Hi All and thanks for the replies, Stefano, it's all good don't worry paesa'...!!
OK, port 110, 465, 995, 25, are all open on the router and re-directed to the SME server. I will check about port 587..I should have mentioned that the test message was sent from the outside world and not from within outlook.
I had tried all day yesterday to get this going with the client on my back, so I had to take a breather and will revisit this morning...will try another email client as well..
thanks again to all and will keep you posted...
bosco