Trouble with smtp Plug Ins

I’m using WP 2.8.4
My host is on a shared server and only allows 100 emails an hour. I have over 1000 subscribers via Subscribe2.

I also think there may be a problem with the server being blacklisted. One person got a “suspected phishing” report.. which may be due to actions of other sites on the same server. I really need to send my mail updates some other way.

I’d like to be able to send my emails via a different email address.. I have two possibilities: A gmail account and an email on my other dedicated server.

I installed two different plugins
WP-Mail-SMTP and Configure SMTP
… tried configuring for both emails. Can’t get them to work.

The WP-Mail posts a bug report..and it looks like it keeps getting “can’t connect to server/timeout errors for both accounts.

Any ideas? Any other plugins that work better than those two?
I really need my subscribers to get emails again.