Problems sending mail to Hotmail based accounts

I had a problem sending mail through my Hotmail based ISP server. In this
case it was Sympatico in Canada and when I attempted to send mail from WM, I
received a 0x800CCC7D error. I tried every combination of setting assuming
it was a Vista incompatibility. It turned out to be a problem with Avast AV
and after uninstalling Avast and installing CA AV everything worked like a
charm. Just a thought that one of the first places to look if problems arise
is a possible AV incompatibility. I have seen other problems with various
AVs even though they have been certified for use with Vista. Just throwing
this out to any other users that may see WM problems.

John O.