I'm looking for help with the good old Outlook "Enter Password" box, but
this isn't the usual problem.

My ISP has an unusually slow mail server. Many times during the day it will
fail to respond to an Outlook SMTP login within the server timeout limit
(...which I have already maxxed). This means that Outlook (2K3) throws up
the familiar "enter network password" box and waits for input, which
effectively blocks Outlook until you manually cancel the box.

Outlook 2000 behaved differently. If the login timed out then it simply
reported an error and carried on without blocking. Chances are that the next
time it tried to login, the mail server would respond in a timely fashion
and everything would be ok. I can't find a way to make Outlook 2K3 behave in
the same way. Does anyone know of a registry hack that will turn the server
timeout into a controlled error rather than blocking with a dialog box?

Steve Foster

(cross-posted)