Summary: MSN HotMail POP3 and SMTP settings are a common request. MSN HotMail provides no POP3 and SMTP servers for free accounts, but third party services might.
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I'd like to access my MSN HotMail account through Outlook Express. What do I put in for the "Incoming mail (POP3)" and "Outgoing mail (SMTP)" server settings? |
I've actually written about this before, but I keep getting the question so often that it's clear that my previous articles are not clear enough.
So let me be extra clear:
There are no POP3 and SMTP servers provided by HotMail. None. There is no configuration for Outlook Express, or Outlook, or any other mail program that will let you download your email directly from HotMail for free.
There are alternatives that people seem to get all wrapped up about, but they are not what you think. Let me explain why ...
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Outlook used to work.
You used to be able to configure Outlook and Outlook Express to download HotMail, but even then it wasn't using POP3. You could tell Outlook that "Mail incoming mail server is an HTTP server", instead of POP3, and HotMail would work.
That doesn't work anymore for free HotMail accounts. You cannot download directly from Hotmail into Outlook Express for free.
Why?
Because it's free. HotMail makes money by showing ads along with your email. If you download your mail, you don't see the ads. If no one sees the ads, then advertisers wouldn't pay (or pay as much). HotMail would have no reason to provide their service.
Like it or not, HotMail is a business.
So one way is to upgrade to a paid HotMail account. HotMail makes money, as they should, and you get to download your email.
pop3hot.com
In my other articles on this topic, people keep mentioning "pop3hot.com" as "the setting" for HotMail. Just put that in as your POP3 or SMTP and "it just works".
And so it does. But...
There are some things you really need to know about pop3hot.com:
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It's not HotMail - pop3hot.com is a service run by a company called IzySoft in Belgium. IzySoft is not related in any way to HotMail, MSN or Microsoft.
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It's not free - yes, you can plug in "pop3hot.com" as your POP3 server, and it'll work. For a while, as a free trial. Once the trial is over, you will have to pay to continue to use the service.
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It's probably against HotMail's rules - remember I talked about how HotMail makes money? Pop3hot gets in the way, and I'd be surprised if HotMail was OK with that. If I'm right, the worst case is that you could lose your HotMail account.
I have nothing against pop3hot.com. It looks like a useful and cool service. I just tried it myself and downloaded email from one of my HotMail accounts into Thunderbird. A little slow, but very cool.
But keep in mind what it is not: it's not run by HotMail and it's not free. And it might be against the rules.
If you're OK with that, then by all means, give it a try.
Other Services
Pop3hot.com seems the most popular, since many people keep recommending it here on my other articles, but there are other services that do the same thing. The "problem" is that nothing is free. One way or another these services are in it for a reason. The legitimate services will be up front and charge you some fee. Others may not be as safe, and might just be collecting your account information - you do have to give it to them for the service to work, right?
Alternatives
If you can walk away from HotMail, I have two suggestions for you:
Get a "real" POP3 account. Usually from your ISP or other email provider. Not only will you be able to download email, but you'll get customer support when things go wrong. Something seriously lacking in most all of the free email services.
Get GMail. GMail is probably the best of the free services right now. Among other things ,it provides POP3 support as part of the free service.
Related:
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Are free email services worth it? Free email services and accounts are convenient and ubiquitous. But free email services aren't the right place to keep your important information.
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What are the POP3 and SMTP settings for HotMail? HotMail did have an approach that allowed Outlook Express on Windows to download email directly - but that's either being phased out, or has already been.
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What is POP? Or POP3? Or a POP account? And what about SMTP? POP, POP3 and SMTP are all acronyms that you might see used when talking about configuring email. We'll look at what they mean, and how they relate.
Article C2679 - June 5, 2006
I read your article about Hotmail and POP/SMTP, and everything you say makes sense. I also noticed your recommendation to use Gmail for online SMTP. Just to let you know, I've had horrible results with this. I cannot currently configure Outlook or Express to use it, and there is no tech support. There is a forum, but good luck getting answers to questions.
So my next question is this. Like you said, you get what you pay for. How do I get a paid Hotmail account, is there detailed instructions on how to set it up, and is there support if I have issues with it? I think as we approach the second decade of the 21st century, I should be able to acccess email from a desktop email program (Outlook, etc.) from anywhere on the internet. Work or home. I'm willing to pay for it. Just tell me how/where to sign up.
Posted by: Bob Thompson at December 2, 2006 7:50 AMGmail works fine for me with Outlook Express. I followed these instructions explicitly and was able to receive and send messages without difficulty.
Posted by: warriorlion at December 3, 2006 12:43 AMhttp://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13276
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=12103
I hope this helps.
Just wanted to let you know that there IS a way to use Outlook Express. By using HTTP and the incoming server of: http://oe.msn.msnmail.hotmail.com/cgi-bin/hmdata it works for me!
Good Luck!
Posted by: Danelle at December 10, 2006 9:27 PMThere is a Hotfix that Microsoft has posted in order to correct the known issue with Outlook Express when one upgrades to IE7. I have installed it and Outlook Express is working properly once again; no more failing authentication.
Posted by: travis at December 13, 2006 3:57 AMhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/904942/en-us
Look, Leo... you need to change your article!
Accounts, called 'Valued accts' that are MSN.com and are free, and have been around forever, all use POP3 & SMTP. They WORK!
The servers are pop3.email.msn.com and secure.smtp.email.msn.com. They WORK -- I use them everyday and I don't pay one cent for my MSN acct.
Now, as to Vista. Vista breaks the SPA connection required for SMTP to MSN Hotmail servers. WIndows Mail (replaces OE) does not support POP3 for MSN or Hotmail accts. Right now it also does not support Canadian Sympatico.ca accts, which are also run on HOTMAIL SERVERS AS POP3 Accts! There is supposed to be a fix in the works for Sympatico by Jan 30th public RTM, but who knows.
Vista's SPA implememtation also breaks POP3/SMTP MSN access in Outlook 2003, 2000, etc. THOUSANDS and thousands are waiting for that to be fixed. Including me.
XP/MSN POP3/Outlook 2003 still works -- Vista breaks it.
Now, please update your article.
Posted by: Billusa at December 15, 2006 10:27 AMYES you CAN send MSN email from other domains -- you use SECURE.smtp.email.msn.com.
I've been doing it forever.
Posted by: Billusa at December 28, 2006 9:14 AMJust select http instead of pop3 when you are adding your hotmail account to outlook, it only asks for your email, user name and password, it then works.
Posted by: dave at December 28, 2006 2:57 PMHave had my laptop configured with the msn http since day one and it still works just fine. settings are
Posted by: Kirt E. Stockwell at January 17, 2007 5:19 PMhttp://oe.msn.msnmail.hotmail.com/cgi-bin/hmdata
could be that this only works for those who have an account that was set up prior to some unknown cutoff date. These settings by the way work where-ever I happen to connect.
The change took place about 6 months ago. If you had an account setup prior to that, it will still work. If you are just setting up your account, it will not work
Posted by: C at January 29, 2007 9:28 AMI'm closing comments on this article because people are simply repeating over and over again the question that is in fact answered by the article.
Posted by: Leo Notenboom at February 1, 2007 11:53 AM