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Windows Live Hotmail Access via Mail.app?

ingenious

ingenious

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 13, 2004
1,509
4
Alexandria, VA
Outlook 2007 users again have free access to their Hotmail accounts when they use the Hotmail Connector.

I've tried to get this to work with Mail.app and the HTTPmail plugin, but it won't. All I get is a message that says access requires a subscription now. Is there any reason why it would work in Outlook and not Mail.app?

I've even changed the UA to match Outlook's.
 
dpaanlka said:
Maybe because Outlook and Hotmail are both Microsoft products?

Conversely, .Mac works in Mail.app but not Outlook.
Click to expand...

Yes, but if older or "valued" Hotmail accounts still work with all versions of Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage, what in particular makes newer accounts not work?
 
I've got free POP3 access with my (UK) Yahoo! Mail :)

Never use it mind, much prefer Gmail.
 
ingenious said:
Yes, but if older or "valued" Hotmail accounts still work with all versions of Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage, what in particular makes newer accounts not work?
Click to expand...

As far as I understand, HTTPmail uses a specific gateway that can be turned on or off (much like POP access can be turned on or off). Apparently MS left it "on" for "valued" users like myself? :eek: Valued? Anyways, I have an old account and HTTPMail worked for me.

I'm fairly certain that MacFreePOPs works by a different method (essentially, it uses the webmail interfaces of the mail sites it works with, and just navigates the HTML automatically and gets the messages this way). That's why it can work with most any webmail if it has a plugin, but it gets broken when the webmail interface changes. I guess MS could actively sabotage it, but unless they do that, there's no reason it wouldn't work for any Hotmail account.

There are plenty of reports of people with "new" Windows Live / Hotmail accounts using FreePOPs, AFAIK, although a few people here swear that it doesn't work for them (it is mildly tricky to configure). It works for me, but then I have an "old" Hotmail account.

And edit: yes, Yahoo provides free POP to Britons but for some reason not to Americans.
 
most hotmail accounts will not work with a client such as mail no matter what plugin you use unless you get the paid version
 
ingenious said:
MacFreePops always has to be running, though...
Click to expand...

No, this is incorrect. The freepops daemon has to be running in order for MacFreePOPs to work. MacFreePOPs does not need to be running. There's even an option to automatically quit once the daemon is launched. I set it up so that it runs on login automatically and then quits when the daemon is launched (unless there are updates available, in which it persists so I can update it).
 
flopticalcube said:
No. It just runs at startup and the icon disappears when you click the OK button. A windowless process runs in the background to get your mail off the web server.

oh mkrishnan, you're so fast!
Click to expand...

mkrishnan said:
No, this is incorrect. The freepops daemon has to be running in order for MacFreePOPs to work. MacFreePOPs does not need to be running. There's even an option to automatically quit once the daemon is launched. I set it up so that it runs on login automatically and then quits when the daemon is launched (unless there are updates available, in which it persists so I can update it).
Click to expand...

Thanks, guys. I'll give it another whirl.
 
No probs. :)

MacFreePOPs is all initial investment, because it isn't super ultra simple. But it's way easier than installing a Linux distro. :p Meaning real people can do it. ;) Once you do it, it's brilliant -- you won't regret it.

Should you rely on it for mission critical e-mail? Will you die if you don't get that Yahoo e-mail in your Mail.app? Then FreePOPs is probably not quite solid enough for you. Otherwise, it's wonderful. I use it primarily for legacy accounts that receive periodic important e-mail from someone who never updated to my primary (GMail). But I feel fairly comfortable now having people use my Hotmail or Yahoo, because it really hasn't had an issue in some time.
 
mkrishnan said:
No probs. :)

MacFreePOPs is all initial investment, because it isn't super ultra simple. But it's way easier than installing a Linux distro. :p Meaning real people can do it. ;) Once you do it, it's brilliant -- you won't regret it.

Should you rely on it for mission critical e-mail? Will you die if you don't get that Yahoo e-mail in your Mail.app? Then FreePOPs is probably not quite solid enough for you. Otherwise, it's wonderful. I use it primarily for legacy accounts that receive periodic important e-mail from someone who never updated to my primary (GMail). But I feel fairly comfortable now having people use my Hotmail or Yahoo, because it really hasn't had an issue in some time.
Click to expand...


I could get MacFreePOPs to work with my "valued" account, but not with my sister's account, not even after we took it back down to MSN Hotmail... strange.

Right now, she's on a trial for IzyMail. Too bad it's a trial.
 
I have a different problem. HTTPmail is working for me, but I'm looking for a way to automatically delete the mails, the plug-in downloaded. Right now it keeps downloading the same messages several times, even if I delete them in Mail. So I have to go to hotmail.com to delete the original messages, which is about as annoying as having to check my mail in there.

Is there a way of letting the plug-in delete the mails it has already downloaded?

Thanks in advance.
 
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