Hotmail to offer POP3 to Hotmail Plus users, to normal hotmail users later

[alsiladka]

Source - Hotmail blog


I got my first real email account my freshman year in college (I had an AOL account before that, which technically was an email account, but only later). Back then the unix email program PINE was state of the art and was the de-facto mail client at most universities. Growing up a Mac user I had never seen a command prompt in my life, but nevertheless, I learned how to use enough of the unix command shell to get my email via the text based reader PINE.
During my freshman year (1994) the only way to read email was to go to the computer lab. I had a laptop, but it wasn't able to get my email cause there were no Wifi or Ethernet networks to use, and my school didn't have dial-up accounts (matter of fact, my school used Token Ring networking). However, email was cool enough that I went to the lab all the time and did what anyone does with email when they first use it…. Send around jokes.
Fast forward a year and I discovered the magic of POP. POP stands for Post Office Protocol and it's a way for an email client to connect to an email server and download your email to your laptop or desktop computer. The first time I used an email client (Claris Emailer) to connect to my university email account using POP I felt liberated. No more unix command line or tiny screen to read emails. I could have a rich experience composing, replying, copying, pasting and dragging messages to folders. How cool! Having been a Mac user it just seemed natural to use a GUI to manage my email.
Since then my appetite has grown beyond POP. I have lots of folders and use lots of computers to access my email, and frankly, I've been spoiled by my Microsoft Exchange account for years. However, we have realized that even though we provide rich synchronization of your email and folders with Outlook (via Outlook Connector) and Windows Live Mail lots of people still want and demand POP.
Well, it's been a dirty little secret that Hotmail has always maintained a POP service for a small segment of customers. It's always been very limited, and we didn't want to encourage or offer it to more customers because we've always had ambitions for providing for a scalable and cost effective protocol (which POP is not in the world of huge inboxes). Well we now have this protocol, it's called DeltaSync, and it's something that Outlook and Windows Live Mail use. What we didn't want to do is offer POP access and then have Outlook and Windows Live Mail customers use POP over DeltaSync. Now that we have free offline mail access we have focused our energies on offering users who use clients like Eudora, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail the ability to get their Hotmail in those clients. Additionally, most all mobile devices today support POP (including the Apple iPhone) and to date we haven't been able to offer folks with a data plan a rich way to get their email unless they are using Windows Mobile (and even that is limited depending on carrier).
The story of POP continues like this… A few months ago some folks on the team hatched a plan to finally offer POP and starting this week Hotmail Plus users ($19.95 a year) will be able to use POP access from any device. In the interest of transparency though I want to be clear that we have plans to offer POP to all users (all premium and free) but we aren't ready to do that yet. I can't comment on a timeframe for when free users will get POP, but we hope to do so within the next 12 months.
If you do take advantage of this premium feature and sign up for Hotmail plus you'll also get an ad-free experience, more storage, larger attachment support, and a non expiring account.
Our POP service requires that you use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with the POP and SMTP connection and use SMTP authentication. This is to ensure that your email address and password are not subject to tampering. The settings are the following:

• POP: pop3.live.com (port 995)
• SMTP: smtp.live.com (port 25)
  • Note: make sure you check the box that indicates that your outgoing server requires authentication (in most mail clients this is not checked by default).
• Username: your full email address
• Password: your Windows Live ID password

Well I hope this news is welcome, and thanks for being patient!
-Omar Shahine (Lead Program Manager, Hotmail)

PS - please note that I said Hotmail Plus users and not MSN Premium users. We are working to offer everyone POP access eventually, but for now, Hotmail Plus users are the only ones that can do so.

We are working to offer everyone POP access eventually, but for now, Hotmail Plus users are the only ones that can do so.

[shady_inc]

Google offered that ages ago....

[Pathik]

who ll pay $19.95 /yr to get POP3 wen gmail gives it for free.

[almighty]

^^ even yahoo (co.in) has free pop3

[tuxfan]

Hotmail works with Outlook Express and "emulates" POP3 I use it regularly.

It's pretty convenient. Just download the headers and delete unwanted mails. Saves time + bandwidth.

[sandeepk]

^^ how to use it?? any link which explains that?

[NucleusKore]

@Tuxfan, me too. I have been using for the last five years now. I do prefer the current http mail protocol though.
One can see the headers and delete suspect mail or junk (it gets deleted from the server as well).

[shaunak]

20 Us greens a Year for POP!!!!
We are in 2007 isnt it?

Any 1/2 decent site offers free POP acces. And now MS wants to charge for it!

r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s

[ThinkFree]

Gmail is better, but even then a good news

[alsiladka]

Guys right now they offer free desktop client support (i m not sure whether it is IMAP or HTTP protocol). And they also plan to offer POP3 to the normal users later on.

Hotmail Plus is not only providing POP3 access but also other premium features.

[tuxfan]

Originally Posted by sandeepk

^^ how to use it?? any link which explains that?

1. Start Outlook Express (I guess it works even in Outlook)
2. Goto Tools > Accounts
3. Click on Add > Mail
4. Type Name
5. Type your hotmail address
6. ... keep clicking on next till you come to Finish
7. Download folders to your machine when prompted

[infra_red_dude]

thats HTTP protocol and works only wid outlook/express .. MS products.

[ThinkFree]

Originally Posted by tuxfan

1. Start Outlook Express (I guess it works even in Outlook)
2. Goto Tools > Accounts
3. Click on Add > Mail
4. Type Name
5. Type your hotmail address
6. ... keep clicking on next till you come to Finish
7. Download folders to your machine when prompted

Access to Hotmail via Outlook and Outlook Express now requires a subscription. Please sign up at http://join.msn.com/general/Email

Configuration:
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......
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This is the message that I get to see after doing that.

[tuxfan]

Originally Posted by asnvin

Access to Hotmail via Outlook and Outlook Express now requires a subscription. Please sign up at http://join.msn.com/general/Email

Configuration:
..
......
...........


This is the message that I get to see after doing that.

Dude! I am using it regularly without any additional signing up!

[ThinkFree]

Originally Posted by tuxfan

Dude! I am using it regularly without any additional signing up!

But I have tried it atleast five times with same result

[tuxfan]

LOL. Me lucky me!! You are cordially invited to my office to have a live demo of how it works in my machine!

[ThinkFree]

Originally Posted by tuxfan

LOL. Me lucky me!! You are cordially invited to my office to have a live demo of how it works in my machine!

I haven't said that you are lying.

[alsiladka]

Originally Posted by asnvin

Access to Hotmail via Outlook and Outlook Express now requires a subscription. Please sign up at http://join.msn.com/general/Email

Configuration:
..
......
...........


This is the message that I get to see after doing that.

For using Hotmail with Microsoft Outlook, you require the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector . It is a freeware from Microsoft, and quoting MS -

With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free!

As to Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail has replaced Outlook Express. You can use WLM to access your Hotmail and Live Mail accounts. It is undoutedly better than OE.

[anandk]

on the old hotmail acnts, one stl gets the pop support. i get it on one of my old acnts, but NOT on my newere hotmail acnts.

[shady_inc]

Hey...even zapakmail started offering pop3 access now.Guess everyone's gonna follow suit now..

[ax3]

POP3 sucks ......... whereas HTTP protocol just ROCKS ........


u can c mail headers & then decide whot 2 download ..... as 4 pop3 it downloads all .......


i think HOTMAIL should STICK 2 HTTP only ..........

[Gigacore]

Man its not free... $ucks

[alsiladka]

Originally Posted by ax3

POP3 sucks ......... whereas HTTP protocol just ROCKS ........


u can c mail headers & then decide whot 2 download ..... as 4 pop3 it downloads all .......


i think HOTMAIL should STICK 2 HTTP only ..........

You dont have to download all the mails on POP3. You can create rules to download only the headers for mails above a particular size or from some person or anything. It is much more customizable.

[NucleusKore]

@ax3
I second that, I too wish it remains http mail

[ax3]

@alsiladka .... creating rules noway & waste time ...... thats y HTTP ROCKS ! ! !



@NucleusKore ..... ya .... hope many ppl agree 2 this & HOTMAIL STICKS 2 HTTP protocol ONLY ............

[tuxfan]

Originally Posted by ax3

POP3 sucks ......... whereas HTTP protocol just ROCKS ........


u can c mail headers & then decide whot 2 download ..... as 4 pop3 it downloads all .......

Not really! Have a look at softwares like POP-Peeper, Mailwasher, ePrompter, etc. Earlier I used to use mailwasher free edition. But I have multiple accounts and therefore now use POP-peeper regularly.

[alsiladka]

Originally Posted by ax3

@alsiladka .... creating rules noway & waste time ...... thats y HTTP ROCKS ! ! !

Ya, just select from the 2 3 default rules for the HTTP and it still rocks. But the ability to make a 100s of different rules for your personal or professional needs is not.

I complete agree with you dude

[ax3]

@alsiladka ..... thanx frd 4 ur comment ........