Hotmail Account

[Walter Watkins]

I have a number of questions that I would like to post to subscribers of this useful and knowlegable forum regarding 'Hotmail'.

A) I use my personal hotmail account daily, to receive email from friends, family, various other services etc. however, I have observed that 'Hotmail' is very slow to open. If you consider the speed at which other websites open, eg. the BBC.

Why is this, am I doing something wrong?

B ) A percentage of my personal mail sometimes goes to my Junk Mail folder, until I identify it as not Junk Mail. Why is this, my settings are medium?

C) I have to check all my Junk Mail, in case it is valuable mail, however most junk mail I receive is usually Viagra related, is this because of my age? I gave my date of birth to Hotmail in confidence. Also sometimes Junk Mail of a sexual nature is indicated so I check a box 'report to Hotmail' yet nothing is done about this so called spam. I thought Microsoft is supposed to taking legal action against these spammers.

D) I am often bombarded by Junk Mail in my personal folder regarding stocks and shares in America. These so called emails are spam, why do they get through the filter, I have to spend valuable minutes opening these messages, since they might be genuine.

E) I understand that if I do not sign in to Hotmail during a 30 day period that I will lose my account. Surely this is illegal, because I have built up a large address book and valuable contacts and emails over the last five years.

F) Recently the mailbox limit was increased to 250 MB of data, however I am still unable to attach photos of just 2 MB in size, why is this?

I am grateful for all advice received.

[lampard10]

I have a number of questions that I would like to post to subscribers of this useful and knowlegable forum regarding 'Hotmail'.

A) I use my personal hotmail account daily, to receive email from friends, family, various other services etc. however, I have observed that 'Hotmail' is very slow to open. If you consider the speed at which other websites open, eg. the BBC.

Why is this, am I doing something wrong?

B ) A percentage of my personal mail sometimes goes to my Junk Mail folder, until I identify it as not Junk Mail. Why is this, my settings are medium?

C) I have to check all my Junk Mail, in case it is valuable mail, however most junk mail I receive is usually Viagra related, is this because of my age? I gave my date of birth to Hotmail in confidence. Also sometimes Junk Mail of a sexual nature is indicated so I check a box 'report to Hotmail' yet nothing is done about this so called spam. I thought Microsoft is supposed to taking legal action against these spammers.

D) I am often bombarded by Junk Mail in my personal folder regarding stocks and shares in America. These so called emails are spam, why do they get through the filter, I have to spend valuable minutes opening these messages, since they might be genuine.

E) I understand that if I do not sign in to Hotmail during a 30 day period that I will lose my account. Surely this is illegal, because I have built up a large address book and valuable contacts and emails over the last five years.

F) Recently the mailbox limit was increased to 250 MB of data, however I am still unable to attach photos of just 2 MB in size, why is this?

I am grateful for all advice received.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

a) Hotmail IS very slow in Thailand,why it should be only here I don't know. Mind you AOL is slower here.

b ) Same as you

c) either that or dick enlargment

d) don't get that

e) Same as with most e-mail servers. Stops people just logging a name and never using.

f) don't know Probably you can receive 250 but send only 20.

And one of my own.......why do our b's come out as smiley faces?

/edit RDN: 'cause that's the code for the smiley face!

Edited May 13, 2005 by RDN

[phazey]

Hi,

A) Hotmail has either no Thai local presance, or the path it takes to your computer is crowded.

B ) False positives are common. Tracking spam is not as easy as one may think.[1]

C) (1) so does my wife - go figure. (2) most spammers use untracable means, so it's hard to follow up.....

D) The whole point why spams are still happening is because the culprits are adepts at finding new loopholes....

E) people lose interest, people die......hotmail on the other hand (beleive it or not) does not have unlimited infrastructure or resources. live with it.

F) Because you are using a *free* email service. Certain limits have to be imposed.

Regarding spam, i find that both Yahoo mail and gmail are more reliable at catching it. If you're unhappy then sign up for another service (invite available pending PM).

Regarding everything else, tough. Unless of course you are clicking every advertisement presented and making regular purchases.

K

[1]Please read the source code to a piece of software called "Spamassassin" - then you will know where i am coming from.

[waldwolf]

Walter Watkins -

A - If you are accessing your Hotmail account(s) throught the website portal, it will be slower than using Outlook or Outlook Express, due to the necessity of downloading a cookie, or as MS refers to them - "Passports". (Note: if your hotmail account was established before 2005, you may use Outlook or OE to retreive mail. If the account was established in 2005, you cannot use any "pop" utilities.)

B - Check your filters. They can be "adjusted" to prevent most such problems.

C - "....however most junk mail I receive is usually Viagra related, is this because of my age?" I doubt it, unless of course you gave them all your personal specifics and "measurements". Most all of us get these spams at one time or another. (The older you get, the more flattered you'll feel receiving these "invitations". )

Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and most other providers have sued and shut down many spammers, however, they're like cockroaches. They show up again and again (mainly in third world countries) which have no "anti spam" laws. Recently one of the largest was arrested in the US and is awaiting trial. He may get 20 years in jail.

D - Go into hotmail and review your Profile and uncheck any "requests" for notifications you may have checked when account was originally established. Also, if the emails are from legitimate financial houses, there should be a link to a website where you can remove your name from their mailing list.

E - Not quite accurate. If you do not access your hotmail account within 30 days, it is labeled "Inactive", but still accessable. If you do not access it within 90 days, it is then subject to cancellation. (Exact details are listed in their "Policy" statement.) As a precaution, you might want to copy your Address Book and emails over onto your computer, then copy/burn them to floppy, CD or DVD.

F - Attachment size use to be 1MB and was only recently increased 10 MB. If you can't send attachments larger than 2MB, suggest you contact Hotmail Support and ask them for clarification. (If your on dial-up, possibly there is a "time-out" problem effecting your attachment upload.)

Hope above answers a few of you questions.

cheers

[Totster]

I have a number of questions that I would like to post to subscribers of this useful and knowlegable forum regarding 'Hotmail'.

A) I use my personal hotmail account daily, to receive email from friends, family, various other services etc. however, I have observed that 'Hotmail' is very slow to open. If you consider the speed at which other websites open, eg. the BBC.

Why is this, am I doing something wrong?

A percentage of my personal mail sometimes goes to my Junk Mail folder, until I identify it as not Junk Mail. Why is this, my settings are medium?

C) I have to check all my Junk Mail, in case it is valuable mail, however most junk mail I receive is usually Viagra related, is this because of my age? I gave my date of birth to Hotmail in confidence. Also sometimes Junk Mail of a sexual nature is indicated so I check a box 'report to Hotmail' yet nothing is done about this so called spam. I thought Microsoft is supposed to taking legal action against these spammers.

D) I am often bombarded by Junk Mail in my personal folder regarding stocks and shares in America. These so called emails are spam, why do they get through the filter, I have to spend valuable minutes opening these messages, since they might be genuine.

E) I understand that if I do not sign in to Hotmail during a 30 day period that I will lose my account. Surely this is illegal, because I have built up a large address book and valuable contacts and emails over the last five years.

F) Recently the mailbox limit was increased to 250 MB of data, however I am still unable to attach photos of just 2 MB in size, why is this?

I am grateful for all advice received.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why don't you switch to gmail, it really is so much better, you can send large attachments, you will not get any junk mail, over 2 GB of storage, easy searching, and you will be able to import all of your contacts from your Hotmail account.

PM me your e-mail adress and I will send you an invite.

totster

[Popeyethesailorman]

As far as the spamming goes, you can also cut the address from the sender, go into junk mail protection folder, pick block sender and then paste the address in. Of course spammers can just modify their address but this seems to work for me for most spamming.

[lampard10]

Actually, I have something very strange to report(again) about Hotmail. I would like to know if anyone else had come across it. Before I signed up for this great Hotmail spam filter, i never used to get one piece of junk mail. Now I get around 20 a day. I know the 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' syndrome comes into play,but I thought this must be good. Now half of my good mail ends up in my junk box.

[Ken]

Actually, I have something very strange to report(again) about Hotmail. I would like to know if anyone else had come across it. Before I signed up for this great Hotmail spam filter, i never used to get one piece of junk mail. Now I get around 20 a day. I know the 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' syndrome comes into play,but I thought this must be good. Now half of my good mail ends up in my junk box.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lampard: Not sure why the "increase" in spam, but why not set your email preferences to "Exclusive", then only addresses in your address book or "approved" contacts will go to the inbox. The rest will go to the "junk box". Then you can also set an option to immediately delete mail in the "junk box" or "save it for a short time".

And I don't know why hotmail is so slow in Thailand either. Was another one of my reasons for switching to Gmail.

[lampard10]

Actually, I have something very strange to report(again) about Hotmail. I would like to know if anyone else had come across it. Before I signed up for this great Hotmail spam filter, i never used to get one piece of junk mail. Now I get around 20 a day. I know the 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' syndrome comes into play,but I thought this must be good. Now half of my good mail ends up in my junk box.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lampard: Not sure why the "increase" in spam, but why not set your email preferences to "Exclusive", then only addresses in your address book or "approved" contacts will go to the inbox. The rest will go to the "junk box". Then you can also set an option to immediately delete mail in the "junk box" or "save it for a short time".

And I don't know why hotmail is so slow in Thailand either. Was another one of my reasons for switching to Gmail.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that's what i've inadvertantly done,but thanks for the info