Outlook (2010) email is failing

Currently on holiday in Gozo and connecting via free wifi in the hotel. Outlook is failing to connect to POP3 server both for my Eclipse email account and my gmail account. I can get to them via a web browser.

The error message just says cannot connect to your POP3 server, similarly it says cannot connect to your SMTP for outgoing messages.

Clearly something is awry in the way I'm connecting. Web based email, web browsing are fine, it's just Outlook that's failing.

Any thoughts?

Maybe that any ports other than 80 and 443 (for web browsing) have been blocked to try to prevent abuse of the free wifi.

Ask at reception

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

similarly it says cannot connect to your SMTP for outgoing messages.

Not at all surprising! Most ISPs block access to others' port 25 SMTPs; expect your hotel is same.

Anyway of actually testing which ports are allowed by the ISP?

Clearly my firewall, Zonealarm, is presumably blocking some, but if some are externally blocked it would be interesting to see which. I tried a port scanner and it just said all it tested were blocked so not entirely helpful as one, at least, must be open. I notice also that I cannot get the TBB speedtest to load its java window, it times out - possibly significant. Just tried my FTP program Filezilla, that won't connect so it looks almost certain to be a port issue.

I'd be surprised if it's the blocked SMTP suggested, that wouldn't explain the POP issue.

I'll try asking at reception, assuming they understand the question...

Don't worry about it and enjoy the holiday instead!

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

I'd be surprised if it's the blocked SMTP suggested, that wouldn't explain the POP issue.

I was never suggesting it would. They are separate 2 issues. Former is widespread; latter is particular to your hotel's ISP.