SMTP issues

Yesterday a Vista PC couldn't send emails,using Windows Mail but Thunderbird was OK, today the status page says..

Windows Vista - Sending Emails from Windows Mail
We are aware of a problem where customers using Windows Vista may find that they are unable to send emails from Windows Mail. In order to fix this problem, please click on Tools, Accounts and highlight the email account in the Internet Accounts window. Click on Properties and then click on the Advanced tab. Change the outgoing SMTP port from 25 to 587. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

This morning Thunderbird wouldn't work either, status page says.....

Slow access to send emails
We are currently investigating a problem which may mean you experience difficulty connecting to our servers to send emails, or you may be receiving a slow response from the servers. Please bear with us as we endeavour to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Meanwhile we apologise for any inconvenience.

A good time to set up a Vista PC on BT Broadband, Not !

I wouldn't set up Vista anywhere

Anyhow, I'm sure this is pure coincidence, but last week I reported a problem sending email from Yahoo! Mail to some btinternet.com addresses - the email simply never arrived. Within a few hours of reporting a problem to Yahoo! Customer Care, I got a response to say their engineers were investigating and a message appeared on the BT status page saying there were problems

In reply to:

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Possible Slow Mail Delivery
We are currently investigating a problem with our mail servers, which may be affecting the sending and receiving of email. Please bear with us as we endeavour to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Meanwhile we apologise for any inconvenience.

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About a week later, I'm still having problems with email not being delivered, so emailed again and got pretty much the same response as previously and again a few hours later this on the BT status page

In reply to:

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Slow access to send emails
We are currently investigating a problem which may mean you experience difficulty connecting to our servers to send emails, or you may be receiving a slow response from the servers. Please bear with us as we endeavour to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Meanwhile we apologise for any inconvenience

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Probably just pure coincidence, but may be not as BT Yahoo! and Yahoo! UK are interlinked (BTW sending from a yahoo.com address via webmail and email servers involved are significantly different and I can send to my btinternet.com address OK)
The whole thing is driving me mad and I just wish they'd sort it out - both BT and Yahoo! seem to be fiddling with their networks at the mo as I've noticed changes of IP address and routing.