Post by mail does not work – does it?

Hi.

I’m about to release my wordpress website to some users, but can’t get the post by mail feature to work at all. Does it work, ever?

I set up a new email address and configured the setting in the ‘writing’ tab of settings. Then sent a test email and went to mail.php to manually load the email but got
POP3 connect: Error [110] [Connection timed out]

I get the same with any of the plugins I can find that deal with this (Postie looks good, wish I could use it)

I’ve set up an account in my Mac mail client using the exact same settings, and without fail the emails go through immediately. there is no 110 port problem there. I’ve check with the email hosting service, and they say there is no reason why my configuration should not work.

But it doesn’t.

I tried setting up the automated capture in functions.php – nothing
I tried installing wp-cron – nothing

None o these thongs will work if the kit fundamentally can’t communicate with the email account. What might be stopping it doing so?

I’m using up to date versions of wordpress and the weaver theme