Email server issues

Intermittently over the past few months I've had trouble connecting to Cox's email servers.  I'm quite sure my settings are correct.

The problem manifests like this:  For a few to several days at a stretch, my email program will time out frequently when retrieving messages.  It doesn't happen with all the accounts I have every time, and not consistently with any account.

Simultaneously, I find that messages aren't being delivered in a timely fashion or at all.  Then, when the problem clears up, I'll receive a flood of messages, often days old.  Sometimes they're important messages that would have been nice to have seen in a timely fashion.

I have a work email address that for many years forwarded to my Cox address.  I have changed the forwarding address because I don't feel I can consistently trust Cox to deliver my messages any more.