Hey there Ben,

I set up POP3 mail accounts from both MSN and GMAIL on my laptop and haven't
run into any issues.  There's a couple of things I'd like for you to check
out.

1.    Open Outlook.
2.    Click the Tools menu, and select Account Settings...
3.    Highlight your account and click on Change…
4.    Click on the Test Account settings button and note any errors that occur.
5.    Click on the More Settings button.
6.    Click on the Advanced tab.
7.    Check the incoming and outgoing server port numbers.  By default they’ll
be 995 for POP and 587 for SMTP.  Also note for the encrypted connection
settings if it is set to TLS, SSL, None, or Auto.
8.    Cancel out of all the settings dialogues.
9.    Go to Control Panel>Security Center.
10.    On the left side of the Window, click on Windows firewall.
11.    On the left side of the Window, click on Allow a program through Windows
Firewall.
12.    Make sure the Microsoft Outlook box is checked.

If you encountered an error during the test, post it here for me to take a
look at.  If not, you’ll need to contact your mail provider to make sure that
those settings for POP/SMTP are correct.  They should have the info handy.  
Sometimes they'll use port settings other than the defaults.

Let me know how it goes!

Best Regards,

Will