Hotmail fees for Outlook access
 

Hotmail fees for Outlook access


Millions of Hotmail users face having to pay to access their messages using the Outlook e-mail program.
Microsoft says it decided to start charging for the service as it was being abused by senders of spam.

In the past, people could download e-mail from Hotmail into Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express for free.

But now only people who had paid an annual subscription fee will be able to access their messages without opening a browser window.

Countering spam

Hotmail is one of the most popular web-based e-mail services, with 187 million active accounts.

In the past, it had allowed people to download their messages using a technology known as WebDAV (Web distributed authoring and versioning).

Microsoft's MSN said it had decided make the changes because spammers were exploiting the system.

"Recently MSN has seen an increase in spammers exploiting WebDAV to send unwanted messages to Hotmail customers as well as the overall e-mail community," said the spokesperson.

"Due to the magnitude of this problem, MSN has made the tough decision to make this protocol (and therefore Outlook/Outlook Express functionality for Hotmail) a subscription-only feature.

"This change will begin 27 September for new users and become effective for all users worldwide in 2005 after extensive communications to our existing users."

MSN hopes that a subscription-based service will deter spammers, and help track down those who sent junk as the company would have a record of credit cards and other information on account holders.

Annual fees

It has already taken other steps to prevent spammers using Hotmail.

It has limited the number of outgoing messages on free accounts to 100 per day and introduced extra validation requirements when opening a new account.

Users who want to use Outlook to pick up their Hotmail messages will have to pay $19.95 (£11) for an annual subscription to Hotmail Plus or the $99.95 (£55) a year for MSN Premium.

But subscribers who are already using the technology to download their messages will be able to carry on using the service for free until April.

Other e-mail services such as Yahoo and America Online also limit access to mail exporting tools to paid subscribers.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3697286.stm

I pay for an expanded Hotmail account anyways. :)

So I've got to pay 20 bucks a year if I still want to download all the spam I get in their e-mail account? Nyet!

I did not even know you could do that.

In short,
Outlook users cannot see our ads....

NOW what will I do to get my spam? :(

Their bulk-mail filter is a joke. I had to finally set my Hotmail account to Exclusive to keep from being blocked out with a full box every couple days. I don't always check my main e-mail account every couple of days:1orglaugh I'll be darned if I'm going to be a slave to theirs, with their spam slipped in.

I do just fine with my ISP and domain e-mail & OE. I've got the important things filtered into their own folders and all the other crap in the world floods into that usless folder called Inbox and I can dump it when I want to.:glugglug