Vista Thunderbird Windows Mail Again!

[mk9]

Hello,

Thanks for letting me join the forum. I have a problem, which I know has been discussed before, but I can't resolve it! Can anyone help?

My set up is a Toshiba laptop, Windows Vista, Three Huawei Mobile USB Broadband Modem, Windows Mail & Thunderbird.

What it is: I have been trying for days to set up my email using either Windows Mail or Thunderbird. First major problem I had was I was unable to send to certain email addresses. This was cured by using SMTP.com port 2525 for my outgoing server. Apparently Three Mobile Broadband don't support SMTP.

Everything seemed fine, except I was unable to recieve any mail from Hotmail accounts. After going round and round trying to cure this, I thought I'd cut my losses and accept I won't receive Hotmail emails.

Thunderbird seemed to be the most reccommended, so I thought I'd stick with that. Until, each time I'd try and send/recieve the server timed out. Back to Windows Mail: now each time I try and send/recieve, I'm informed:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'soundcarriers', Server: 'mail.thesoundcarriers.com', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

I have tried: system restore, sfc /scannow, disabling Windows Firewall. I still have 'traces' of Norton anti-virus, but seem unable to download the removal tool from their website. I'm now using Eset Nod32. I have tried checking & unchecking 'my server requires authentication'; deleting and adding account.

What's annoying is that last night, besides the Hotmail issue, everything worked fine. This morning I recieved my last emails, then within an hour this starts happening.

Would Outlook be better?

Sorry for being long winded - any help would be amazing. I'm not very technical.