I checked the control panel under programs, and for win live essentials it said there's a problem with one or more of your live essentials components. Try to uninstall and reinstall". I did that, but nothing has changed. Still no sending nor receiving. I can send directly from within Google mail though but not from within live mail.

More detail: in the live mail options under send/receive, it has "if my computer is not connected at this time:", then 3 choices: do not connect; connect only when not working offline; connect even when working offline. It is set to do not connect.

At start-up of Live Mail it now always asks: "you are currently working offline, would you like to go online now?". I click OK, same message pops up again, then live mail shows (bottom right) working online but only for a short while. Tasks: check for new message on Gmail (completed), check for new messages on Outlook (not completed). The errors tab is blank. When sending, clicking the send button, causes the program to go offline again, and message is not sent.