Sorry, but Hotmail question...

[Widget]

Thanks so much for this great site! I appreciate all of you taking the time to help clueless folks like me. :-)

I've had a Hotmail account for YEARS. I'm probably one of their first users.

During the past six months or so, friends have been complaining that I haven't received their messages.

I've had several e-mail conversations with Hotmail tech support about this, and they keep insisting my account is fine.

And yet, today, yet another friend mentioned that I hadn't responded to all the e-mails he'd sent me. I never received them!

What could this be? I access my Hotmail both at work and at home. At work I'm on a T1 line running IE 6.0. At home I'm on Earthlink running Windows 95.

At least three people I know of cannot get messages to me anymore -- people who previously had no problem. They come from all kinds of different e-mail accounts.

Sigh.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[psd#1]

Well for starters because Hotmail is web-based it doesn't matter what computer you use or where. This has to be an issue within the hotmail network. Being a tech I know its easier to push a problem away and say its not our fault its your computer or something which is what hotmail techs might have said. To be honest, its nothing on your end.

-pSd#1

[Shalome]

Check your junk mail controls and your e-mail filters on your Hotmail account. Something could be enabled that's blocking your friends as 'spam' or just shuffling the emails off into a folder automatically.. like the junk mail or deleted items folder.

Hotmail has been implementing some hefty anti-spam measures lately, including blocking networks that are known to be open relays used by spammers. I've found that if emails are full of forwards, are sent to lots of recipients, are mis-replies to a list (for instance, hitting 'reply all' instead of sending directly to the listserv), have a lot of links in them, or have massive attachments, they go straight to the junk mail folder.

[redwench]

yup. almost all providers now use filters. ive had to completely open my mail to all senders automatically, as the filters are incredibly crappy. pay attention to your default settings on anything. :p

[Widget]

the way i have it set up, all my "junk" mail first goes into a folder, which i read over before i delete. so i know the messages aren't going in there. and i cannot understand why hotmail would block messages from the washington post and usa today, which is where two of the people are sending from (i'm a reporter). another having problems is effingham.net, a provider in downstate illinois.

[Shalome]

Then it's definitely a problem with Hotmail itself. If there the messages aren't going to junk mail, then for whatever reason, the messages are being blocked.

There is nothing wrong with your computer. This is nothing you can fix. For whatever reasons, Hotmail's servers aren't handling your mail the way you'd like.

Hotmail is a free service. Don't expect anything much in the way of customer support. Perhaps you'd have better luck changing your email over to a commercial ISP that you pay for.

[Widget]

yeah, that's what i figured. sigh. guess you get what you pay for, eh?

thanks so much! this is a great forum. you guys rock. heh.

[redwench]

yup. hotmail not only does weird stuff with your mail, its also blocked by a lot of receiving providers. hotmail and yahoo are considered "throwaway" accounts, and shouldnt be used for anything important. your isp will probably provide you with a few email addresses, if you dont already have them.