I seem to have trouble sending emails, they stay in my Outbox and do not send. However several that were in my outbox last week (unsent, I presume) are no longer there. Does it take a while for them to send?

That could be quite a few things. The first thing it might be: Maybe the mail server was down. But if it is always taking a long time to send then it might be your mail “client” settings.

If the Mail client you are is Outlook Express try this: --> Tools --> Options --> (General tab)“, there should be settings for send and receive. By default it is set to only check and send your email at a prescribed time interval, IE… every 30 minutes. So if you write a mail, it might take as long as 30 minutes until it connects and checks for new messages as well as sending any new ones. You might want to change that to some shorter period of time. A way around this is to press the button “send/receive”. That should force it to send (and receive new mail) right now.

People keep telling me that they cannot reply to my email. But I still get mail from the same people, just no replies.

Chances are your email client settings are wrong. Double check that you typed your email address correctly in your email program.