Using the Notes client with Hotmail (or not)
I actually set up two Hotmail accounts because I didn’t realize Microsoft had instituted parental controls. During the setup of “NotesTest,” I randomly chose a birth year. Suddenly I was 8 years old again and the program wanted my parents’ permission before completing setup.
When I tried to change my age it wanted my credit card information. Now I was in a loop. I could either get my parents’ permission or give Microsoft a credit card number. To get out of the loop I closed my browser. I could comment that any 8-year-old enterprising enough to set up a Web account would be able to find Mommy’s credit card number, but I won’t. I finally got in as “NotesTestt2″ – an adult – and created some mail.
Microsoft has changed Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail and the servers are no longer “hotmail.com” but “live.com” making “hotmail.com” an alias. In doing so they limited POP3 capabilities and linked the ID to a number of other programs.
If you’ve had your account for years and/or are paying Microsoft for the Premium package, you can still use POP3, but you need a special program on your desktop to get mail from the new format to a POP client. Since Microsoft’s Web site gives instructions on getting your mail through Outlook Express, it’s frustrating if you miss the disclaimer at the top of the page:
If you have a Windows Live Hotmail Plus subscription, you can use a POP3 … server to add your Windows Live Hotmail account to Microsoft Outlook and access your email messages there. If you download and install Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, you can access your Windows Live Hotmail email messages and contacts in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.
So, if you’re a “valued customer” it might work. Or maybe all you need to do is uninstall Internet Explorer 7 as someone claimed. Since I was using Firefox on Linux, this wasn’t something I could test. Everything I tested in the Notes 8 client failed to connect to my hotmail.com address.
Leo Notenboom, on his Ask Leo! Web site, says if you forward messages from Hotmail.com to another mail account, such as Gmail, you can use POP to retrieve them from there. Now I had a use for that Gmail account.
Gmail didn’t ask me how old I was, nor did they want a credit card number. They did require I have a decent password and they wouldn’t allow “NotesTest” as a user name. However, when I tried to enable forwarding from Hotmail to Gmail I got the following message from Microsoft:
You’re only able to forward mail to a custom domain or an email address that ends in hotmail.com, msn.com, or live.com. Please try again.
I guess this means if I had a mail domain of “Nancy.net” it might work but they aren’t going to enable mail forwarding to their competitors. But then, if you have to forward it to another mail system, why bother with Hotmail?
So no POP3 from the free version of the new Windows Live Hotmail and no forwarding it to Gmail. Since I don’t have a really old Hotmail account or the Premium service I can’t test those options. But, I’d still need a special connector on my desktop to get to Windows Live Hotmail before setting up my Notes client. This is way too complicated for my taste.
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