I have run into a problem logging in to my hotmail account, for the first time ever since I opened this account about fifteen years ago. When I go to the login page and key in my email address and password I get the following error message:



Now, I successfully logged in to hotmail this lunchtime, and have changed none of my computer settings.

My husband can successfully log in to his hotmail account.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I might overcome this problem?

Is the computer time and date set correctly? (don't forget to check the year too).

Date and time is the most common reason I could find. here's a couple more things I found:

1. In Windows Internet Explorer 7, click Continue to this website (not recommended). 80% the issue would be resolved once you follow this step.
If not, you will see a red Address Bar and a certificate warning appear, keep clicking on next & cu will get a PHISHLING FILTER. Click on "YES", close ie and re- open.

2. Another cause for this issue is that the computer's time/ date could be wrong, because in that case, the certificates may show up as expired. Change the computers time to a different date and month and revert back to the old one (Believe me, it works !!!)

3. In rare scenarios, resetting modem & for Windows Vista users, right clicking on Internet Explorer icon, "Select Run as Administrator." has worked.

http://social.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/whssoftware/thread/a83f19e9-e4b1-46ba-905a-92672ccdfa93/

Thank you for taking the time to try help me, pyonir and TW!

I have tried changing the date & time, with no success.
I have also changed the date to a previous one, then reset to the current date, also to no avail(yes, I checked the year).
If I click on 'continue to website' I get another error message and can go no further:

I've been reading around a bit and other people are having a problem with Hotmail at present. Not everyone but some are. It might be worth sitting tight for a while to see if it is anything at Hotmail's end.

Aah, okay, perhaps the problem is on Hotmail's end, not mine.
I had only found old (2010) instances of that when I looked, but I mustn't have been looking in the right places.
I'll bide my time and check back tomorrow in that case, and let you know how it pans out.

Thanks for now!

This seems to work for some people: http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/change-dns-server-windows-7/

It also tells you how to change it back at the bottom. This is assuming you are on Win7. Something to try anyway.

Thought I might just bring this discussion dated 25-1-2013 to the fore:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/44273-17-cannot-access-hotmail

Thanks you guys! It seems that it was definitely a hotmail problem, this morning I have had no trouble whatsoever logging in to my account!

Glad that has sorted itself out. Following on from Pyonir's post about changing the DNS server, it can be a good thing to chose a different one. Here is some information about Google DNS (shown in the page Pyonir linked to):

https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/intro

There are others available too. I use Comodo's DNS server because it filters out sites that it considers could be a security risk. Symantec (Norton) also offers this service. Changing to a DNS server other than the ISP's own may speed up browsing too. A subject worth looking into in my opinion.