iPhone 16 plus suddenly will not get emails and has never been able to send emails

Purchased an iPhone 16+ (IOS 18.3.1) and a new iPad 10th generation (IOS 18.3.1) on the same day in November, 2024. Sometime yesterday my 16+ stopped updating emails - something it has been able to do with no problem since purchase. I had not made any changes to the settings. The iPad is still able to get emails. After an hour long phone call to my email provider (breezeline.com) during which we found some discrepancies on the mail settings between the 16+ and iPad, I duplicated the mail settings from the iPad (which works) to the 16+ (which doesn't work). The 16+ will NOT verify the account but gives me the message as follows: "The POP server "pop.atlanticbb.net" is not responding. Check your network connection and that you entered the correct information in the "incoming Mail Servier" field.

The information is exactly the same as on my iPad which does work and doesn't have to verify anything.

In addition, I have NEVER been able to send emails from the 16+ but I can send emails from the iPad 10th gen. Is it possible my 16+ is defective? Is there anything else to try? I have re-booted the 16+ several times over the course of the few hours today I have spent trying to fix the issue.

Note: atlanticbb.net was changed when breezeline.net took over and according to the tech rep today everything is mirrored exactly between the two. They are supposed to be interchangeable.