What are the POP3 and SMTP settings for Hotmail?

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Please note that pop3hot.com is NOT owned by HotMail or Microsoft - it's owned by a company in Belgium. This is a *subscription service* (you have to pay for it after a trial period), and you must give this third party you HotMail account information for it to work.

Use at your own risk.

Anne: follow the instructions here: http://messenger.msn.com/download/getstarted.aspx

and follow the link "Use any e-mail address to sign up for a .NET Passport"

Please note that "pop3hot" is NOT MSN. It is some third party (IzySoft). I have NO idea whether they are trustworthy. They are NOT free.

Caveat emptor.

I did not say they are not trustworthy. I also did not say they are. I simply don't know.

Why is that an issue? a) I can't imagine that the service can work without your Hotmail password somewhere, but even if it does, b) it's putting itself between you and your email. These third party services have access to your email. Do you want that? Do you trust them?

Again, I'm not saying *this* service is good or bad. I don't know.

What I AM saying, is that if you're going to pay for a service such as this, why not get a "real" email account somewhere other than Hotmail that supports POP3/SMTP natively, and might even include some customer support?

What I am saying is think carefully before you do it.

on my MAIL 2.0 program I use (rather than HOTMAIL), it keeps coming up "Please enter the password for user “[Email Address Removed]” on POP server “127.0.0.1” even tho I've put in my password it won't let me retrieve my mail any longer...I can now only respond to mail already in this account. On my HOTMAIL account, I can get and respond...but the MAIL 2.0 program is what I really need to work.
Thank so much...
help!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: pop3hot.com IS NOT OWNED BY HOTMAIL. You are giving your information to a third party.

Pop3hot.com IS NOT FREE. Quoting from their page: "After the free registration, you can evaluate the service, its features, reliability and speed for 15 days. During that period, we pay for the traffic and all operational cost of our system. When you decide to stay with us, please proceed to the Subscription Pages to sign up for a permanent account."

As I write this, they're charging just under $11/year for yoru first account, plus a $5 setup fee.

Now, if that's all OK to you ... then by all means go for it. But be VERY VERY CLEAR: "pop3hot.com" is NOT "the POP3 and SMTP setting for Hotmail" - it's an intermediary service not associated with Hotmail or Microsoft.

I'm closing comments on this article, because it's obviously not clear enough and people keep spreading missinformation in the comments.

I've written a new article to take it's place. Please read this article: http://ask-leo.com/what_are_msn_hotmails_pop3_and_smtp_settings_for_outlook_express.html

To post a comment on "What are the POP3 and SMTP settings for Hotmail?", please return to that article's main page.