[Merged] Microsoft cuts pop access to free hotmail

[Paul K]

Anyone else read this?

dwergs says:

On September 27th, new and existing free Hotmail customers who have not set-up their accounts to access Hotmail from Outlook or Outlook Express will no longer have access to this feature. Please note there is no change for subscription customers, both those with Primary or Secondary accounts.

This change in an effort to help protect you from junk e-mail. (Note: If you have a free Hotmail account and you have already set up Hotmail to download to Outlook or Outlook Express, you can continue to use this feature.) Junk mail distributors (spammers) have been known to exploit MSN Hotmail accounts through Outlook and Outlook Express to send unwanted messages. By making this feature available only as part of a subscription service, MSN can more effectively help protect consumers. Requiring customers to provide billing information will help MSN to limit the amount of unsolicited e-mail that MSN members and others receive. If you currently have a free Hotmail account and you want to configure Hotmail to download to Outlook or Outlook Express, you can upgrade to MSN Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium. Both of these paid subscription services support this feature."

source : mess.be ([Reported by: detn8r])

I'm not sure if this is an attempt to get more people signed up to the subscription services, before they implement the increased storage for the free accounts

- I have to say i have never had problems with spam in my hotmail a/c, in fact their spam filter is good enough that I forward one of my ntl addys to it

[bob_a_builder]

before they implement the increased storage for the free accounts

Already implemented AFAIK, my free account shows 250MB totals space

Originally Posted by bob_a_builder

Already implemented AFAIK, my free account shows 250MB totals space

ah right - thanks for that, I'll have a look when I get home

Originally Posted by Paul

Anyone else read this?

A blatant attempt to get more people to pay for their Hotmail. Previously, the extra storage space was their key selling point, but they can't really push it like that any more, thanks to Gooooooogle.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Chris T

A blatant attempt to get more people to pay for their Hotmail. Previously, the extra storage space was their key selling point, but they can't really push it like that any more, thanks to Gooooooogle.

Either that, or they are trying to get Spammers to pay..

[nffc]

You can bypass it in MrPostman and other POP programs anyway.

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by bob_a_builder

Already implemented AFAIK, my free account shows 250MB totals space

Only a small percentage of the accounts have been given the free upgrade so far, it might be a while before all Hotmail accounts see the increase in storage. I know mines still the basic ammount as is my partners.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by bob_a_builder

Already implemented AFAIK, my free account shows 250MB totals space

Mine still shows 2mb

I actually don't know why hotmail did .POP3 in the first place, they can't advertise in this way because the hotmail site is bypassed so I don't see where their profit is Not complaining though, I always access my hotmail account via Outlook Express.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Diamond

I actually don't know why hotmail did .POP3 in the first place, they can't advertise in this way because the hotmail site is bypassed so I don't see where their profit is Not complaining though, I always access my hotmail account via Outlook Express.

It wont affect us Hotmail users though will it? Hotmail use HTTP in Outlook and Outlook Express.

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by Wayne A

It wont affect us Hotmail users though will it? Hotmail use HTTP in Outlook and Outlook Express.

Nope, if you read the post it doesn't impact existing hotmail users that already have Outlook or Outlook Express set up to collect their hotmail It will only impact new users or hotmail users that have yet to set up Outlook or Outlook Express.

[Paul K]

Just found this posted on Neowin.

Citing concerns about spammers abusing the service, Microsoft will announce today that the company is dropping a feature from its Hotmail service that lets nonpaying customers access their Hotmail email from Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express.
The feature is based on a technology called Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), an extension of the HTTP protocol on which the Web is based.
"Since we implemented Human Interactive Proof (HIP) to ensure that only humans and not automated systems were opening Hotmail accounts, spammers have found other ways to go after the system," MSN Lead Product Manager Brooke Richardson told me in a prebriefing Friday. "Recently, there's been an increase in exploits of the WebDAV protocol, which is used to enable people to access Hotmail from Outlook and Outlook Express. We've offered [this access] for free for some time, although it's typically a feature that other email providers charge for. But because of the rise in abuse of this protocol, we're making a change to WebDAV to curb abuse. Over the next few months, we're transitioning WebDAV to be available only to customers of our subscription services, such as Hotmail Extra Storage and MSN Premium. We expect this change will help us to more effectively stop spam emanating from Hotmail."
Richardson said that only a small percentage of free Hotmail account holders use the WebDAV feature. "About 5 to 10 percent of people have it set up," she said, "but most don't use it. And among that group, most activated it once, then never used it again. About 95 percent of our users don't use the feature." Richardson was also careful to note that this change doesn't mean that Microsoft is walking away from its nonpaying users. "We continue to invest heavily in Hotmail," she said. "We've recently instituted antivirus scanning and cleaning and brought back the [free] MSN Calendar. And we're
actively moving free customers to the new storage allotments we announced earlier this summer." Richardson said that the company will upgrade storage allotments for all free Hotmail accounts by the end of the year. Microsoft has already upgraded paying customers, such as those who opted for Hotmail Extra Storage, she said. Microsoft won't immediately shut off nonpaying users who have enabled Outlook or Outlook Express access to Hotmail. Instead, the
company will phase out those customers over several months and give them plenty of warning that the change is coming.
"Free Hotmail customers who want to use WebDAV have two choices," Richardson said. "They can opt for Hotmail Plus, which offers 2GB of storage space and 20MB attachments for just $19.95 a year. Or they can subscribe to MSN Premium." Microsoft will continue to enable WebDAV for customers of
both products, she said.

So in the long term it will affect all Hotmail users but in the short term hotmail users that currently have Outlook or Outlook Express to access Hotmail will still be able to access Hotmail this way. By the time they phase it out there will no doubt be others there to take Hotmails place

[TigaSefi]

Mine 250Mb but i had mine for nearly 10 years now......

Originally Posted by Paul

Just found this posted on Neowin.

So in the long term it will affect all Hotmail users but in the short term hotmail users that currently have Outlook or Outlook Express to access Hotmail will still be able to access Hotmail this way. By the time they phase it out there will no doubt be others there to take Hotmails place

thanks for that, Paul, I hadn't realised they will turn it off for everyone

(smiley aimed at them, not you btw )

Just as an idle thought, how will it effect programs like mailwasher?

- I'm still on 2MB storage