pb2000,

I had a similar problem with my mail provider a while back. It turns out
that they instigated a outgoing mail server authentication policy. The
policy was that POP3 mail had to be received (or logged into) before (within
a specified period of time) access to the SMTP server would succeed for that
IP. Since Outlook would send mail then check for mail, the first send would
fail. Subsequent send/receives would work fine, since the SMTP access had
been authenticated by the POP3 login.

Luckily OL2003 added a feature for this for individual accounts. You need
to tell Outlook that it should login to the POP3 server before sending mail:

Tools/E-mail accounts
Click "View or change existing e-mail accounts.", then "Next "
double-click the account in question.
Click "More Settings..." button
Click "Outgoing Server" tab.
Check "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication"
Click "Log on to incoming mail server before sending mail"

Let us know if that works

-- Peter

"pb2000" wrote in message
...
Using Outlook 2003 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2.

OL2003 configured with 3 POP3 mail accounts. Two Worldnet (uses SSL), one
Yahoo business mail (does not use SSL).

This problem occurs ONLY when first starting for the day, having booted
the
PC, gotten to the desktop, and started OL2003.

OL is set to do a send/receive upon startup and to check each email
account
periodically.

Invariably, the initial send/receive will start and get part way through.
The two sends will complete (one account is receive only) and one or more
of
the receives may complete. One or two of the receives will hang until a
time-out error occurs.

Sometimes simply clicking send/receive suffices to get a complete
send/receive done. Sometimes I must restart Outlook. Sometimes I must
reboot
the PC.

Once a send/receive cycle completes, it will be fine for the rest of the
day.

I have done all the suggested things in article 813514 with no effect:
* reinstalled Outlook Express
* rebuilt the profiles
* repaired the Outlook installation
* checked account settings against each ISP's requirements
* checked firewall settings (PC-cillin Internet Security 2005) - problem
occurs even with firewall turned off
* disabled email checking and spam filtering in PC-cillin Internet
Security
2005
* disabled spam checking in Outlook
* checked for disabled add-ins in Outlook - none
* checked for defective emails in each account on servers
* check PST files for errors with checkpst.exe. They seem to occur
periodically and I periodically fix them. BUT I've seen this problem occur
when I have just checked all the PSTs (four total) and know they're
error-free.

Needless to say this is driving me batty.

Any suggestions? Many thanks.