problems with pop & smtp email

I have just got home after 5 days away for Christmas, and find I can't connect to pop.orangehome.co.uk to receive and send email using Outlook Express. By logging on to Orange webmail, I have found that there are some messages in my inbox, which I have read.
Has anyone else had similar problems, or might be able to suggest a cure?
Help please.

After shutting down and rebooting everything worked fine. It must have been a hiccup on my own system, perhaps Norton Internet Security 2006, now in its last month of subscription period, which had been behaving oddly.
No further help required, so this thread is now closed.