Email problems today?

[#1]

It's intermittently very slow or non-existent. Is it my end or a server problem?

[#2]

Seems to be a gateway problem. Was on plc-ag02 which was choppy, hopped to ptw-ag02 which is fine. Was there a disconnection about 8.45am?

[#3]

The network performance graphs show very few users on pcl-ag02. The same is true of several other gateways. Not sure what this means.

[#4]

For the last hour or so I have been unable to send emails from Outlook - error message suggests problem connecting to mail server, although I can ping relay.plus.net OK.
Am receiving emails OK though..............
Edit: problem disappeared after restarting Outlook - must have been some sort of software hiccup on the sending side (never happened before in the last 10 years though.)