Thanks to all those who have suggested free email servers for windows. Now that I have looked at a few, I'm thinking about using James for now until I get a better understanding of it.

If an ISP has blocked the port, is there a way to test the email (James) setup for full functionality? Apache can be redirected to another port, but can it be setup in a similiar way for both incoming/outgoing email?

I hope to get this working and document my findings on windows system. Not brave enough to go the linux route just yet.

Thanks for any advice.

If I understand your problem, yo are asking if you can get by your ISP blocking your SMTP (port 25) port? Right?. I do not believe you can get arround this. The problem is when some email server out there in the Internet goes to send email to you, it will always try to connect to port 25 on your machine....sorry. I had the same problem and just paid the extra for the "business" account. Yes, I know it is a scam!!!!