1 Are you trying to run your mail server on Windows?

2 Not trying - we have been for years.  The smtp service on the server decided to stop working. 

As usual it is the sucky error messages that got us.  Truly stupid error messages which were completely misleading.

But do not tell me to use Linux because all mail servers suck - every one of them. None of them work easily. All of them have issues.  And every blasted last one of them is a nightmare with any update or minor change.   

It's fixed now.  Once I found what the real problem was as opposed to what the error messages were telling me.  Took all of 5 seconds to solve.

Bah - I often hate computers but never more than when I'm trying to fix something and it's giving me all the wrong information.

3 I used to blame such difficulties on the perversity of inanimate objects. But once PCs hit the market, I realized that it's our own fault for teaching machines how to 'think'. And the more clever they become, the harder it is to detect/diagnose/fix them.