Intermittent Email send/receive failures with POP3

For several weeks now, I've been experiencing the intermittent email send/receive failures, like many other customers in these forums have reported. This needs to get fixed by Cox ASAP, instead of sometimes telling us it's being worked on.

My system specs:
Windows 8.1 Pro x64
MS Windows Defender active, no other security packages
MS Outlook 2007
Cox Internet Preferred package with the Cox provided DOCSYS 3.0 NetGear N450 modem/router

My issues: For several weeks, my various @cox.net email accounts have intermittent problems sending or receiving emails through Outlook 2007. My primary Cox email account has the most problems, though. When receiving emails, I'll get the Outlook pop-up error window stating:

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This issue happens consistently, several times a day...then emails will suddenly work again...then the issue reappears, rinse & repeat...it's an ongoing cycle of working/not working throughout the day for several weeks now.

I have several other non-Cox email addresses that have no issues at all sending/receiving within Outlook. Only my Cox email addresses have this issue.

In addition, on several occasions, I've noticed that when I do receive emails, they may be several hours old.

I called Support about this a few weeks ago, but they blamed Outlook, like usual. It's not an Outlook problem. Everything worked great for years...then this sudden issue pops up a few weeks ago, as so many other customers have been reporting. And as mentioned by other customers, Cox somewhat acknowledges that they know about this problem with email and it's been kicked upstairs for a harder look. But this has been going on for far too long and we never see a solution.

On my end, I've reset my Outlook settings for the Cox emails, tried different settings and ports according to the Cox email support docs, and even deleted my Cox email account profiles within Outlook and recreated them (in case they were corrupted). Nothing has worked.

From a troubleshooting standpoint, everything points to Cox being the culprit, which they have acknowledged. Instead of just nodding at us, tell us what's really going on, lean on the people upstairs to fix this, and give us an ETA for the hard fix.

I've been a Cox customer for around 20 years and was one of the first to jump on to your cable Internet service when it arrived back in the 90s. I've always recommended Cox to my friends because of the solid service & support. Now, with the rate hikes, cutting of channels in TV packages (although no reduction in charges), spotty service & support, I have been seriously considering alternatives.

You have a lot of unhappy customers that you just raised rates on a few months ago, some of whom rely on email for their business, and are wondering what's gone wrong with the usually solid service & support we've had from Cox for years.

Thank you.