Outlook times out when sending and receiving

Outlook Times out.  I am running outlook 2011 on Lion.  I have an @mac email address on the horrid iCould.  I can only get Outlook to run intermittently for a few hours then I get this message, “An operation on the server timed out.  The server may be down, overloaded, or there may be too much net traffic”.  I have spent a good bit a time trolling sites for answers.  Everyone seems to think the problem is in the settings.  I have found several different suggestions on what the settings should be.   For both incoming and outgoing settings - the general consensus seems to be, mail.mac.com.  They all say however, not check off SSL.  But during the brief times when my Outlook has been working, the SSL features have been checked. (I think I have tried every combination imaginable).  Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.