not getting emails, even from myself.

i want to know why thunderbird is saying "the connection was refused" and why this seems to happen every 4-6months; as well as why cox's webmail apparently isnt capable of getting any emails, even from itself. 

 i know it's not thunderbird, i know it's not any of my configs either; so i would really appreciate being told why a cox email randomly screws up every 4-6 months, with nothing on my end being changed.