Whats happening to IMAP servers last 3 days?

Using WLM2012 to access 1 Outlook.com account, 3 Hotmail.com accounts, and 1 Gmail. Gmail OK. Outlook and Hotmail accounts started 'Checking mail' forever, especially at 'Inbox', until an error message saying IMAP server not responding. Last 3 days, sometimes it will download headers for new email, and sometimes it will download new messages only after repeated tries. Today zero new emails are downloaded...only headers. Constant error messages saying IMAP server not responding or the server has terminated the connection.