Problems with Hotmail

Hi all, Since yesterday have been having some problems with hotmail. I sign in, go to my messages and then the page automatically disappears. Can't even go back. Only happens with hotmail. What could be the cause of this?
Thanks

Microsoft...enuff said.

I'll second that!

Why Hotmail? There are so many other free web-based email services out there. Try: www.softhome.net

Stop using Hotmail and Yahoo and web.de and all the rest that slam you with ads and append ads for themselves (and/or their "special partners") to the bottom of every mail you send out. Go to GMail. PM me if you need an invite.

Caveat: The one thing that sucks about GMail is the lack of folders. You can label mail with all the labels you want and sort/view by label only, but your Inbox always displays everything.

Also, the back end of Hotmail only runs on Windows servers and MS Back Office products. Even without the general attacks on MS domains and components, its reliability is less than stellar.

woof.

Use the archive function in gmail to remove all those mails from your inbox.

You can still see them in the All Mail section and this way you can keep your inbox "clean"

I can only recommend gmx. They also have a gigabyte, like Gmail PLUS pop and smtp access so you can use your normal email software,

And they tack on an advertisement to the bottom of every mail sent out. There's a free app called gPopper which gives you POP3 access to GMail.

@klgirl If you want a gmail, PM me, I have two more invites.

Many replies but none for keeping hotmail.

quote: so you can use your normal email software,

That is the reason for web based email. I recommend Hotmail without a question. No need to have a certain type of computer or program to get access. I uninstalled Outlook years ago and never looked back. For the last 6 years or so, i only ever experienced Hotmail going down for a day twice. I have Gmail too but haven't really made the switch yet. Hotmail doesn't send out advertising tags at the bottom of an email like yahoo does. And I still have never received junk any mail with this hotmail account.

Plus it is a very complicated thing to change your email address. You have to tell everyone you know and then hope that they aren't getting frustrated when yet another person they know is changing their email addy. Personal rule, don't change emails addresses more frequently than 5 years.

As to your question, I don't really have an answer. Perhaps it has something to do with your cache, security levels, fire wall or safe zones? Anyone with a hint in that category?

It happened to me while I was still using IE. If you are using IE, try Hotmail using Opera.

I use Hotmail and recently while I am sending messages...after I hit send and in the middle of sending...a box pops up asking me to type in the numbers & letters I see there...'to verify I am a person using the program and not an automated program' it says.

I never had this problem before...and I am clearly logged in as me when this happens.

Is this happening to anyone else? It is very annoying...and the one time it did it I lost my message and it then asked me to log in again.


*off to Google for more answers...*

I have two hotmail accounts, and that has never happened to me. I do know that I had problems sending from the office under Hotmail, as we used at the time Freenet, I assumed it was an incompatablity between hotmail and freenet. Forced me to buy myself a computer for home, and stop stealing internet time from the office.

I regularly use hotmail, never had any problems with it.

I have 4 hotmail accounts that I check daily and have never had this problem.

Scuse me for my nosiness, but why 4 hotmails??
OK so I have 5 accounts in total, but on different servers

Does it happen with other browsers or just IE?

BlimeyGirl I would suspect some other piece of malware interferring. You should run a spyware check to be on the safe side. Do you have all service packs installed? There are some holes in unpatched IE that will let malicious programs in like that. In fact, I strongly recommend not using IE.

Well I use to have 5 but stopped checking one. I also have my work e-mail. I just like keeping groups separate because I get so many e-mails a day. I have one account for my family and friends from the US. One for the wine tasting group I run in the US. One for TTer's. And one for business stuff with companies. I like using Hotmail for all of them because I'm very familiar with the format.

Yeah and I have three (why? dunno hehe) and never experienced it either...until recently. It's a royal pain especially when you lose your message by being asked to 'verify' yourself a hundred times (okay I exaggerate slightly)

I wrote to Hotmail but have not heard back

Using Firefox. But perhaps there is something going on behind the scenes...will get resident techie (Tom17) to look into it. We have all service packs installed and do regular updates (like the good MS users that we are). And we have regular virus scans as well. Not sure about the last time we did a spyware check. Tom looks after that stuff

I use firefox with Hotmail and don't get any problems ! I only have 1 hotmail account though !

Although I do also have my gmail account for other personal stuff !

Blimeygirl

This isn't much help in resolving your issue but it might shed some light as to why it might be happening.

Basically Hotmail uses CAPTCHA which is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart".

It means that verification of user accounts is used to make sure that the emails aren't being automatically generated. I don't know specifically why it's happening for you, but I'd hazard a guess that is has something to do with perhaps simultaneously logging on to different accounts (maybe even in a short space of time).

Say Hotmail detects that several different accounts are logging in from a specific IP it may raise an automated flag so to speak believing there to be an automated email system in action...though I have to say it is extremely uncommon for this to happen with only 3 accounts in question (I've never had any problems).

Usually this verification (as I'm sure you already know) is only required for registration purposes...but in theory it could be applied to every command sent to hotmail to verify the user.

Are you only asked for verification when sending emails? Do you have to verify yourself for deleting emails, creating folders or changing passwords for example? Does it only occur on one of the three accounts only?

Also have you logged into your hotmail accounts from an "outside" connection? See what happens next time you're at a friends or outwith an office environment. I have heard of issues relating to networked servers and Hotmail hiccups.

Anyway...I'll be interested to see if anyone can give the exact reason and solution for you.

Aonghais
Edinburgh

P.S - Don't expect an email from Hotmail anytime soon

Actually something similar happened to me. I ususally access hotmail directly through Outlook Express. No problems with that (yet). However, a few days ago I tried to access Hotmail directly i.e. typed in the website in my address bar. I was then asked if I wanted to log into Hotmail "passport". I said yes, and I had the same thing that happened to you i.e. 3 different tests where I had to type in the letters I saw on the screen (they were sort of hidden in a jumble of figures - like a test to see if you´re color blind). I think this is the firm trying some sort of new procedure to prevent automated program access - see previous post.

@Aonghais

Thanks for the info. It only just started happening...and it is happening only when I log into my main usage account.

I think people end up with various accounts for one reason or another...I had one for MSN Messenger but then kept getting spammed to death so stopped using it as an e-mail account and only use it for MSN. Then I had one account for my maiden name...and then when I got married I changed names. So there you have it.

I rarely log into the other two...but yeah...when I use my main one it often asks me for my password several times in a row. If I leave it open and check it periodically...it does the same thing. Does not like to be kept open.

And just in the past week it has started this 'verification process' when I am sending e-mails. Only appears to be happening when I am sending.

I rarely get the chance to log in from elsewhere...but will give it a try...and in the meantime will wait for Hotmail to respond

Well I heard back from Hotmail who insist it is something to 'improve' the system and limit the amount of spam everyone receives.

So basically there is nothing I can do about it Ah well...what do you want from a free e-mail service

No bullshit and no ads tacked onto my mails.

If I chose to use a particular free service, I should have every expectation of seeing an occasional ad while I'm on the site reading and writing mail. I do NOT expect that the people I write to will ALSO be forced to read ads.

PM me for a GMail invite or 3; I have a few hundred.

woof.

Ok...I'll shut up now then seeing as they got back to you.

Glad you had some confirmation on the issues. But sux that it doesn't seem like it's going to be resolved for you

Anyways... I know that hotmail accounts are great and easy to access but they do come with their own problems. Have you tried using MSN Messenger...the new BETA version ? Logging in and appearing offline makes it perfect for just checking emails. You can run it direct from the web...so no need to download the software.

MSN Web Messenger

Because you would be using a .NET passport to access your email inbox, it may have less processes or stages of verification needed. Maybe it would reduce the fiasco, I really don't know though. Give it a go and see what happens.

Well... ciao 4 now

Aonghais

I have a problem with my MSN hotmail account, that when I try to reply to a mail, it says there is an error on the site, and won't let me send the email...

I need to send an important email off, and have been p*****g around with this f***ing microshite hotmail, and can't get the bloody thing to send.

(A bit pi**ed off as you can see!)

Also, have had this problem for over a week now intermittenlty, but mainly from the office...

Any ideas, please???

Thanks in advance!

Get gmail or yahoo or anything else.

Yeah, can I keep my email address though @hotmail.com??? Unfortunately, have had hotmail for years now, and I can't be bothered to change.

Any other suggestions?!

i use hotmail all the time, satman, and haven't been having these problems.
maybe your IT changed the way your office network is set up?

Quite possibly, but I think its a hotmail problem, cos I can open and read the mail, but when I click reply, all the formatting is gone, and it says 'fehler auf der Seite' on the bottom... all I wanna do is send a bleedin' reply!

Also when I create a new email, and try to send it!

Piece 'o' crap!

I was just in Hotmail about 20 minutes ago and I'm not having any problems with it. I check it everyday (messages from family and friends that can't keep up with my ever changing job status) and it's never a problem.

Probably something else not related to hot mail has changed.

Blatant long shot, but if you have Outlook installed, you could try accessing your hotmail with that.

I experienced exactly the same problem when using a different PC some months ago. I managed to send some emails, but a few days later it didn't work at all.

Unfortunately I can't tell you how to solve it, as I just switched to gmail for important mails, and waited till I got back to my own PC to use Hotmail again properly.

I did do some google searches to try to solve it, and there were some recommendations, so perhaps you should have a look at that too. It might also be a browser problem - have you tried updating your version with current fixes (if it's not a "locked" work PC)?

My outlook is configured for work emails, and I don't really want to mess around with that.

But surely, once I'm on the internet and using hotmail, surely the IT infrastructure/setup/settings at my workplace are irrelevant, oder?

E.g. when I click 'compose new mail' and give an email address, and a simple test message, it says at the bottom of IE, 'fehler auf der seite'...

Maybe there's a support service for Hotmail... any ideas how I can get to that?

There is. I have had problems and had to contact them...of course you need to contact them by e-mail

Click on 'Help' on the top right corner (it is next to 'Options'). It takes you to the Help page and there is a 'Contact Us' option.

Would not affect work mail - you just add another account. You can always delete that account when you have sent your important mail.

Well, it appears that there was an error on the hotmail web-page... I fiddled around with the IE options, and clicked the 'fix script error' check-box...

Now appears to work (don't know why TBH!)... question is for how long!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

For over a week now I have a problem with my hotmail inbox. I can see I got a mail but I can't read it! What's more I can't delete any message and I become flooded with spam! Anyone else is having this problem at the moment? Pleazzze help!

It would be better if you contacted Hotmail support, rather that TT which has absolutely no control over Hotmail servers.

One thing that does seem to be a know problem is that Firefox 3 does not work with the full version of Windows Live.

From what I've read nobody will confirm finally whether it's the browser or the web page that's the problem.

Seeing as Windows Live is a Microsoft product and we all know how MS loves to bastardize industry standards and make things as complicated as possible for non-microsoft software,
I'm going to blame the Website.

Kind of the last thing I read said more or less that. There was a bit of a blamefest going on and I couldn't be arsed reading to the end. It's been a problem in all the betas as well so there's been plenty of time.

Just run the Windows Live website thru the WC3 test site and see what results you get...

Hint: Validation Output: 44 Errors | This page is not Valid XHTML 1.0

Fanboi handbag fight is the correct term.

I shall be attempting to use that phrase in a meeting tomorrow.

Yup, I've noticed that as well, quite odd.

@Pas Thanks for the hint! That's the reason..