Using classic Outlook for Windows in business environments
Brightspeed service tech was here on-time and we quickly got the line repaired!
On your problems, as I said before, I'm not an Outlook user; however, I've done some searching and found that (I believe) there is a setting for server time-out. I believe you get to it by going to your account settings page, then select "More settings,,,". On that page, select the "Advanced" tab. Near the center there is a "Server Timeouts" slide-bar that goes from "Short" to "Long". Move the setting to "Long", and click on "OK". From my experience with the new Centurylink mail service, it is noticeably slower than before and slower that gmail, but not intolerable.
Restart your Outlook and see if that makes a difference. If not, you can go back and reset the time-out to as it was before.