[ale] Thunderbird sends -> "Connection to server mail.earthlink.net timed out"..... HUH ?

[Courtney Thomas]

 All of a sudden....

    when I try to retrieve email using Thunderbird-1.5.0.4 I get the above
message although it seems to connect to Earthlink but then the above msg
ensues and no mail is retrieved.

What's goin' on   ?

Thanks as always,

Courtney