It is normal for the messages to go to the Outbox before being sent - but not for them to stay there. The system normally place new outgoing messages in the Outbox and then moves them to the Sent box after transfering them to the server. You might want to verify the the check box for "Send Messages Immeadetly" located at Tools/Options/Send is checked. I have one message - rather a count of one - in my Outbox on my Windows ME system and can not get rid of it - it has been there for the past three months. I gave up on trying to fix it.