Allowed password characters in Outlook 2002 for email

I've been using Outlook for years and never experienced this problem. My
e-mail provider has issued me a new e-mail address, and a password containing
exclamation marks (!). All my other settings are correct to send and receive
emails, and I keep getting stumped at the password stage as I attempt to send
emails (messages sit in the outbox and a small screen pops up repeatedly to
ask for my password, which is already entered and saved). Is there a
possibility that Outlook 2002 does not allow or recognize these types of
characters in the password field for emails (~!@#$%^&*()_+) This is on IMAP,
not POP3 by the way.

Thank you