[sclug] Mail servers on SUSE 10.1

[James Wyper]

>I can only reach mail servers using both evolution and thunderbird when I >use the IP addresses of the servers rather than the pop3/mail addresses.

Could it be a problem with DNS (either your machine not being configured properly or the DNS server(s) you use being down)?  What happens if you try something like..
 
ping pop3.mailserver.address.net
 
..does that work?
 
James.