Why can I receive mail in Outlook but not send it?

Why does Microsoft Outlook receive, but not send e-mail on my work laptop from home?

• Outgoing mail "hangs" in the send mode. It works fine in my office, but not in my home. The tech guy in my office said to play around with the firewall and reset my home modem. I did these things and I still cannot send mail.

• Answer:

  This may be your problem. Lots of Internet providers will allow you to read your email from any Internet connection, but will only let you send email through the connection they provide like the DSL line, such. The reason for this is they are trying to control spam. If anyone can connect to their server and send email, then the spammers can do the same thing. More and more of the ISPs are now changing from using a non password and or secure connection to a secure one that requires that their users connect using a password and such and so that their users can connect from any Internet connection and they don't have to worry about spam, because they know for sure you are who you say you are. It just depends on the ISP. I assume that this is just a ISP you are going through because big companies like the one I work for would require either to use VPN (a secure way to connect to the work machines) or provide a Web based email. They would not let you connect with Outlook directly to their machines.