Hotmail Problem Using Pop

[Ken]

Strange today, but suddenly all the mail that I'm getting in my junk mail folder at Hotmail is being downloaded to my mail server via POP access. I'm using "Incredimail" (similar to Outlook). This has never happened before; only the mail in my inbox would get downloaded. Can't figure out what's happened or happening.

And while I now only use Hotmail as my secondary account (since I've switched to Gmail), it isn't a huge problem for me, but I'm "stumped". Since I haven't recently gotten any spam in my Gmail account, I don't know if that would exhibit the same problem or not.

Any thoughts?????

[waldwolf]

Ken - I'm not very knowledgeable about "Incredimail", however, have you checked to see if your original setup settings might have changed? (More here) If you have not already done so, suggest you run complete virus and spyware scans.

NOTE: Incredimail's statement re: the necessity to pay Microsoft for email client access is not totally accurate. It only applies to NEW accounts. The following is Hotmail's official statement on the subject:

[February 15, 2005]Recently, Hotmail® announced that in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse on MSN® services, Hotmail will no longer allow new e-mail accounts to be accessed via Microsoft® Office Outlook® and Outlook Express.

We are pleased to inform you that because you are an existing and valued customer, at this time your current Hotmail and MSN account(s) are exempt from this restriction and you will be able to continue enjoying access to those accounts from Outlook or Outlook Express. However, any new Hotmail or MSN accounts you create will not be accessible via Outlook or Outlook Express.

.....Since I haven't recently gotten any spam in my Gmail account......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ah........and what are those little advs in your GMail messages? (If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck................... )

cheers

[RDN]

[February 15, 2005]

Recently, Hotmail® announced that in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse on MSN® services, Hotmail will no longer allow new e-mail accounts to be accessed via Microsoft® Office Outlook® and Outlook Express.

We are pleased to inform you that because you are an existing and valued customer, at this time your current Hotmail and MSN account(s) are exempt from this restriction and you will be able to continue enjoying access to those accounts from Outlook or Outlook Express. However, any new Hotmail or MSN accounts you create will not be accessible via Outlook or Outlook Express.

.....Since I haven't recently gotten any spam in my Gmail account......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ah........and what are those little advs in your GMail messages? (If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck................... )

cheers

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And they go on to say...

Because you actively use Outlook or Outlook Express to access one or more of your MSN Hotmail or MSN e-mail accounts, this could be the ideal time to consider subscribing to our powerful new e-mail service - Microsoft Office Outlook Live....blah...blah...blah...£29.99.

Why don't they make it a round 30 quid?

But anyway, I pick up my Gmail from Outlook Express and don't see any adverts in them? Is it just a web-mail problem?

I also get my Gmails copied to Hotmail and pick them all up using OE, but haven't seen any increase in spam. Only one of my Hotmail accounts gets much spam anyway - that's the one I use when visiting "dodgy" web sites

[Ken]

Thanks for the replies (so far). I just tried removing the Hotmail account and then adding it again, so will see what happens. This morning (earlier) the mail that was in my junk mail was still coming in with the mail in my inbox. Really strange, seems to me.

And for me same as RDN, when I download Gmail to Incredimail I don't see any spam and even when I go to the Gmail server I am not getting anything in my "Spam box" so far. I think in the past few months that I've been using Gmail, I've only seen 4 or 5 "Spam" messages. The adverts at the Gmail site, can't say they bother me, not yet anyway.

Maybe I'll try configuring Outlook Express, just to see if it happens there.

[Ken]

Oh, yes, I have run complete virus and spyware scans. No problems reported. Also I'm running Windows XP Home version, for whatever that is worth.

[RDN]

...Maybe I'll try configuring Outlook Express, just to see if it happens there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As I recall, you're pretty computer-savvy , but if you need any help with configuring OE, I can help because I've used OE for years and it does everything that I think I want an email client to do, but - then again - I used to think the same about browsing with Internet Explorer

[Ken]

RDN: Thanks, and I did get OE configured just fine and of course it "worked" just fine, meaning it did not download anything from my junkmail box at hotmail. I haven't used OE in years, but it does have some configuration items for folders that Incredimail does not have available.

Anyway, I've been using Incredimail for a few years now and I quite like it. I've now e-mailed my problem to Incredimail support, so perhaps they will come up with a solution. Like I said, it's just one of those suddenly "weird" things that came up, and this download of my "junk" mail box via POP had never occurred before. Depending on the response from Incredimail, I may just remove and reinstall Incredimail and see if that takes care of it.

Thanks so much.

[Ken]

Well, I got the below response from Incredimail Support. Can't say I particularly liked their answer but....since I have the "paid version", I do have access to the "Advanced Account Access" that they talk about. So, looks like that is my best option. Still, think it sucks for the "non premium" (free version) users and I sent them an e-mail back and told them so (like they probably care anyway).

Oh well.

Please reply to this email and include old correspondences. This will help us assist you quickly and efficiently.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello ,

IncrediMail new version downloads your mail from all folder on the server in order to free your mail box space on the server.

IncrediMail does not give or allow other third parties access to your email address.

IncrediMail offers several ways to deal with Spam email:

1. Junk Filter - Only email from Approved Senders arrive in your Inbox. All other email is redirected to the 'Junk & Unapproved' folder, to be reviewed at a later time.

2. Block Sender - Right-click the email you want to block and select 'Block Sender'.

3. Message Rules - Open IncrediMail, click the 'Tools' menu and select 'Message Rules'. Create your own rules to block Spam email.

4. Bounce to Sender - This option sends a failure message to the server that the Spam email was sent from, so hopefully they will not send you mail again.

5. Advanced Account Access - This feature allows you to view all your messages on the server and decide which messages you want to download to your computer and which ones you want to delete from the server.

Note: IncrediMail cannot recommend any specific Anti Spam program.

In my opinion the best way to fight spam messages is to unsubscribe your mail address from the spammers email list.

Please click the 'Unsubscribe' link (usually located at the bottom of the spam message) and remove your email address from the spammers email list.

Best regards,

Moshe

IncrediMail Support

www.incredimail.com

[waldwolf]

......In my opinion the best way to fight spam messages is to unsubscribe your mail address from the spammers email list.

Please click the 'Unsubscribe' link (usually located at the bottom of the spam message) and remove your email address from the spammers email list.

Best regards,

Moshe

IncrediMail Support

www.incredimail.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unbelieveable.........He must be joking......or a total idot.

Ken - Hopefully you didn't follow his advice.

[RDN]

......In my opinion the best way to fight spam messages is to unsubscribe your mail address from the spammers email list.

Please click the 'Unsubscribe' link (usually located at the bottom of the spam message) and remove your email address from the spammers email list.

Best regards,

Moshe

IncrediMail Support

www.incredimail.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unbelieveable.........He must be joking......or a total idiot.

Ken - Hopefully you didn't follow his advice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I used to do that - it acted like a catalyst for more spam because I confirmed that the address is real. I don't use that email address any more - 95 % spam.

[Ken]

......In my opinion the best way to fight spam messages is to unsubscribe your mail address from the spammers email list.

Please click the 'Unsubscribe' link (usually located at the bottom of the spam message) and remove your email address from the spammers email list.

Best regards,

Moshe

IncrediMail Support

www.incredimail.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unbelieveable.........He must be joking......or a total idot.

Ken - Hopefully you didn't follow his advice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, I did not follow that advice. I did respond back to them, telling them what I thought of most of that advice. Rediculous! Got a response back today "apoligizing" and saying they will check into the issue again.

[waldwolf]

..... No, I did not follow that advice.  I did respond back to them, telling them what I thought of most of that advice.  Rediculous! Got a response back today "apoligizing" and saying they will check into the issue again.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good for you Ken. Hold their feet to the fire.

While I wouldn't put money on it, perhaps they'll now get off their dead ar*es and correct some of the problems with their software.

If you communicate with them again, you might mention that someone associated with Microsoft is also pis*ed at them, for incorrectly stating MSN's position relative to the use of Outlook and Outlook Express at Hotmail.

cheers

[stats]

emm never had problem with hotmail pop b4

[RDN]

emm never had problem with hotmail pop b4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just had a BIG problem with GMail - 1056 problems, actually. Some of my old emails were downloaded as new by Outlook Express. Never had that happen with Hotmail.

What a pain - apart from the time it took to download, I had to resort and file and decide which were really new and which were old.

I feel an email complaint to GMail coming....

[Ken]

emm never had problem with hotmail pop b4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just had a BIG problem with GMail - 1056 problems, actually. Some of my old emails were downloaded as new by Outlook Express. Never had that happen with Hotmail.

What a pain - apart from the time it took to download, I had to resort and file and decide which were really new and which were old.

I feel an email complaint to GMail coming....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hmmmmm....not sure RDN, but it sort of sounds like the problem might be with Outlook and not Gmail. I had a "similar" problem a while back with duplicate hotmail going to my Incredimail when I had already previously downloaded it. I sent Incredimail Tech Support an e-mail and they responded back that I "probably" had a corrupted .msg file, I quote from them:

"IncrediMail saves the ID's of the messages it has already downloaded so it won't download them again (flags messages) in an .msg file. What might have happened is that the .msg file is corrupt and IncrediMail, unable to read the flagged messages, understands that no messages were downloaded - so all the messages are downloaded again."

I can get "around" this from happening again (not that it has happened often, but it has happened more than once). I get around it by doing "regular" backups of Incredimail, a tool available within Incredimail that's called "Data and Settings Transfer to a New Computer". Thus if it happens again I can just restore my previous data and then only mail that was not in my "backup" will get downloaded. Perhaps Outlook has a similar feature.

[RDN]

emm never had problem with Hotmail pop b4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just had a BIG problem with GMail - 1056 problems, actually. Some of my old emails were downloaded as new by Outlook Express. Never had that happen with Hotmail.

What a pain - apart from the time it took to download, I had to resort and file and decide which were really new and which were old.

I feel an email complaint to GMail coming....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hmmmmm....not sure RDN, but it sort of sounds like the problem might be with Outlook and not GMail. I had a "similar" problem a while back with duplicate Hotmail going to my Incredimail when I had already previously downloaded it. I sent Incredimail Tech Support an e-mail and they responded back that I "probably" had a corrupted .msg file, I quote from them:

"IncrediMail saves the ID's of the messages it has already downloaded so it won't download them again (flags messages) in an .msg file. What might have happened is that the .msg file is corrupt and IncrediMail, unable to read the flagged messages, understands that no messages were downloaded - so all the messages are downloaded again."

I can get "around" this from happening again (not that it has happened often, but it has happened more than once). I get around it by doing "regular" backups of Incredimail, a tool available within Incredimail that's called "Data and Settings Transfer to a New Computer". Thus if it happens again I can just restore my previous data and then only mail that was not in my "backup" will get downloaded. Perhaps Outlook has a similar feature.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for that Ken - it makes a lot of sense if Outlook Express retains a file containing the ID of all files downloaded - but as GMail retains EVERYTHING, that file will get big very quickly. Maybe that's the problem OE can't deal with a file that big.

The odd thing about these old downloaded messages was that a lot of them were from December and January, and a few from March and April. So they were not just one recent block of messages - but 6 or 7 blocks over several months.

As I also forward my GMail to Hotmail, I have decided to change the "Accessed by POP" option to "Delete" rather than "Archive". So there should be none left on GMail's server after I've downloaded to my PC. But I'll try to find out just how OE determines what is new and what is not.