Not being able to send emails on Outlook 2003

All of a sudden, when I write an e-mail and then click on "SEND", the email's
"To", "Subject" etc. line sits on the Outbox not in italics, waiting to be
sent out (my Outlook 2003 is programmed to do an automatic "Send/Receive"
every 5 minutes,) but in regular type, and it never gets sent. Even if I
click on "Send/Receive" at the top of the menu, it doesn't get out. I've
tried moving the emails to the "Draft" folder and then back to the "Outbox",
to no avail. The only thing I can do is close the software, restart it and
then send the email, and then it goes out. But the next mail I type up will
have the same problem, again

While this is happening, incoming emails are reaching my Inbox without a
problem.

"lesviator" wrote in message
...
(my Outlook 2003 is programmed to do an automatic "Send/Receive"
every 5 minutes,)

That's too short. Ever wondered why the default poll interval is TEN
minutes?
You are probably getting the mail server in a flummox by setting the polling
interval that short. It doesn't have time to complete its actions before the
next set of packets are upon it...

lesviator wrote:

All of a sudden, when I write an e-mail and then click on "SEND", the email's
"To", "Subject" etc. line sits on the Outbox not in italics, waiting to be
sent out (my Outlook 2003 is programmed to do an automatic "Send/Receive"
every 5 minutes,) but in regular type, and it never gets sent. Even if I
click on "Send/Receive" at the top of the menu, it doesn't get out. I've
tried moving the emails to the "Draft" folder and then back to the "Outbox",
to no avail. The only thing I can do is close the software, restart it and
then send the email, and then it goes out. But the next mail I type up will
have the same problem, again

While this is happening, incoming emails are reaching my Inbox without a
problem.

When you composed the new e-mail and clicked Send, was Outlook actually
running at the time? No, I'm not talking about just the new-mail dialog
where you compose a new message, but the entire Outlook program. Was it
completely loaded and running at the time you tried to send your new e-mail?

Have you tested by loading Outlook in its safe mode which does not load any
enabled add-ons that you installed into Outlook?

outlook.exe /safe

Did you retest with the superfluous scanning of e-mail by your anti-virus
program?