ability to view hotmail messages through outlook suddenly stopped

[Barbara]

I have two email accounts, one that I access through my ISP
and the other at Hotmail. Both email accounts have been
set to open in Outlook (Outlook 2000 on Win XP OS). Until
four days ago, I never had a problem viewing or responding
to hotmail messages. Then suddenly, I could view the sender
and subject of a message on the hotmail account viewed and
formatted to work in Outlook, and I could delete an unread
message, but I cannot open or view contents of any message
received. Now I have to login to my hotmail account
separately and view messages in a browser format, and it is
driving me crazy. I tried removing and reinstalling the
email account to hotmail, rebooting the system, and
checking out the virus scanner. I haven't made any
configuration changes other than virus or security updates,
and some of these are done automatically. Does anyone have
any ideas on how to get hotmail working properly again in
Outlook? Thanks.

 

[Barbara]

Additional Information on this problem: If I click on an
unread hotmail
message that appears in Outlook, I get the hourglass
symbol, then a
server timeout saying cannot connect to to MSN/hotmail
server, even
though I am obviously connected or I wouldn't be receiving
new messages
or able to delete them unread! Help!