Hotmail POP access method changed on Sept 1, 2009
On September 1, 2009, Microsoft changed the way their Hotmail email servers communicate with POP3 - SMTP desktop email clients. As of this day you cannot send or receive Hotmail through Outlook Express, period; finito, kaput! You must change to a different desktop email client, like Windows Live Mail. Microsoft Outlook users can download and install the Microsoft Outlook Connector to continue to access Hotmail. The details about these changes and what you need to do follow.
If you use Microsoft Office Outlook to send and receive through Hotmail, you can download the free Office Outlook Connector to continue accessing your Windows Live Hotmail within Outlook 2003 or 2007. If you run an older version, read this information.
If you use Outlook Express (OE) to view Hotmail, you can choose to download the free Windows Live Mail (WLM), which resembles Outlook Express, but is much more powerful, less prone to crashes and contains a junk filter. You can import all of your saved .eml messages and accounts from OE into WLM (via Export/Import, or drag and drop between email clients). You can also import your personal folders from OE. The view is a little different, but you'll get used to it. You can find help on this page with exporting messages from Outlook Express into WLM.
If you are using Entourage to send and receive Hotmail, read these instructions to continue connecting to the new servers.
New Mail Server Names:
There are also changes to the names of the Hotmail POP3 and SMTP mail servers, which now use a technology known as "Delta Sync." The new incoming POP server is: pop3.live.com and the new outgoing SMTP server is: smtp.live.com. You must also change the incoming and outgoing ports, as outlined in my extended content, under "New mail servers and ports."
MailWasher Pro is also affected by the Hotmail server changes
If you use MailWasher Pro, or a similar spam filter before your email client, you must make changes to your Hotmail account settings. If you don't make these changes you will be unable to check for mail on your Hotmail accounts. If you have been importing your old email accounts into various updated versions of MailWasher, or MailWasher Pro, you may have imported the old HTTP Hotmail server settings. These are no longer valid, as of Sept 1, 2009. Attempting to access Hotmail with the old HTTP settings will result in a 403 Forbidden response from the Hotmail servers.
With a current version of MailWasher open (current version is 6.51), and the active window, press F8 to open Email Accounts. Locate each Hotmail account, click once to highlight it, then press the "Remove Account" button below the accounts field. Do this for each Hotmail account, after noting your Hotmail user names and passwords. Close MailWasher (Pro) to get the changes to take.
New mail servers and ports:
Re-open MailWasher Pro and verify that the Hotmail accounts are gone. If they are you should re-create the accounts, inputting the new POP3 and SMTP servers. They are the same ones listed earlier in this article, namely: pop3.live.com for incoming and smtp.live.com for outgoing mail. The incoming port must be set to 995, with SSL enabled. The SMTP port should be set to 587, also with SSL checked, and with SMTP Authentication - using the same login as the POP server. Be sure to type in your passwords and have MailWasher Pro remember them.
With these changes made you should be able to continue to use MailWasher Pro to receive (and delete) your Hotmail email, before downloading it to your regular desktop email client.
BTW: The term "Email Client" refers to any free-standing desktop application used to send and receive email via the POP3, IMAP and SMTP mail server protocols. This is very different than the HTTP protocol used by web browsers when they are used to read and send email. Browser-based email is known as "WebMail." Some mail systems like AOL and Yahoo charge for POP Client access to their mail servers, while others, like Hotmail, have chosen to allow this to be done for free. Kudos to the Hotmail team for free POP access!
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