Hey Goodwinism,
Now, I do not have a remmedy for your problem, but I have used outlook, and I have a recommendation. Its a program similar to outlook, "Windows Live Mail Desktop". Its does everything outlook would do, downloads your e-mail, sends e-mail, and its great for dial-up connections. You can find the link at
Ideas.live.com. I'm not sure if you are REQUIRED to have an msn or a hotmail account, but it is worth a try.
Now, if you do fix your Outlook, continue to use it, its a great program.