Going along with what graysonf
has said, port 465 is very common for the SMTP port, which is what the outgoing mail server uses.
In my specific case, I have gmail and yahoo configured in Thunderbird. For both of them on the SMTP Server, I'm using port 465.
The POP Server, on the other hand, is using port 995 in my case.
My mom who also runs Thunderbird has been using port 465 on the SMTP server for quite some time to get her e-mail from Comcast.
I'm thinking that something on your friends end is not configured right, as it does work.
If you want anyone here to take a look at it, post their settings, and we'll see if we can help you out.
--Brian