Sorcha -

You mention changing outgoing email service. Do we assume that you did not change your ISP for general web connection?

I don't have WinME to look at for details, but my O'Reilly Guide to - suggests a conflict between the new email server setup and your ISP. The quick check would be to turn OFF email temporarily and then disconnect/reconnect to your ISP without email and see if things work better.

If your new email connection is set up to "Always connect" you may have to diddle with the connection setup to turn it off completely. (Just closing your email program may not shut down the email connection, but you could try that first.) "Taking out" the most recent change(s) is one of those "golden rules" of troubleshooting, and there is a "speculatively plausible" reason why this might work.

Just turning off the email program is not likely to help by itself. You need to re-establish the connection to your ISP after you've "broken" the email connection to be sure you've isolated the problem.

John