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See Also: Windows Live Hotmail
MSN Hotmail was a free Web-based E-mail service, which is accessible via a Web Browser . Its competitors include AIM Mail , Gmail , and Yahoo! Mail . Users of MSN Hotmail were moved to the new Windows Live Hotmail as it was released from beta on May 7th, 2007. HISTORY Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1995 as the first Webmail , was commercially launched on July 4 , 1996 , Independence Day in the United States , symbolically representing ''freedom'' from ISPs . Jack Smith first had the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world, originally in order to get by corporate firewalls blocking regular mail services. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in "-mail" and finally settled on Hotmail because it included the letters " HTML " — the markup language used to write the base of web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective Upper Casing , which is still styled in that format within part of the URL of the user's email inbox when signed in. Hotmail was initially backed by the Venture Capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson . By December 1997, Hotmail reported more than 8.5 million subscribers Hotmail reports 8.5 million subscribers . It was sold later that month to Microsoft for a reported US$400m, after which it was rebranded under the MSN umbrella. By February 1999, Hotmail reported more than 30 million active members. Hotmail reports 30 million subscribers Hotmail serves e-mail accounts in many countries, supporting 17 languages, and is still one of the largest webmail providers as of July 2005, with 35.5% world market share according to comScore Media Metrix data. Hotmail originally ran on a mixture of FreeBSD and Solaris ,http://www.plex86.org/linux/Hotmail-Platform-is-Hosted-on-Unix-88.htmlhttp://www.securityoffice.net/mssecrets/hotmail.html Operating Systems . Microsoft initially tried to move the FreeBSD portion of the architecture to a Windows NT 4.0 based system and this failed. Later a project was started to move the system to Windows 2000. In June 2001 Microsoft claimed this had been completed, however, a few days later they retracted this and admitted that in fact some functions of the Hotmail system were still reliant on FreeBSD.http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tildeMisc/2001/2001-MS-BSD.html The Hotmail development and operations teams are based in Mountain View , California . Microsoft intended to phase out Hotmail in favor of "Windows Live Mail", but has since rebranded the service " Windows Live Hotmail ", keeping the Hotmail name intact. STORAGE MSN Hotmail offers 2 attachment limit. Substantial increases in mailbox size were introduced shortly after Google 's Gmail debuted. Hotmail users can upgrade from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail which offers 5 GB of free e-mail storage to all members. Hotmail account storage for Windows Live Mail ACCESS FROM MAIL CLIENTS MSN accounts once had POP3 email access but they sold their POP3 servers to Qwest in favor of HTML servers. It is in principle possible to check one's own e-mail using the , 2004 that they were making it a subscription-only service for new users immediately and existing users from April 2005. However, some (not all) existing users are still able to access their Hotmail accounts via this protocol for free as of April 2007, depending on how long they have been a member of Hotmail and whether their account had ever been suspended due to spam violations. Also, whether it is a technical glitch or not, clients still using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 but have not updated to SP2 can still access their Hotmail account via Outlook regardless. It should be noted that Windows Mail , Outlook Express' successor, no longer supports HTML email access. Users can get around this restriction however, by using software that simulates a POP server to which the e-mail application connects. It is possible for account holders of Windows Live Hotmail (or normal Hotmail) to check their email through Windows Live Mail (formally Windows Live Mail Desktop). Mail from other accounts can be accessed through Hotmail using the "POP mail" button located on the Hotmail toolbar. E-MAIL SERVICES MISCELLANEOUS As of June 2006, Hotmail users can now send instant messages from within Hotmail using the integrated Web Messenger function, without having to be signed in to Windows Live Messenger or have the program installed at all. At the Hotmail main screen, users can access integrated MSN services such as Calendar and Contacts (the latter being shared with Windows Live Messenger ). In December 2004, Microsoft started its new blogging service called MSN Spaces and integrated it with MSN Messenger (now Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Messenger , respectively) and MSN Hotmail. If a free MSN Hotmail account is not accessed in a 120-day period, then it is temporarily deactivated (all messages deleted, although not the address book). The underlying Passport account, which is tied to the e-mail address, is not released back in to the address pool for 90 days. This allows the current owner to re-activate the e-mail portion of the account and keep the address before new users can register for it; however this is now defunct. MSN Premium/MSN Hotmail Plus customers (pay service) are exempt from the expiration policy. In the past, Hotmail has offered users who have held the same account for a number of years the same exemption from deactivation. However, Hotmail changed its policy again, leaving many of those account members surprised to find that, after being told their emails would be saved, they had instead been deleted. Those emails cannot be recovered. Hotmail is often used by Spammers to provide a fake dropbox for use in their messages. However, Hotmail subscribes to MSN's strongly worded Terms of Use, and anyone found to have engaged in spam-related activities will have their account cancelled without warning. In early 2000, The MSN Internet Portal was receiving 200 million visits a month. This prompted Microsoft's UK managing director to charge a user fee of £10.00 a year for extra services. Users are now able to get MSN Hotmail Plus for $19.95 a year. All Hotmail accounts include an advanced filter system at no extra cost. MSN 'to charge user fee' DELIVERY PROBLEMS As of April 2007 Hotmail stopped delivering e-mail from a number of mail servers. Mail is normally accepted by the Hotmail mail server (so no bounces or rejects), however it is not delivered to the inbox, nor to the junk mail box. This all regardless of the mail settings and white list settings in the Hotmail account Delivery problems described on iis_aid_news . Hotmail is known to intentionally reject anyone attempting to authenticate from proxies, including but not limited to the relakks.com VPN proxy and neomailbox.net web gateway proxy SEE ALSO
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