Windows Live Mail is sporadic..doesn't send..

I have Win 7 Pro on a laptop that has not been updated to Win 10..yet. I use a hotmail (IMAP) account on there with Windows Live for email. Suddenly it runs very slow. Doesn't send for hours. Doesn't download received message for a long time. I tried un-installing WLM and using other clients..i.e. eM Client, and Thunderbird. They kept telling me I was not connected to the server. I assume they meant the IMAP server. I know I had the configurations right, because I copied them from WLM before I changed.

Any idea what the problem might be? And a possible solution other than the upgrade to Win 10 where I can use the Outlook app?

As of today I can't access outlook here in Australia. I think others have issue as well - never had an issue with hotmail before the transition.

Does that mean even if I upgrade to Win 10, the Outlook App there won't work either?

I don't know enough about the issue. Other members may have more information.

Update:
My regional problem was my modem! A hard reset did the trick - why who knows

I will try that, to see if it helps, thank you.

Thanks for the help everyone. Problem solved.