Outlook 2010, Win7, email account: outlook.com (1 of 2 accounts)

Error code 0x800CCCDD
Protocol: IMAP
Server: imap-mail.outlook.com
Port: 993

History:
Outlook 2010 had 2 functioning email accounts prior to the MS required remove/add of an Outlook.com account due to MS' server change. I used the recommended, automatic add (after the remove) for the Outlook.com account. Outlook.com is now an Exchange account. During the add, there was a message indicating the Exchange account would 'take over', and so it did. Unilaterally it took over the default position--oddly, this despite mail accounts indicating the second (a MAPI account) email account was the default. This was unacceptable.

So I proceeded with MS' second option--a manual add with Outlook.com being an IMAP account not Exchange. This sort of worked. The second account is back again as the default however Outlook.com is persistently and erratically not connecting or losing connection per the above error.

The only fix I've found googling was to uncheck Outlook's mail options to do any kind of automatic send or receive. That seemed to work for a while but the errors are back--just not as frequent.

This error is not present when doing the required Outlook.com remove/add with Outlook 2007 with the same second account that's the default.

Any suggestions?