angry rant: email software

[Peter B]

I found outlook express today and thought I would try to configure it to recieve hotmail, as I was unable to access my hotmail from that computer.
I set the parameters, port numbers etc. And it all works fine. All my hotmail appears in my o.e. inbox.
The first problem, I recieve an email telling me about Izysoft. I wonder what this is. I next find out that for random emails, the body text has been archived into an attachment and the body text replaced by a message saying that it's been archived but you won't be able to read the message in its original form untill you subscribe to the service for $x.
Notice that the 'trial subscription' was automatic and I never configured it. It probably alomst always happens as an automatic thing when something like Outlook Express is configured to a web-based email surver.
Second, potentially greater snag, I get home, log onto hotmail, and find that I have somehow now got the grand total of 0 emails in my inbox.
Balls.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Happy St. Patricks Day everyone.

[PeterG]

Microsoft have been threatening to revoke OE hotmail access for some time. Any new accounts don't have access and at some point, old accounts won't either. That said, mine is still working fine. Are you certain its not spy/adware related?

[peterb]

I'm inclined to say that it is grrrr

[samsonite]

i hate to be a dick again...but i will.

stop using hotmail.

its a bad interface, its short on storage, it fires ads at you all the time, it doesnt give you pop access, and most of all its a micro$oft thing, so it almost certainly isnt secure and doesnt work properly.

if you use gmail, you get a decent service, more storage space, no image ads, and a generally great web application from the second most influential brand in the world. you can use it online, or you can retrieve your mail using oe or whatever other mail program u want to use (get thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/) or you can do a mixtur eof both like i do.

and if you dont want to switch cos you will have to tell everyone your new address, its not that big a deal. you will have to do it in the next few years anyway, i guarantee it.

if anyone wants gmail invites i have 200. let me know.






sorry

[Mrs H.]

Peter - i wish you'd get rid of the countdown thing - it's making me feel sick Looking at the emoticons - I think there is space for a scared one - i'd have used it then possibly like shocked but with it's mouth open?

[Peter B]

I'm only using currently 1% of my 250MB - so I'm not exactly needing more space
I dint give a hoot about interface, I believe it looks good as it is
I have about 5 popup blockers/adware/spyware filters working on my system so pop up ads aren't an issue
What the hells pop access?
I know hotmail isn't secure - I read an article about how easily it can be hacked this morning. However until I get hacked it's perfectly fine.
And until this happened I had no problems with hotmail.
(Oh and by the way - all 294 emails have now disappeared from my outlook express inbox)

[Simon]

Samsonite has got in with a good post already on avoiding hotmail, so I will not bother

pop is post office protocol. A way of checking your e-mail from just about any e-mail client in existence.

[PeterG]

Peter - i wish you'd get rid of the countdown thing - it's making me feel sick Looking at the emoticons - I think there is space for a scared one - i'd have used it then possibly like shocked but with it's mouth open?

?

[Mrs H.]

That's the one