>Interestingly, I have been able to shoot emails via an SMTP server insite my >corporation as well as via my ISP SMTP server. Perhaps being logged into NDS >authenticated me at work, and perhaps just being connected to my ISP at home >also authenticated me. Anyone know?

If you are logged into your ISP, then you are authenticated. The default in Outlook for outgoing mail is authenticate using the same account you use for incoming mail.

As for your corporation, they may have it set not to authenticate at all if you are using the SMTP server directly. We use Exchange in our company and the Exchange server connects to the internet to send e-mail. Since you have to be authenticated to use Exchange, it works.