I access my primary email account using Outlook and Thunderbird

Over the last few days, I've started getting the following intermittent error message when attempting to send emails: "Too many concurrent SMTP connections".

Typically, the outgoing email is blocked for a while and then eventually goes out.

I have confirmed that I only have a single application (Outlook or Thunderbird) on a single computer connecting to my LP email account, so the "too many connections" doesn't make sense to me.

Has something changed on the LP mail servers to trigger this?

This also has me worried that my account may have been compromised and is being used to send out spam.  Is there a way for me to check the volume of email that's been sent out using my account?

Oddly enough the error only occurs when I try to Send...never when I try to Receive emails.

Also, the problem does not clear itself up within a few seconds.  On several occasions it's taken 5-15 minutes before the email goes out.  I've been waiting over 5 minutes just now, repeatedly trying to send out an email to one of my customers. 

FWIW, my email account is on the quasor server.

If this is an "overloaded server" problem, it represents another disturbing quality lapse in their systems (the recent account password screw-up being a real PITA).  This problem has been going on all week 

Correct, as wektech mentioned sending of emails will be unrelated to the connections used for receiving emails since they use different ports. If the issue is lasting for longer than a few seconds, be sure to submit a ticket about the issue so the techs/admins can investigate further.