Hi zman,
What email program or email service are you using?
Is the problem that your contacts are not automatically displayed when you start typing their email address?
I'm trying to figure out if you are having an email problem or a connectivity problem to a specific web site or smtp (outgoing/sending) mail server.
Can you take a screen shot of the problem?
http://www.emailquestions.com/general/1316-take-screen-shot-using-microsoft-paint.html
and Welcome to Email Questions!