Live.com (aka Hotmail)

Csin · 1 Nov 2009, 03:59 AM

I sometimes 'test drive' accounts to see if a particular provider is worthwhile. One such test is to send an email into the account from one or more of my other accounts, then reply to it. Next I send a 'link' to see if survives. In the case of my live account, only 1 of 4emails made it (Mail2World got through). Lavabit,safe-mail, inbox, & bluebottle did not. No link survived. Reply from live account to Mail2World was successful.

xmailer · 1 Nov 2009, 06:35 AM

Yet another glowing testimonial for the greatest email service in the history of computing.

mikedk · 2 Nov 2009, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmailer

Yet another glowing testimonial for the greatest email service in the history of computing.

Shame they're so popular

Tsunami · 3 Nov 2009, 01:48 AM

Well, mainly with kids and internet rookies. Because so many youngsters have Hotmail, and their friends aren´t going to browse for more reliable options, they will just quickly register an account with the service their pals are already using ... The fact that many people use MSN Messenger while only part of them know you don´t need a Hotmail account for that, also contributes to the popularity. And I guess a well-known brand will always do the trick ...

Without praising ourselves, but the fact that we are on this forum and all compare email services to such great detail sets us apart from the average internet user who will just choose a rapid option that either sounds familiar or that many of his friends already use.

I can see why people go with Hotmail if they have little private emails to send, or to use for forum registrations and mailing lists etc... Why not. What I don´t grasp is businesses using Hotmail accounts. I have seen several businesses using a Hotmail account as primary contact, and countless people I know send their CV using a Hotmail account with a nickname in front of the @ ... not realising some companies will throw such CVs straight into the bin.

mikedk · 3 Nov 2009, 02:16 AM

Hotmail's popularity, if indeed popularity is the best adjective to use (perhaps user-catchment is better), must also be grounded in its parent company's browser which comes as standard on new Windows pc's.

Tom Gallagher · 7 Nov 2009, 10:49 PM

OK, then what free email account would you folks recommend.

David · 7 Nov 2009, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Gallagher

OK, then what free email account would you folks recommend.

Gmail and Yahoo mail are both considered to be superior to Hotmail Tom, by the majority of folk here.

xmailer · 8 Nov 2009, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Gallagher

OK, then what free email account would you folks recommend.

Almost any. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, since there may be others as bad and possibly even worse, if that is possible. But I'd hesitate to suggest a specific one, since, as has probably been said many times here, which one(s) is/are "best" may depend largely on the needs/wants of the user.

But just looking at the "big players", I'd have to agree that Gmail, and probably even Yahoo are both superior to Hotmail (although my personal dislike for Yahoo has only increased as time goes on, as to me the service just seems to have been steadily deteriorating the more they "improve" it, and it still seems to have significantly fewer useful features than many others, especially in the yahoo.com "flavor", even as they continue adding "gimmicks" to their horrible new webmail interface).

mikedk · 8 Nov 2009, 07:48 AM

Hand on heart, I'd have to say Gmail. Over the years I've had an account it has proved itself superior to Yahumbug, AOL etc. Ok, it has it's annoyances, but we don't live in an ideal world. And anyway, what would we do if we hadn't something to complain about. Or go one better, get yourself an inexpensive domain and sign up for a free (standard) google apps account where you could have your own email addresses such as christianname(at)surname.co.uk.

Tsunami · 8 Nov 2009, 08:27 AM

Gmail is however a contested one since a lot of people here have worries about the privacy issues when it comes to Gmail. Personally, of all big players (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc) I would also say that Gmail is by far the best (even when it doesn´t come close to some paid accounts but the question above was about free providers specifically). I also have to agree that Yahoo is decreasing in value rather than becoming better. Must add I haven´t tried AOL (or AIM as they´re the same) as yet.

Point is: Hotmail has only two upsides IMO: it is backed by one of the richest companies worldwide so Hotmail will be around for as long as the present format internet exists, no risk of seeing the service terminated. Second pro-Hotmail is that they now finally have live.com as less silly domain extention (Hotmail sounds really silly IMO) and that they allow to host your own domains (but then, AOL and Gmail also do)

Other than that, Hotmail is nice for beginners and for bulk mails such as forum registrations etc. I wouldn´t rely on Hotmail for more serious mails. Their ad-filled interface is annoying, security leaks have been reported on very frequent basis, and the hotmail.com domain is not always taken seriously (it still surprises me that some people send out their job applications using a nickname(AT)hotmail.com address without realising they decrease the chances of their CV being read ...)

Best free provider of the big guns? Gmail without any doubt.

Best free provider overall (including the less known services) ... I would go for Safe Mail, although from testimonies of other members you´d see that Fastmail.fm is very popular.

Hotmail? Not by any means

PS I: haven´t used AOL as yet so cannot comment.

PS II: I also heard quite good stuff about mail.ru , but the problem is that Russia based services tend to have a reputation of being hard to trust, used for spam mainly, and not very tight on security. When ignoring the reputation the .ru domain suffix has, I did hear some quite good stuff about this particular mail host, but I haven´t tried them yet so also will refrain from commenting.

nooby · 8 Nov 2009, 10:51 PM

I asked my youngest close relative and he has been using hotmail since he a Game playing kid and he is now some 35 years old with two kids of his own.

He told me that his reason for not changing is that all his old buddies know his hotmail address. If he changed to gmail or yahoo or AOL then they would still write to his hotmail address.

Humans do things by habit. To change an address in the contact addressbook is too demanding. Most fail to update such.

That is his experience and I agree. Many have asked me over phone. I sent you and email don't you have loftmail anymore. Ooops loftmail that was years ago I let them expire. Your Spray.se does that work they ask. Nope I ditched that one too. Your safe-mail.net? oops sorry I didn't log in often enough, lost it.

It is easier to stick with one provider they tell me. Then everybody knows how to reach somebody.

He has another email addy too. His work email that they gave him but that one are strictly for work so it is not something his buddies know of. Not allowed to do private email on that one.

I have two hotmail addresses and one live.se but most likely I lost the live.se due to me not logged in lately. I would prefer to have live.com instead of live.se but they don't allow us. When I try to set up a live.com then they notice my ISP and force a hotmail addy on me.

Tsunami · 9 Nov 2009, 12:55 AM

Nooby, this page gives you registration URLs for any suffix you wish (live.com, live.se, live.at, live.it, ... Have your pick

)

I hope it works and that your IP doesn´t again automatically redirect you to the Swedish language version (although I think you can change the language somehow ??)

I believe a few suffixes are missing though. I am quite sure for example live.bi existed for Bosnia (a Bosnian guy I know used it as far as I remember - not entirely sure as it´s been a while since I saw this address). So probably the above website is not totally complete when it comes to existing Live/Hotmail domains, but nonetheless it seems a useful one for you if you want to escape from the .se suffix.

I may give Hotmail/Live a new try the day they have Israeli or Turkish domain suffix available, would be nice to surprise my friends over there with a live.com.tr or live.co.il address

Until that day, I will leave it as it is ...

mikedk · 9 Nov 2009, 04:06 AM

Tsunami, going to the link in your post, I note that the UK link is live.com.uk. In a wild fit of pique I recently opened a UK Hotmail account and got live.co.uk. I wonder are both available?

Tsunami · 9 Nov 2009, 04:50 AM

Must be a typo. There is no such thing as .com.uk domains. Even live.uk is impossible. When registering a British domain, you can choose between .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk (and only certain institutions or organisations can also opt for .ac.uk or .gov.uk). So that must be .co.uk

There is .uk.com but that´s just a domain of which subdomains are sold, seems highly unlikely Microsoft will rely on such a subdomain. Definitely no such thing as .com.uk exists.

I did tell the site has a few flaws. I doublechecked and indeed live.bi exists for Bosnia Herzegowina (or at least existed a while ago if it wouldn´t be in use anymore) and this extention is not listed in the overview. The site is not complete nor perfect, nonetheless I´d say it is pretty handy and it offers a direct registration link for plenty of country domains, thus resolving the problem of Nooby who was stuck to live.se ...

And I believe, continuing on my own remark, that there is a Turkish version (live.gen.tr I believe) but that option is also missing in the overview.

mikedk · 9 Nov 2009, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Must be a typo. There is no such thing as .com.uk domains. Even live.uk is impossible. When registering a British domain, you can choose between .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk (and only certain institutions or organisations can also opt for .ac.uk or .gov.uk). So that must be .co.uk

There is .uk.com but that´s just a domain of which subdomains are sold, seems highly unlikely Microsoft will rely on such a subdomain. Definitely no such thing as .com.uk exists.

I did tell the site has a few flaws. I doublechecked and indeed live.bi exists for Bosnia Herzegowina (or at least existed a while ago if it wouldn´t be in use anymore) and this extention is not listed in the overview. The site is not complete nor perfect, nonetheless I´d say it is pretty handy and it offers a direct registration link for plenty of country domains, thus resolving the problem of Nooby who was stuck to live.se ...

And I believe, continuing on my own remark, that there is a Turkish version (live.gen.tr I believe) but that option is also missing in the overview.

I must confess I picked up a .ie account.

thanks for the info.

1 Nov 2009, 03:59 AM	#1
Csin Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 194	Live.com (aka Hotmail) I sometimes 'test drive' accounts to see if a particular provider is worthwhile. One such test is to send an email into the account from one or more of my other accounts, then reply to it. Next I send a 'link' to see if survives. In the case of my live account, only 1 of 4emails made it (Mail2World got through). Lavabit,safe-mail, inbox, & bluebottle did not. No link survived. Reply from live account to Mail2World was successful.

1 Nov 2009, 06:35 AM	#2
xmailer Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 5,485	Yet another glowing testimonial for the greatest email service in the history of computing.

3 Nov 2009, 01:48 AM	#4
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,618	Well, mainly with kids and internet rookies. Because so many youngsters have Hotmail, and their friends aren´t going to browse for more reliable options, they will just quickly register an account with the service their pals are already using ... The fact that many people use MSN Messenger while only part of them know you don´t need a Hotmail account for that, also contributes to the popularity. And I guess a well-known brand will always do the trick ... Without praising ourselves, but the fact that we are on this forum and all compare email services to such great detail sets us apart from the average internet user who will just choose a rapid option that either sounds familiar or that many of his friends already use. I can see why people go with Hotmail if they have little private emails to send, or to use for forum registrations and mailing lists etc... Why not. What I don´t grasp is businesses using Hotmail accounts. I have seen several businesses using a Hotmail account as primary contact, and countless people I know send their CV using a Hotmail account with a nickname in front of the @ ... not realising some companies will throw such CVs straight into the bin.

3 Nov 2009, 02:16 AM	#5
mikedk Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ireland Posts: 516	Hotmail's popularity, if indeed popularity is the best adjective to use (perhaps user-catchment is better), must also be grounded in its parent company's browser which comes as standard on new Windows pc's.

7 Nov 2009, 10:49 PM	#6
Tom Gallagher Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: South Jersey, USA Posts: 195	OK, then what free email account would you folks recommend.

8 Nov 2009, 07:48 AM	#9
mikedk Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ireland Posts: 516	Hand on heart, I'd have to say Gmail. Over the years I've had an account it has proved itself superior to Yahumbug, AOL etc. Ok, it has it's annoyances, but we don't live in an ideal world. And anyway, what would we do if we hadn't something to complain about. Or go one better, get yourself an inexpensive domain and sign up for a free (standard) google apps account where you could have your own email addresses such as christianname(at)surname.co.uk.

8 Nov 2009, 08:27 AM	#10
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,618	Gmail is however a contested one since a lot of people here have worries about the privacy issues when it comes to Gmail. Personally, of all big players (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc) I would also say that Gmail is by far the best (even when it doesn´t come close to some paid accounts but the question above was about free providers specifically). I also have to agree that Yahoo is decreasing in value rather than becoming better. Must add I haven´t tried AOL (or AIM as they´re the same) as yet. Point is: Hotmail has only two upsides IMO: it is backed by one of the richest companies worldwide so Hotmail will be around for as long as the present format internet exists, no risk of seeing the service terminated. Second pro-Hotmail is that they now finally have live.com as less silly domain extention (Hotmail sounds really silly IMO) and that they allow to host your own domains (but then, AOL and Gmail also do) Other than that, Hotmail is nice for beginners and for bulk mails such as forum registrations etc. I wouldn´t rely on Hotmail for more serious mails. Their ad-filled interface is annoying, security leaks have been reported on very frequent basis, and the hotmail.com domain is not always taken seriously (it still surprises me that some people send out their job applications using a nickname(AT)hotmail.com address without realising they decrease the chances of their CV being read ...) Best free provider of the big guns? Gmail without any doubt. Best free provider overall (including the less known services) ... I would go for Safe Mail, although from testimonies of other members you´d see that Fastmail.fm is very popular. Hotmail? Not by any means PS I: haven´t used AOL as yet so cannot comment. PS II: I also heard quite good stuff about mail.ru , but the problem is that Russia based services tend to have a reputation of being hard to trust, used for spam mainly, and not very tight on security. When ignoring the reputation the .ru domain suffix has, I did hear some quite good stuff about this particular mail host, but I haven´t tried them yet so also will refrain from commenting.

8 Nov 2009, 10:51 PM	#11
nooby Essential Contributor Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Europe Posts: 474	I asked my youngest close relative and he has been using hotmail since he a Game playing kid and he is now some 35 years old with two kids of his own. He told me that his reason for not changing is that all his old buddies know his hotmail address. If he changed to gmail or yahoo or AOL then they would still write to his hotmail address. Humans do things by habit. To change an address in the contact addressbook is too demanding. Most fail to update such. That is his experience and I agree. Many have asked me over phone. I sent you and email don't you have loftmail anymore. Ooops loftmail that was years ago I let them expire. Your Spray.se does that work they ask. Nope I ditched that one too. Your safe-mail.net? oops sorry I didn't log in often enough, lost it. It is easier to stick with one provider they tell me. Then everybody knows how to reach somebody. He has another email addy too. His work email that they gave him but that one are strictly for work so it is not something his buddies know of. Not allowed to do private email on that one. I have two hotmail addresses and one live.se but most likely I lost the live.se due to me not logged in lately. I would prefer to have live.com instead of live.se but they don't allow us. When I try to set up a live.com then they notice my ISP and force a hotmail addy on me.

9 Nov 2009, 12:55 AM	#12
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,618	Nooby, this page gives you registration URLs for any suffix you wish (live.com, live.se, live.at, live.it, ... Have your pick ) I hope it works and that your IP doesn´t again automatically redirect you to the Swedish language version (although I think you can change the language somehow ??) I believe a few suffixes are missing though. I am quite sure for example live.bi existed for Bosnia (a Bosnian guy I know used it as far as I remember - not entirely sure as it´s been a while since I saw this address). So probably the above website is not totally complete when it comes to existing Live/Hotmail domains, but nonetheless it seems a useful one for you if you want to escape from the .se suffix. I may give Hotmail/Live a new try the day they have Israeli or Turkish domain suffix available, would be nice to surprise my friends over there with a live.com.tr or live.co.il address Until that day, I will leave it as it is ...

9 Nov 2009, 04:06 AM	#13
mikedk Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ireland Posts: 516	Tsunami, going to the link in your post, I note that the UK link is live.com.uk. In a wild fit of pique I recently opened a UK Hotmail account and got live.co.uk. I wonder are both available?

9 Nov 2009, 04:50 AM	#14
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,618	Must be a typo. There is no such thing as .com.uk domains. Even live.uk is impossible. When registering a British domain, you can choose between .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk (and only certain institutions or organisations can also opt for .ac.uk or .gov.uk). So that must be .co.uk There is .uk.com but that´s just a domain of which subdomains are sold, seems highly unlikely Microsoft will rely on such a subdomain. Definitely no such thing as .com.uk exists. I did tell the site has a few flaws. I doublechecked and indeed live.bi exists for Bosnia Herzegowina (or at least existed a while ago if it wouldn´t be in use anymore) and this extention is not listed in the overview. The site is not complete nor perfect, nonetheless I´d say it is pretty handy and it offers a direct registration link for plenty of country domains, thus resolving the problem of Nooby who was stuck to live.se ... And I believe, continuing on my own remark, that there is a Turkish version (live.gen.tr I believe) but that option is also missing in the overview.