, Exchange, and cloud relays, managed IP reputation and warmup campaigns, and built verification pipelines processing millions of addresses. My work spans DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), bounce handling, blocklist monitoring, and compliance frameworks including CAN-SPAM and GDPR. I write every article on SMTPedia to give email professionals, developers, and marketers the accurate, RFC-grounded reference they need.
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