Hotmail Problems. Help Please

[will this name be ok]

For the last two days i have load of trouble getting into my hotmail account and so has my wife and daughter (there accounts) everything on the net seems to work fine any site i go to i get to with no problems. But if i'm checking my mail using outlook express ot the www.hotmail.com page i either times out or in outlook gives me this message.

 

Unable to poll for new messages on your HTTP server. Account: 'Hotmail', Server: 'http://services.msn.com/svcs/hotmail/httpmail.asp', Protocol: HTTPMail, Port: 0, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 12019, Error Number: 0x80004005

 

I tried going to the msn support site to emai them but it times out there to it is as if msn has a problem with my pc as everything else works fine. I've had the account for a few years with no problems any ideas why this has happend and how to solve it.

[corydoras]

Try removing any proxy servers that you have set up in Internet Explorer.

[will this name be ok]

Thanks you

Ok now the next question Wat is a proxy server and where would i find it?