From all my experience, I must conclude the Hotmail is among the worst free webmail providers on the net. Their interface is so irritating, they have advertisements all over the place, and most shockingly, they provide an inbox which is only 2 Mb large!

I first got an account at Hotmail because I assumed that it was required to use MSN, which I needed to contact various people, but only later did I realise - you can get an MSN Net Passport without a Hotmail account, you just need an e-mail address!

So my question is - why do people use Hotmail? Am I the only one who thinks it provides such a pathetic service? Or like I was, are people in the dark about the fact that you cn use MSN Messenger without a Hotmail account?

Harish, I agree. Hotmail is a joke for many reasons and I loathe it.

I think a few years ago before efficient external web server access was readily available, people would use a hotmail account to pick up mail on the run, from any location around the world where there was a net terminal. There isn’t a backpacker alive that doesn’t have a hotmail account. I’m with a giant communication carrier in Australia and only recently have they upgraded to remote access, so perhaps this still an issue with some ISP’s. Another use for a hotmail account is for when you register to access a site you don’t wish to supply your real email address to for fear of a spam attack. Hotmail was also one of the very first free email hosts and I guess the domain name/idea got out there pretty quickly as everyone was scrambling to get an @ next to their names. It just kinda stuck. Think of free email, think hotmail. No one else comes to mind for me, but I guess there’s hundreds of alternatives.

Think it was because I wanted to get my e-mails at any computer, and it was just there! No problems with it!

If you want to check your email from any machine use www.mail2web.com and select Secure Login. Just type in your email address and usual email password and you can read and delete messages from your in box.

As an Hotmail user and still being one, after almost 3 years, those comments of yours Harish, do make me a bit mad.

I use Hotmail regularly and love it. I know I should use other free hosting accounts such as Yahoo, but I just can't break free from Hotmail. I love the colour scheme of Hotmail. And, even if there is only 2MB storage, I don't realy mind that, because I always delete those worthless emails.

The only thing I want to say is whatever anyone says, Hotmail will always be my favourite and best place to have emails. I don't like Yahoo (don't know why) nor Rediffmail, and so I'll stick with Hotmail for a long time to come !

I don't like Hotmail much because now whenever I sign in at hotmail.com, it takes me to the MSN page and then I have to click on 'mail' to see my inbox. Logging in at mail.yahoo.com is one less step.

I have this suspicion that I might have offended a few people...please accept my apologies if such is the case!

When I changed computers I couldn't get Outlook Express to work, so I had a list of others to register with built in to my explorer, and Hotmail was first on the list. Though I got OE working a few months later I kept the Hotmail as a reserve, and without it I would never have realised they had messenger or free groups websites, which I have both of. And recently they stopped spam at last, though now it comes in on my old OE account instead. They always find you somehow.

Harish, you don't ever get accused of being a bit too fussy, by any chance?

[quote]Harish, you don't ever get accused of being a bit too fussy, by any chance?[/quote]

Er, maybe!