This has been an ongoing issue for years. I got around it for the longest time by using Eudora and changing my pop server name when it became too bad.
since the change to "more secure" email it has gotten worse. I could no longer use Eudora since it was not compatible with the secure settings.
Now because of how outlook works I get prompted 20 or 30 times a day for my password. I just check the box to remember my password and it will work for a few minutes or maybe an hour or 2.
Eudora would never prompt you for a password, it would just say there is a problem with the server and it would try again later. No popups.
Fix this issue. It's not on my end.
Oh and my non cox email addresses do not have this problem.