What I do is boot to the desktop and use Windows Live Mail. It works just fine with Windows 8.x. You can also use Thunderbird or Outlook.
Good luck.
Some days my Windows 8 Mail works fine, then one day, I'll start up my computer and Mail will not send or receive. Then just as soon as it went bad, it will start working again. Right now I am on day two of it not working.
I completely shut down my computer daily, so yes, I have rebooted...
Side Note: I have three separate mail accounts on three separate servers, so I'm pretty sure I can rule out any issues on the servers.

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