Hotmail Verification

AlanYork · 04-06-2005, 13:10

I like to keep things simple, I dont get involved with Outlook, Outlook Express, any of that stuff. I just use good old hotmail. It works fine for me 99% of the time but recently it has decided that about once every month it wants me to prove I'm not a machine or a spammer by typing in the sequence of letters and numbers it shows me. Fair enough.

Unfortunately, when I do this, it somehow doesn't seem to "see" it and asks me to type in another set of numbers and letters it has shown me. I do it, hit enter, again it doesn't "see" it, cue the next set of numbers and letters and so on ad infinitum.

Normally I just zip into work and log in on a pc there and theres no trouble, not ideal at 2.45 AM though. No reply on this as yet from MSN but to be honest, when I have had problems, their responses have been pretty standard and not much help.

At present I'm running Windows XP home with Zone Alarms Security suite. E mails seem to come and go ok, it's only a minor inconvenience but has anybody else experienced this or got any ideas as to what causes it?

Roy MM · 04-06-2005, 13:21

All i every get is to confirm my net passport password, but that is very rare.

Angua · 04-06-2005, 14:15

I always log in to mine as the babysitters chat to their mates on messenger and I have never seen what you discribe! Have been with hotmail for years now but only log in to dump junk as it all comes through to Incredimail (much easier and more fun).

Paul K · 04-06-2005, 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanYork

I like to keep things simple, I dont get involved with Outlook, Outlook Express, any of that stuff. I just use good old hotmail. It works fine for me 99% of the time but recently it has decided that about once every month it wants me to prove I'm not a machine or a spammer by typing in the sequence of letters and numbers it shows me. Fair enough.

Unfortunately, when I do this, it somehow doesn't seem to "see" it and asks me to type in another set of numbers and letters it has shown me. I do it, hit enter, again it doesn't "see" it, cue the next set of numbers and letters and so on ad infinitum.

Normally I just zip into work and log in on a pc there and theres no trouble, not ideal at 2.45 AM though. No reply on this as yet from MSN but to be honest, when I have had problems, their responses have been pretty standard and not much help.

At present I'm running Windows XP home with Zone Alarms Security suite. E mails seem to come and go ok, it's only a minor inconvenience but has anybody else experienced this or got any ideas as to what causes it?

Are any cookies being blocked from being saved to the pc? Or it could be that the cookie is being set but after 1 month it is being cleared.
Have you checked the settings in Zone alarm to make sure that cookies aren't being blocked or deleted for the various addresses that you need to traverse to get to your hotmail account?

Angua · 08-06-2005, 17:44

Had this with yahoo before I could send an e-mail to myself (to test e-mail system).

AlanYork · 15-06-2005, 18:20

Yeah,that's the sort of thing I get. Interestingly enough, at present NTLs server is giving me problems, sites opening slowly, partialy etc. This seems to happen on a monthly basis. So I specified a proxy, using the very handy NTL proxy list. Great, no problem...apart from hotmail which constantly sends me to the sign on screen. I can't get past it.

I've asked MSN about this previously and none of their solutions work, they all seem to relate to my ZoneAlarm Security Suite firewall, which as far as I can see is set up fine or to cookies, which again seem to be fine. NTL seem unable to resolve it.

So I went into Internet properties, LAN, slapped on a proxy server that isn't an NTL one, used port 80, put a tick in the box and hey presto...problem solved. I can get into hotmail and sites open ok.

Now what normally happens is in a few days I'll be able to remove the tick from the LAN box and things will to return to normal for about 3 weeks, maybe 4 and then it will all start again.

There seems to be 2 seperate but related problems here....

1. NTLs server seems to constantly let me down but putting on an NTL proxy means I can't access hotmail.

2. With or without an NTL proxy, hotmail can't "see" my verifications.

Now, I never had this problem with AOL, but NTL on the other hand has been great when things go well, but full of irritations like this. My contract with them is nearly up...will I renew it? Not sure. It may not be anything to do with NTL, but the fact is, I never had any of these problems before I left AOL....oh well, such is life.

Graham · 16-06-2005, 00:42

Are you using IE or Netscape (or another browser)?

I've had problems with this before using Netscape because the site has been badly written

Gareth · 16-06-2005, 09:09

Thought I'd ask the obvious..... is it case sensitive, and are you using the same case as the image that is displayed?