1. Well the website may say that, but it doesn't change the absolute fact wordpress had me update the plugin last week. After that update, email broke. I check for updates every time I visit my blog (about once a day).
2. I run a wordpress blog with the same exact setup as mine. It works fine on his since he never updates plugins. It was also working for me before the update.
I switched to a different plugin and it works just fine. During my test, I disabled my firewall and still did not work. I also port forwarded on my router. It's not a failed to connect issue, despite being given that error. The code that connects is just broken with this version. Also, I'm not the only one having problems. 5/7 people agree that it is broken.