Mail 5.0 connection problems

I use Mail as my email "client" on my computer to keep tabs on my gmail account (imap) and three POP accounts. The gmail has been working fine till I added the POP accounts, then speeds for sendin and recieving went right down.. to tortoise pace!!. My POP accounts access emails that are hosted on a Parrallels Pleask 9.5.2 Windows platform and I can not access these at all from Mail.

When I check the activity monitor it shows the computer connecting to the POP web site. When I use the Connection Dr it shows a green for connectiing to the site but still will not download. I feel that I have a cache or some internal program / memory conflict, maybe even with keychain, that is causing this. I can not find help online about this.. I have searched and will freely admit that maybe I have not searched hard enough.. but it does get pretty confusing.

I am not a computer techy.. if anyone can help I would appreciate a step by step process. I do not write programs..the brain does not work fast enough for that. I have added details of my computer below and the programs. Many thanks

WAJIBU

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511

Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 288 MB

Mail: Version 5.0 (1244.2/1244.3)