It usually takes about 3 tries to send an email. When it fails to send i see a "Sending Message" box with "Status" "Connecting to STMP etc" It just sits there so after awhile I cancel it and try again. About 15% pf emails are sent on the first try. This problem started about a month ago. I have been using Thunderbird for about 15 years. I am not aware of making any changes in the settings. I tried to upload a STMP screen shot, but it would not upload.